One Jacobsen, Two "Nantuckets", and One Luncheon

Today's post will well illustrate my conflicting design aesthetics, aesthetics that you, dear reader, may well think can never be reconciled.  Of course, my fantasy houses reconcile all my varying tastes and desires, but they are just that - fantasies.  So what will be the resolution to my conflicts?  Oh, we have miles yet to go before seeing any resolution.  Let's just enjoy where we are now - in the throes of conflict.

Always loved this particular cover of House and Gardens.  Thought I'd be tricky and clever and just post the cover, thus avoiding the need for  any further annotations.  The cover is pretty though, isn't it?  Those roses in the silver vase with the floral fabric.

So inside, we find another Jacobsen-designed home, one which always inspired me.  But, it isn't in Nantucket.  (I know, I know that's where I'm supposed to be, but I also must explain what a huge effect Jacobsen's design had on me before leaving him.)  This home is in the outskirts of Philadelphia - remember when my Pennsylvania posts seemed never ending?  Well, we are back there, briefly.

A quote from the article well describes this home, "The setting, though on the outskirts of Philadelphia,  seems more Williamsburg then Williamsburg itself: cleaner, crisper, whiter, more restored, and densely historic.  Each section has a different roof shape; each is surfaced in a different material."  Some of the roof shingles here look like those in Nantucket, but what really gets me about Jacobsen's work is that "cleaner, crisper, whiter" look.  I love it.

An entire wall of book shelves - all in his egg crate pattern, familiar to all of us now.

One view of the living room.  (Sorry about the crease again, but wanted you to see the entire room.)  Notice the shutters on the windows are again on the inside, never the outside.  And here, we see a touch of red, just as in one of the houses from my last post which contained a touch of blue in the library.

Different angle of the same room.  So "crisp" and "whiter."

Master bedroom.

View of the house from the woods.

This home is the end of my Jacobsen design for a while.  (I may have to refer to another of his homes later in my design journey which I hope you are not finding too confusing.  If you think you are confused, imagine my poor husband and his "chrome peanut" lament.)

Now, back to summer in Nantucket and the family home of Victoria Hagan there.  My clever annotation again.  (The cover is an image of Cindy Crawford's New York duplex, but more about that when we cover Kelly Klein in New York.)  Just note the magazine and date so I don't have to.

Victoria's family (she is in the blue shirt) outside their gray-shinlgled barn for which Victoria did the interior design.  The family rented in Nantucket for years, but finally decided to buy a place all the family could enjoy.  Victoria says, "the barn project was beyond the ken of armchair decorators, so they just kind of handed it over."  And she did this while being the mother of these twin babies!

Foyer's benches and stenciled floor are original to the barn.

Living room is very different style from Jacobsen's but very pleasingly Nantucket-style.

Living room seen from above.

Victoria's father with one of  the twins.  Funny story here.  Her dad bought a very large wrought iron chandelier and hung it over the living room.  No one liked it, and curiously it crashed down during construction.  Victoria's dad still blames her, but she responded, "the chandelier was not meant to be in this house."  The one above looks very appropriate.

Breakfast room.

Dining room.

Upstairs landing (with a view of the wrought iron chandelier's replacement.)

Eighteenth century writing desk.

Master bedroom.

The Hagan barn/house is not crisp, clean, and white, but it is redolent of family living as the image of Victoria's sister and niece below illustrates.  It is a comfortable house.  While I love Jacobsen's houses, I would be afraid to set down a canvas bag there.

See what you think of this second Nantucket house from Shelter magazine, July 2006.  (I believe its name has since become Interiors.)  Below is the exterior of an early Nantucket house, simple and cedar-shingled, but one in which its owners "plant their own brand of modern."

(By the by, our chimneys look just like this now.  New England chimneys were my inspiration.  So unlike Jacobsen's - see, more conflict.)

I know this paneling is not Jacobsen white, but isn't it Nantucket charming?

Right half of living room.

Detail of same room.  All of my rooms used to be white with colored trim (except the kitchen and den) like the room seen through the door below. Once I found Jacobsen's style, I changed all color to white, but this house still strikes a chord with me. 

Close up of same room.  Beautiful antiques in this home.

Left half of the very pretty sitting room.

Right half of same sitting room.  I love toile, but have none in my home - saved a big collection on my Pinterest board, but none in my house.  Why?  It's usually too pretty for me unless Darryl Carter uses it (then it's perfect), but more about him later.  Love the tea set even though it's pretty.

Breakfast room which has more of the antique-Pennsylvania-feel and much less of Jacobsen.

Again, so pretty.

Another teapot, this time one reminiscent of a Nantucket basket.

Charming bedroom.  I am not a fan of swags (too pretty for me) but the one here suits the room ( but so would shutters).  Notice in this house that the rugs are seagrass or sisal to add that fresh feel, but then antique hooked rugs are placed atop to give that Nantucket feel.  I love this room (minus the trim paint and swags.  Too opinionated?  It's my blog.)

