Innholdsfortegnelse for Winter 2021 i MILIEU

Something I think we’ve all learned lately is just how quickly life can change. This is why home matters so much now. Home is not only where we most want to be, but it’s also where we have had to be—given the situation with the coronavirus, which we hope continues to abate and, eventually, vanish forever. Indeed, home is the right place to be, with yourself and with your family. Now and always. It is important to remember, too, that while things do change fast, they can certainly change for the better. For these timely reasons, this Winter issue of MILIEU focuses on life at home. Every one of our "Well" stories highlights the talented designers who have created the rooms in homes for their clients. Their work represents a…

Chattanooga is a city defined by its own storied rebirth—rising from a “dirtiest city in America” moniker (thank you, Walter Cronkite) to a twentieth-century alchemy of art, architecture, adventure, technology, and culture. Once known as a Victorian-era industrial “gateway to the South,” Chattanooga is lauded now as a “Gig City,” meaning that it has one of the fastest internet connections in the United States. But more than commerce drives this dynamo. The natural beauty of the Tennessee River Valley’s mountains and waterways (and accompanying outdoor activities), a burgeoning arts community, and three James Beard Award–nominated chefs all contribute to Chattanooga’s compelling and optimistic allure. More than two decades ago, my partner, Billy Woodall, and I witnessed the incredible start of Chattanooga’s revitalization with the opening of the Tennessee Aquarium— a…

Growing up in the Belgian countryside surrounded by nature and beauty was early inspiration for painter Charlotte Culot. Born into a family of artists, she also benefitted greatly from close proximity to her parents’ artistic endeavors: her father’s work as a ceramist and sculptor, as well as her mother’s creations as a book illustrator and engraver. “Both my parents just naturally shared their perspective and creativity with us children,” says Culot. “From the beginning, I was in contact with nature and organic shapes, and when I was little I had the chance to meet a lot of artists and designers in Paris.” This early and regular exposure to artists and art helped shape Culot’s own creative sensibilities. While studying archaeology and art history at university, Culot was drawn to photography,…

VALERIE LEGRAS WRITES a story each time she designs an interior. Whether it’s a family home, a restaurant, or a hotel suite, LeGras approaches every project as a blank page. She leaves it to her clients to help discern the plot and shape the arc. “I always start with a story,” says LeGras from her office in New Orleans. “That’s how I create. Stories help clients see how they might live in the near future and later down the road. You want to imagine coming home to your safe place, your happy place, your place with your family. And we help people develop their particular story.” This is the tale of a professional couple with three young children who desired a contemporary home reflecting a warmth not often associated with…

Eero Saarinen (1910–1961) was born in Kirkkonummi, Finland, the son of architect Eliel Saarinen and textile designer Loja Saarinen. The family immigrated to the United States in 1923, where his father co-founded the design program at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. During the 1920s, Cranbrook’s curriculum was unique in America, as it was modeled after the multi-disciplinary approach of Germany’s Bauhaus. While a teenager, Eero would often help in his father’s architectural office, designing furniture and fixtures for the Cranbrook campus. In 1929, Eero moved to Paris, where he studied sculpture at the prestigious Académie de la Grande Chaumière, before enrolling in the Yale architecture program the following year. Upon the completion of his architectural degree in 1934, Eero returned to Michigan, where he accepted a teaching…

Thomas Hamel Thomas Hamel is the author of Residence and is well known as one of Australia’s leading tastemakers. Born in Virginia, Hamel came to New York during the 1980s to study design at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and he continued his studies at the American College in London. He moved to Sydney in 1991 to found his own design firm and since that time has become a fixture of the international design community. Bobby McAlpine Born in an Alabama sawmill town, Bobby McAlpine designed his first house at the age of five and hasn’t stopped since. Architect, romantic, poet, and entrepreneur, he envisions home as a timeless, graceful, and emotionally evocative place. From the time he founded the firm in 1983, McAlpine has realized this ideal through a…

In the wild Northern Isles of Scotland’s Orkney archipelago, the remote island of Auskerry (OWS-ka-rie), where the Royal Mail is delivered by boat just once a month, comprises 250 rugged acres jutting from the sea. A hike around Auskerry reveals evidence of over 8,500 years of human history—remnants of the Neolithic period, standing stones from the twelfth century, remains of Iron Age villages. As soon as the tide begins going out, a living link to this history is seen foraging for kelp along the rocky shoreline: the rare North Ronaldsay sheep. One of just two remaining flocks of Orkney’s native sheep, the hardy North Ronaldsay—known locally as “Rollies” and named for the northernmost Orkney island—have evolved over millennia to subsist on seaweed. Aside from marine iguanas native to the Galapagos…

