Still in Pennsylvania but forward Twenty Years

So many beautiful homes exist in this part of the country, it is difficult to leave Pennsylvania when I keep finding more beautiful homes to talk about.  Lauren Sara, designer of stylish maternity clothes and author of Expecting Style,  purchased this Colonial Revival when it was covered in "vines and weeds."  Unlike the Wyeths and Frolic Weymouth, she "gutted the interior."  She wanted a "loftlike space" in which to showcase her American folkart and beautiful antiques, and she succeeds as the photos from  Architectural Digest, June 2006, reveal.

The exterior is Pennsylvania stone, typical of so many houses in the area as seen from my previous posts.  Of the six or seven fantasy houses I would own, a Pennsylvania stone one would definitely find a place in my collection.  They look so early and have those wonderful deep windows inside.  (A girl can dream.)

So what do you think?  Do you like this spare feel?  Surprisingly, I like it very much.  It has a museum quality which allows that lovely kas (a large two door cupboard, usually with some painted decor; often  of Dutch origin) to stand out.  It would be a shame to have its beauty minimized with any busyness at all.  A graduate of Parsons School of Design, Lauren "loves everything to be seamless.  She wanted white walls with no baseboards, plaster openings with minimum trim, library shelves that seem to go on for 20 feet with no visible means of support and ebonized-bamboo floors, so dark you wouldn't know they're bamboo."  Windsor chairs are great too as is the sculpture (left of the chair) made by her son when he was four.  Note the bowl atop the kas.

Here we get a glimpse of the dining room and part of the library.  Her choice of folk art really enhances the spareness of the rooms (or vice versa).  The art stands out as it never would in an overly decorated room.

A view of the library with those long bookcases and deep windows.  I always want my tables to have nothing on them, but someone always puts car keys or remotes on them.

Here Lauren Sara poses with one of her four horses.   (She even has horses!!  Just like my fantasy house would - with a stone barn and grooms to do the cleaning of stalls.  I would just do the riding off into the sunset.  Hey, this is my fantasy.)

I admire the spareness of the kitchen, but could never live with it.  I would clutter it up with garden produce and copper pots and wooden bowls.  I do love the stainless workspace though and hanging cupboard.  I do so wish I could see more.  The chairs around the table are from Lancaster County.

In the master bedroom, a very geometric, Amish quilt hangs over the bed, and the room has a fireplace.  How much do I love fireplaces in bedrooms!  Lots.  The Windsor chair here has two writing platforms, and it is believed it was to accomodate both left and right-handed writers.  Very rare.

  

Fish decoys are displayed in this bedroom, and a "1775 comb-back Windsor chair sits at a desk with and inlaid-leather blotter."  So tasteful.

"Floating shelves that Sara designed hold shoes and leather boxes in the dressing area."  (My fantasy dressing room would look like this; my reality dressing room does not.)

Love this guest room.  While the master bedroom is beautiful, the size of this one seems cozier.  The decoys on the deep window sill, the antique basket and primitive portrait are perfect.

I'm setting my next outside table with those multi-wicked pillars at one end and a spray of flowers on the other.  Looks so inviting and a little funky.  Look at that view.

Landscape designer, Edwina von Gael "convinced her client that her house didn't need the shrubs that surround most houses."  Lauren Sara "didn't need much convincing."  She thinks it now has a "quiet, regal appearance."  It really does seem regal; it has great bones.

I hope you love this house as much as I do.  So different from the homes in my earlier posts, yet it contains so many similar elements: stone exterior, authentic antiques, and elegant taste in beautiful countryside. 

If I can find the magazine I'm seeking, my next post will be about a very talented sculptor who also lives in Pennsylvania.  Keep your fingers crossed.