Insights • Inspirations • Destinations • Design

Monday, May 21, 2012

An Affair With A House


Hidden up in Falls Village, a blink-and-you-miss-it hamlet in the green hills of Connecticut, there is a house that has become famous the world over. It is located down a winding road with a curious name, a road that actually changes names several times so that you need to get out at the cute little white wooden General Store in the village's main street to ask directions. It is a house that so enthralled its owner when she first saw it, it immediately inspired a love affair with architecture and gardens that has lasted more than 30 years.


The house has changed significantly since that first inspection, thanks to the owner's great talents as an interior designer. She has taken a grand but neglected country manor and transformed it into an extraordinarily beautiful rural retreat. But what is perhaps more surprising is how much this house has inspired and transformed the owner in return. Bunny Williams may be the owner of this gracious Connecticut estate, but the house is very much the architectural muse. As Winston Churchill once said: "We shape our buildings, and then our buildings shape us." Bunny Williams must know this more than anyone.


We had the good fortune to visit Bunny Williams' beautiful home yesterday, a property that is so renowned it has been featured in countless magazines as well as the bestselling book An Affair With A House. We also had the good fortune to meet the inimitable Ms Williams – who is as lovely as her interiors. (When she heard I had flown all the way from Australia to see it, she gave me a warm kiss.) The experience of wandering around this enchanting home on a brilliantly sunny Sunday in May is one that will never leave me. It is quite simply one of the most beautiful houses I've ever seen.


Here are a few photographs of this sublime country home. We arrived right on the opening time of 10am, so we were fortunate to capture the gardens without too many other visitors wandering in and out of the shot. I also met the gardener, Eric, who was as lovely as his employer. It is a difficult property to describe, so I'll simply direct you to Bunny's book, An Affair With A House, for more details. However, I will say this: I have rarely seen a more elegant private garden, anywhere in the world. The chicken pavillion alone is extraordinarily beautiful. Add in the parterre tulip garden, the conservatory, the guest barn, the mauve garden, the pool house, the potager (vegetable garden), and the rambling orchard and bluebell wood, and you have what must be the loveliest of small private gardens in all of America.



















PS I would post captions, but we're just about to pack up the suitcases and head off to Boston for the day (and my partner is making those huffing noises that males make when females are dithering and running late!) But I promise to post more photos later today. The New England weather has been glorious these past few days, which has made for some gorgeous photography. It's certainly been a temperature shock after the dank wet winter that descended on Melbourne last month. A friend who is looking after our house told me that our garden looks like a horror movie compared to the garden shots  of Connecticut that I've been emailing home!
    

20 comments:

  1. Oh you must be having a wonderful time. Hope your partner is enjoying it too.

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    1. No Claire, he hated it! In fact, he got very grumpy on this particular day! But he's just had 'his' weekend at the big Nascar race in North Carolina (during which I stayed by the hotel pool, dreaming of gardens!). So lovely to hear from you again. Hope to catch up by email when I return to Australia. Jx

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    2. Would love to hear from you. Laughing about "his grumpiness", I think we all have experienced that one, either as the grumper or the grumpee!

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  2. Thanks for the beautiful tour of Bunny Williams' gardens and house. I love her style--so welcoming and comfortable. Hope you have a great time!

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    1. Thank you so much Mary. I love her style too. It's elegant but still comfortable - which is often difficult to achieve. We had a wonderful time. Thanks again for your lovely comment.

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  3. Loving your posts from the US! Enjoy the sunshine, Monday night was the coldest night in Melbourne since last August. See if you can squeeze in a stop to Newbury Street in Boston. Cheers, E

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    1. Thanks E! So lovely to hear from you. Have heard Melbourne is freeeezing. We're in Miami now and it's STINKING hot! I had to have a cocktail as big as a cadiallac just to cool down. Would love some of that Melbourne chill right about now! Jx

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  4. Wish I was there too!

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    1. You would have loved it Kate. Everyone was enthralled.

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  5. gardens are oh so gorgeous. Wouldnt it be wonderful to have the time to create and maintain something so lovely. Fiona

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    1. I was just thinking that tonight Fiona! We have sold our country garden but after seeing Bunny's I now want another one! She has a full-time gardener though. Sadly, we don't have the funds for that luxury... Or the horticultural talents of Ms Williams, for that matter!

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  6. It is amazing just how far a passion for something can take you! What a truly amazing garden and property thank you for the peek!! xx

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    1. You're so welcome Jules. Thinking of you. Hope everything is okay. Will be in touch when I get home. J xx

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  7. Oh this is absolute perfection.... I am going to have to come back to the post several times to study the photographs in more detail. So gorgeous and glad you are having a wonderful time.... And thank you so much for your very kind offer - how lovely of you. XX

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  8. I would love to see the bluebell wood, also that pool and greek temple poolhouse? are really beautiful

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    1. The bluebell wood was beautiful. I wasn't as enamoured with the pool house - it was a folly that didn't quite work with the rest of the aesthetics - but it was still amazing to see. So glad you dropped by!

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  9. Hi Janelle - thanks for your comments and suggestions re LA. My trip was actually last August, and I did go to LA in the end and absolutely loved it. I spent most of my days trawling La Cienega and the surrounding streets and marvelling at the amazing design and decorating stores. So different from NY and just such a wonderful hub of design and inspiration. I agree, while the Hamptons is full of picturesque scenes and gorgeous houses and gardens, it doesn't offer much by way of interior design ideas, like LA did. I stayed at the Chamberlain in West Hollywood which was brilliant. Can't wait to go back and do more. Now sitting down to go through your blog and find out about these 18 books you've written!

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    1. Thanks Mel. I love your blog, so thrilled you came here for a browse.

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