When Lulu Lytle, founder of Soane Britain, took off on a road trip throughout England, she was in search of something she knew was in abundance in her nation, but which was fast disappearing: expert craftspeople. For generations, the British had been fashioning furniture and other household objects out of rattan, one of the most ancient of materials. But as durable as the material is, as stylish and versatile, by the beginning of the early twenty-first century, the last rattan-weaving workshop in Britain was soon to close. That is, until Lytle bought the workshop, instituted a training program, and employed skilled artisans who continue the trade. Her work and vision are celebrated in the recently published Rattan: A World of Elegance and Charm (Rizzoli, $65). Soane’s mirror frames, chairs, breakfast…

HOME IS AS MUCH about people and place as it is a physical structure. So, when a Fort Worth couple outgrew the house where they had raised their children, they looked no further than a larger residence by Turner Boaz Architecture located just two doors away. “This is a special place, and it’s been an amazing part of our family story,” the wife says. “We didn’t want to leave.” Previously owned by friends who had renovated the interior, the more spacious house offered plenty of space for the couple’s expanding art collection and for the many functions they host. They commissioned Austin-based designer Marcus Mohon to help them put their own spin on it. “These clients have very diversified taste,” Mohon says. “It was a careful balance to stay connected…

AT THE WHEEL Dr. Jim Boddington gave himself a self-diagnosis years ago. Boddington, who works as a family practice doctor in London, enrolled in a pottery course and quickly realized the mental health benefits. Now that Boddington’s ceramics have become some of the most sought after being made in Great Britain, he says of his pursuits, “I have been able to reconnect with a childhood joy in the process of making things by hand, while pursuing a fulfilling work-life balance and developing a new artisan identity.” That new identity (though he remains a practicing doctor) is defined by his ever-evolving series of wheel-thrown porcelain ceramics. He describes his bowls, lidded jars, vases, mugs, and saucers as “characterized by simple modern forms with minimal geometrical detail.” —David Masello NATURE’S GRACE Good…

GEORGE MASSAR UNDERSTANDS the need to rest and stay in place, even if he admits to having “done” sixteen homes for himself over the years. His partner, interior designer Thomas Hamel, recognizes, too, the importance of rest in order to live well and design well—though Hamel has lived on multiple continents and regularly “commutes” from his full-time residence in Sydney, Australia, to the Los Angeles house he shares with Massar. “The truth about design is that if you let something rest for a while, when you return to it you’ll come up with a better solution,” says Massar, who is CEO and Creative Director for Kneedler Fauchère and Gregorius|Pineo, both leading to-the-trade design showrooms. Massar had purchased this new house in West Hollywood with the intention of creating a private,…

GO SHOPPING COVER Interior design: Isabel López-Quesada, isabellopezquesada.com, +34914119612 Styled by: Loreto López-Quesada Photography: Miguel Flores-Vianna FROM THE DESK OF… Page 20 Natural wicker dining or occasional side chair, WILLIAM LAMAN FURNITURE GARDEN ANTIQUES, williamlaman.com. Mario Lopez Torres coffee table, PATINA COLLECTION, patinacollection.com. The Rattan Gourd table lamp with shade in Coral poplin cotton, Blue, SOANE BRITAIN, soane.co.uk. Wicker box planter, twenty-inch square, THE ENCHANTED HOME, enchantedhome.com. Beaucaire daybed/bench, ATELIER VIME, ateliervime.com. Settee from an early twentieth century wicker set from the Provence region of France, PROVENANCE ANTIQUES, provenanceantiquesatlanta.com. French rattan side table, circa 1920s, BUNGALOW CLASSIC, bungalowclassic.com. The Bronson dog bed, NEELY’S NEST, neelysnest.com. GOING TO MARKET Photography: Charles Peed Page 36 Handmade French ceramic plates and collection of tole flowers, CASA GUSTO, getthegusto.com. Page 38 Collection of nineteenth-century French and Swedish baskets; Petate Mexican mats; handpainted frames;…