It began with a chandelier. Not any chandelier, however a playful carved picket one harking back to an 18th-century theater prop, created by the eminent French inside designers Michelle and Yves Halard. Dee Salomon occurred to be in Paris in 1999 on the final day that the Halards’ store, Maison Yves Halard, was open, and he or she ordered this irreverent gentle fixture to be made and shipped to her house in Brooklyn.
Salomon, with a enterprise background in publishing and vogue, had for years admired the Halard type, treasuring “piles of tear sheets” illustrating the couple’s insouciant combination of up to date artifacts with French textiles and antiques. Extra not too long ago, she grew to become taken with the aesthetic of their grandson, designer Bastien Halard, whose extra present, pared-down type is nonetheless deeply influenced by their eclecticism. Younger Halard lived along with his spouse, Miranda Brooks, and their two daughters close by in Brooklyn, and in 2011, Salomon wrote to him to ask if he would take into account serving to her with a small renovation. Halard came visiting, noticed his grandparents’ iconic chandelier, and knew he was within the firm of a kindred soul.
Seven years in the past, Salomon known as upon Halard as soon as once more for assist. She and her longtime boyfriend, Rob Norman, had bought a 15-acre property on the Housatonic River in northwest Connecticut and needed to speak to Halard about designing a home for them there. “I would like one thing that nobody has seen earlier than, however appears to be like prefer it’s all the time been right here,” Salomon advised him.
Halard was stunned by the location and its “extraordinary” land. “You arrive and the entire world vanishes.” From the highway, a slender driveway descends by steep, fern-littered oak forest. A rocky stream tumbles down the hillside on one facet of the drive towards its vacation spot into the Housatonic. Right here, by the vast river, the precipitous woodland instantly provides technique to a stage expanse of sunlit terrain—the apparent location for the brand new home.