Beautiful in a pretty sort of way,

Right half of same bedroom

Last image of this house, and it is a pretty one.  Love that toile and love this house, but I could no more live in it than I could one of Jacobsen's.  Both are fantasy house material.  In my quest, I needed to find a compromise aesthetic, one neither too serene and white nor too pretty and antique.  Does such an aesthetic exist?  My quest continues.

I leave you today with images from something about which I have never been conflicted  - Gourmet magazine.  Like too many magazines, Gourmet is no longer published, but like so many of its devotees, I saved many of its issues and filed them by month.  Today, I share with you one from my July collection.  Gourmet's foods and articles always fit the season, and the table arrangements always inspire as does the article below.   Note it is from July, 1998, but recipes and decor still work today.

This particular article was titled "Lunch among the Hydrangeas."  How Nantucket-y is this!

Images of the menu follow.  Sometimes I have to remind myself that my blog is entitled Kitchens I Have Loved.  These next images then are my tribute to my blog's title, to Nantucket, and to beautiful, beautiful summer.

Salmon with tarragon sauce and fingerling potatoes

Berry tart with mascarpone cream

And below is a photo of the patio outside my own kitchen.  I wish I could serve all of you lunch here among my hydrangeas.

Do you understand my design aesthetic conflict?  How do you feel about serene and white as opposed to antiques and toile?  Are you conflicted?   Since you hear my opinions all the time, I would love to hear yours. 

Till next time, my patient reader, when I promise to have less parentheses.

b

Back to Normal.  Back to Nantucket.

Even though the lawn still needs mowing, my bags are now unpacked, the wash is finished, the "kreepie krawlie" is cleaning the pool, and I feel able to get back on track, back to my Nantucket postings again (the lawn can just wait till tomorrow).  Let's begin with another Jacobsen house on Nantucket because his houses just say summer - the gray shingles typical of the island on his exteriors and clean, cool, white surfaces typical of this architect on the interiors - a combination I find so enchanting.  Come, be enchanted with me.

Gray shingled home with just a peek of the First Congregational Church's steeple in the back.

This and following images from Architectural Digest, July 2004

Gray shingles without a single shutter needed at all.

The front entrance where "crisp minimalism" meets traditional.

Don't you just love the way the light from the windows plays on the floor and lights up the rooms?  The floors are not white in this home, but still the rooms are filled with summer airiness.

I even love the windows darkened toward dusk.   So simple, so clean, so "summer" - and I bet the owners' lawn is mowed.

Except for this library, I don't think I have ever seen the architect use blue in his houses, but have, of course, seen his signature egg crate book cases many times.  Desk is all leather.  Such a great room.

Again, summer abounds here.

Summer's dining room, I presume.

While checking my magazines to make certain I had not missed anything "Nantucket-y," I came across this article from Elle Decor, July 2002.  It features the Voorhees barn which I posted about earlier.  I'm adding these images now because they show a few different shots of the house/barn and of its owner shown below.  Also, because the landscape and Voorhees are so typically Nantucket.

Remember, if you think you have seen these images before, you have.  Elle Decor just chose to tinge them slightly and to show the rooms from a slightly different angle.  Anyway, the home is so delightful that it should to be seen again.

I like this angle of the dining room because it gives us a glimpse of the patio.

Upstairs bath with a window I really like.

An untinged, outside view of the barn and its patio.

Now, leaving Jacobsen's design for a moment, I'd like to show you another Nantucket home.   This time it is a home designed by Karin Blake, also a minimalist, but a minimalist who always uses more antiques in her design than does Jacobsen.

This image and the following from Architectural Digest, June 2002

I've seen images of this home on Pinterest, but I wanted to show it in its entirety juxtaposed with Jacobsen's work.  Whose do you prefer?

Do you miss the white furnishings and the egg crate book cases?  I do.  But, would I miss them quite as  much in December?

More living room.  Blake's antiques always have great scale and so suit the rooms they are in.

                

Love the lack of window treatment, but miss the Jacobsen shutters.

Beautiful staircase.

Note the Nantucket basket to the right of the bed.  Blake's light hand is used here, but do you like her upholstery fabric or do you miss Jacobsen's even lighter, whiter touch?

Lovely landscape. 

I'm ending today's post with an image that again speaks of summer.  (It is July after all.  Corn is in all the vegetable stands.)  The image below is not of Nantucket, but I happened to find it in the same Elle Decor issue from above and had to include it, a shingled home by Steven Gambrel in the Hamptons.  While it is not Nantucket, it could be. 

Wish we were all having corn on the cob here tonight and enjoying our summer evening and discussing whose design work we most admire.  Adieu, dear reader, till next time when I will either be in Nantucket or in another Jacobsen designed home.

b