Colonial Connecticut Home
The Washington, Connecticut, home of designer Philip Gorrivan; his wife, Lisa Rossi, and their two children. The house, which was built in 1840, was moved to its current location in 1955.
Colonial Connecticut Home
Elle Decor is among the top home decor and design magazines, so when I came across a recent publication featuring a Classic Colonial Connecticut home, I wanted to share it. If you are wondering what a traditional country home in CT looks like, this is it. Everything in these photos from the hand stacked stone wall that lines the property, the mature trees that surround the home, exposed beams in the kitchen ceiling and the porch’s blue ceiling are all quintessential New England. What charmed me about this home is that it looks loved and lived in. It is such a refreshing departure from many of the homes that are featured in other magazines that are pristine and overly styled. Below is the article from Elle Decor and photos taken by Joshua McHugh. Enjoy!
My favorite photo in the series!
Sometimes it’s hard to let a beautiful house go, even if life throws you curves that make keeping it wildly impractical. That’s how strong its hold is on you. The 1840 farmhouse up a winding lane in the fairy-tale colonial town of Washington, Connecticut, is just such a place for designer Philip Gorrivan. He and his wife, Lisa Rossi, an investment-bank managing director, bought the 3,800-square-foot home six years ago to retreat from the intensity of Manhattan with their two children on the weekends. The bones and backstory were irresistible: The house had originally been sited on a small lot in the town center, on a main road by the bank of the Shepaug River, but was hauled up to its current seven acres in the 1950s after narrowly avoiding a flood that wiped out many other homes nearby. Thus, unlike most houses of its vintage, it embodied the elusive trifecta of country living: historic charm, a gracious setback on plenty of land, and a full basement.
The family room’s furniture is all from the 19th century, including a farmhouse table, spindle chairs painted matte black, and a pie safe and rocking chair from Vermont; the 19th-century jar on the table is English, the walls are painted in Benjamin Moore’s Willow Creek, and the sisal rug is by Stark.
As an homage, perhaps, to his mother’s exotic sense of whimsy, there are quirky touches, including a huge, acid yellow–glass vessel displayed like sculpture in the dining room, a wall in the den covered with tiny pairs of antlers, and zebra-print textiles in his daughter’s bedroom. His father’s New England influence is writ large as well, visible in antique side tables, a Wallace Nutting stool, and a 19th-century Vermont rocking chair, a family heirloom.
The kitchen stools are by York Street Studio, the range is by Wolf, the sink fittings are by Waterworks, and the walls are painted in Benjamin Moore’s White Dove.
Gorrivan is a fan of “massing”—displaying vignettes of small, similar objects to illuminate their shape or color—and his obsessions can be glimpsed in nearly every room. Eighteenth-century creamware is artfully arranged in the streamlined kitchen, amethyst glass lines a deep window frame in the dining room, and endless rows of vintage-crystal glassware decorate a huge antique armoire he’s turned into a bar. On an étagère in the den sits a grouping of ancient bottles, including some found by his kids in the backyard. “I really am not big on provenance,” he says. “I am big on how beautiful things are, and how they make me feel.”
Vintage Richard Schultz furniture lines the pool area.
By the time twilight comes, Gorrivan is feeling pretty good, relaxed at last. In a few days, after a quick trip to San Francisco to meet a client, he will fly back to London, rested and enlivened. True, he will worry about the house incessantly when he is gone—is the furnace OK? Have the deer nibbled the newest saplings?—but it’s all worth it, he insists.
A 19th-century stool by Wallace Nutting and an 18th-century English console in the living room; the walls are painted in Benjamin Moore’s Baltic Gray.
“Some places defy logic,” he says. “You know it’s insane to love them, to sacrifice so much for them. But you’re powerless.”
Colonial Connecticut Home
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