Ever
since childhood, when Mama and Daddy would pile us into the Suburban
and start our northerly trek to Cashiers from Middle Georgia, I have
relished the very thought of heading to those sacred hills.
A
feeling washes over me in Cashiers - a calmness bathed in hay-fern
scented air and cool summer nights. Cashiers is like summer camp for
grownups! The same childhood anticipation and delight - somewhat akin to
Christmas morning - still surges my soul the night before I leave for
the mountains.
For the past four summers, I have had the utmost pleasure and so much fun really of being a part of the Cashiers Historical Society's Designers Showhouse
- the pinnacle of my summer and a highlight of my year. This last
summer, the thrill was monumental, for I was selected as the designer
for the main living room! Y'all, this room, née, I say great hall from a
lodge more so, was truly the peak experience to show some design
prowess.
The
space was nearly a thousand square feet and required vast amounts of
furniture. Thankfully, I own a small shop, but more thankfully I have
friends in the design business to loan me fabulous finds to fill up the
space. Filling up though is not the goal- proper placement and designing
a lifestyle was to be the ultimate achievement.
My
amazingly talented friend Kathleen Rivers served as Showhouse Chair and
immediately presented me with my first challenge- paint! The room had
little wall space but a vast, sloping ceiling and leftover bits of odds
and end paneling that, that, along with the shag carpet mind you,
enveloped you into a time capsule of midcentury style - but not the chic
midcentury style one desires!
I went to my go-to colors of Benjamin Moore's Linen White for the walls and Ice Cap
for the ceiling - which took some convincing but delivered a thrilling
result. The mountain views at this home are nothing short of
breathtaking - almost more Montana than North Carolina - and I needed to
recreate that sky and light into the living room. My said colors proved
the pudding! For the floor, wall-to-wall sisal blanketed and further
anchored the nature-inspired palette.
Since
this space is a living room, I decided to create such a room - a room
for living! Dining, sitting, visiting and entertaining all had to fit
within the space for a true living room.
Anchoring the room was a French beret table my wonderful friend Sally loaned me from her eponymous shop, Dovetail Antiques,
in Cashiers. The table was literally one of the heaviest and most
challenging pieces (they had to walk it down a sloping knoll and then up
stairs and across a deck) my buddies from McCorquedale Transfer even installed for me, but I knew it was the
table. Plus, Ollie, the stuffed otter who was to be the table's
centerpiece, was going to look so handsome atop this sensational table
and epicenter of the tableau in turn. My friend Jason Moattar
loaned me the tribal, diamond-patterned rug that kept the dinging space
anchored with an earthiness and casualness that the Cashiers' style
affords – tradition with a twist!
Three
seating areas then served as a triumvirate of grouping for which to
relax, converse, enjoy a fire from the dueling fireplaces or simply take
in the scenery. The two fireplace seating areas were duets of leather
wing chairs from Holland and Company
complete with an Irish pine coffee table for one grouping and a simple,
heavy woven white upholstered ottoman for the other. Thus these
accouterments gave each spot a place for display, propping up your feet
or even a casual dinner. My dear and super-talented friend, Carrie
Beskin, loaned me two limed French wine tables that I used for side
tables - I'm a sucker for limed wood and Carrie was so kind to loan me
hers. Blue and white lamps given a contemporary twist with acrylic bases
and flowers and family photos dotted the tables too and, thus, brought
personal touches to the room.
My buddy Beau Holland
lent me a gracious stack of stag horns to crest the soaring walls along
with a pair of handsome leather club chairs that I paired with a white
sofa, limed pine and zinc tables, a driftwood and glass coffee table and
a Black Forest carving (a family piece my sisters and cousins will have
to fight me for‼!). Wispy, gauzy white linen hung simply from bamboo
rods on the five sets of French doors leading to the deck and awesome
views beyond. The deck was simple in its decor with antique hickory
rockers, garden stools in shades of aqua, jade and celadon and some iron
turkeys nestled into faux bois planters of fern and hosta. My always
gracious and fellow gardener Judy at the Village Gardener in Cashiers
outfitted the awe-inspired hanging baskets that suspended and catapulted
into the mountain forest with summer plantings that fair so well in the
mountains.
Shelves
stacked with books new and old, a Bavarian fish set and some vintage
art further gave the room purpose as a place to study, read and boast a
collection. A short wall in height and width still got the grand
treatment with a Jacobean chest and fabulous pine bullseye mirror from Beau Holland
and some of my favorite things too - my French needlepoint bird chairs,
my vintage Audubon prints, a splash of blue and white and my favorite
green Italian bowl filled to the brim with North Carolina apples! A pair
of French iron candlesticks turned lamps shed the light on this subject
matter. This wall and its symmetry and balance were a fun counterpoint
to the white sofa and dark leather chairs on the opposite wall. High and
low in colors and weights and even textures are so fulfilling to layer
upon a room and house. A pop of turquoise in the Clarence House
dragonfly pillows on the needlepoint demonstrates such a layering credo.
Speaking
of pillows, brown plaids and checks along with blue ikats and stripes
all found their way into my scheme. Blue and brown and white with
whispers of green became the calling card of the room (along with quirky
taxidermy of course) and thus reflected the nature just outside. And
since the land at this home is a phenomenal horse riding retreat, large
equestrian canvases by the uber talented Meredith Keith,
from Birmingham accented the antique timber mantles and were guarded by
white temple jars that with another pair too became a part of the
room's design.
With
Cashiers acting as my happy place since childhood, putting together a
great room of favorite things made it even more so of a happy place as a
"grown up." I hope y'all enjoy these photos of reflection and
remembrance of such a joyful experience for me. I was in terrific
company with the other designers, and I can assuredly say that this
Showhouse was a happy place for all!
photography by Emily Followill
(before pics)
