Innehållsförteckning för Spring 2023 från MILIEU

Change. Some people love it, others prefer that it not happen. But as the expression goes, the one thing in life that always stays the same is change. Right now, at this time of year, the seasons are changing, and that is one of nature’s most wonderful events. Do I hear anyone disagreeing with that? In this issue, we celebrate good changes, ones that inspire all of us to make changes in our own lives. Every one of our “Well” stories involves a big shift. Seasoned interior designer Becca Casey continues to undertake the transformation of the rooms of her own home in Connecticut, while Serge Castella and Jason Flinn recently finished renovating an abandoned centuries-old house they came upon in a small Spanish village. Betsy Brown helped her client…

Illuminating the often misunderstood role of an interiors stylist, Colin King’s Arranging Things (Rizzoli) is a masterful look at the numinous, even sacred, nature of objects and an introspective musing on their dynamic placement. King writes how styling “can be a daily practice, one that empowers you to see the world differently and find new meaning in your surroundings.” Making a poetic splash with his co-writer, Sam Cochran, the book relates King’s instinctual approach to clarifying a room—and one’s life—through the editing of its materials. The New York–based King is widely known for his casually refined aesthetic. Mixing restrained modernist lines with notes of unkempt asymmetry, he attributes his fondness for “off-kilter” elements in design to an early life spent clinging to perfection. King started his professional path training in…

BETSY BROWN QUICKLY discerned something about her client: “She is at the core of a lot of life.” Indeed, the homeowner, who had lived in a house in Mountain Brook—a leafy, venerable suburb of Birmingham—for some 27 years, had a personality and presence so effervescent that Brown wanted to fashion rooms that responded to those admirable character traits. “She has lots of children, lots of friends, and her grandchildren are always there,” says Brown. “She’s a warm, caring, positive person. I always feel it’s my job as a designer to make a client feel that it’s their life in their home.” Brown has the ability to read not only the ways the rooms of a house should be furnished, but also how the individual elements need to collectively reflect the…

“THIS WILL SOUND counterintuitive considering what I do,” says interior designer Becca Casey, “but as a new homeowner, I moved in, made a quick mental list of the renovations needed and thought, “I want to get all this done right now.’” Casey shares with clients what she learned during her home’s ongoing renovation: “If a contractor tells you a particular project will take three months,” she says, “then plan for six. Just accept that it’s going to take time and that your entrance will be a revolving door of men coming through the house with muddy boots!” Five years ago, Casey and her husband purchased their first home in Wilton, Connecticut. Built in the 1950s in a French style, the single-level brick dwelling set among clapboard New England colonials features…

“As we worked on its restoration, the house informed us as to how to proceed.”—SERGE CASTELLA “Moving Into Town” p. 110 “It’s fun to have a client who makes you look at things in a different way.”—BETSY BROWN “A Lasting Legacy” p. 124 “The home’s layers have accumulated over time.”—ABBY YOZELL “Observing History” p. 134 “Refined, elegant, friendly, inviting — those qualities define my style.”—CAROLINE IRVIN DAVIS “Our House” p. 148 “I really wanted the home to feel like a warm hug.”—BECCA CASEY “In Progress” p. 158…

The sun is setting gently on the county of Somerset, and I am careening round a bend on the back of a golf buggy driven by a man named Ken. “If you look to your left,” says Ken, one of the guides at The Newt, “you will see our herd of fallow deer and to the right our red deer—who aren’t actually supposed to be there.” We pass darkened hedges and ever-blackening fields, and I am glad that Ken has availed us of a tartan mohair blanket because I fear the looming hand of frostbite. Soon, out of the dark, I see it, one light at a time—a full-sized Roman villa embraced by an enormous vineyard of Pinot Noir grapes. One thing the Newt Hotel isn’t is short of surprises.…

Bungalow Furniture, of Scottsdale, Arizona, in partnership with MILIEU magazine and LEE Industries, hosted a festive gathering on November 10th, celebrating classic American style and all things red, white, and blue. Bungalow’s owners, Linda Criswell and Alicia Flatin, along with their hospitable team, made everyone feel at home with a store chock-full of well-designed furniture and accessories, whimsical fashion, and comfort food. The highlight of the afternoon was a book signing by acclaimed designer Max Humphrey, author of Modern Americana, published in 2021. Featured nostalgic photography included works by Things Unseen Co., of Phoenix. MILIEU’s Design Director, Leslie Newsom Rascoe, and LEE’s Director of Marketing, Bondi Coley, mingled with warm Scottsdalians and enjoyed a surprise visit from iconic Americana enthusiast—author, editor, and designer—Mary Emmerling. Three cheers for the red, white,…

AS A DESIGNER WORKING mostly in New England, Abby Yozell invariably leans toward the colonial character of many of the region’s homes for inspiration in the interiors she develops for clients. “I let the original architecture guide me, and since so many of the houses here are historic, most of my work is traditional,” says Yozell. So, when she and her husband, John Yozell, purchased an early 20th-century Italian Revival home for themselves and their daughter in the historic village of Dedham, Massachusetts, southwest of Boston, more than a decade ago, her approach to tackling its interiors was no different. “The house was telling me what to do,” Yozell explains. “It wanted to get back to where it had begun and not be too fussed with.” Designed by Boston architect…

COVER Produced by: Katrin Cargill Photography: Simon Brown, simonbrown.london Flowers made by Melanie Williams Background paper: Sarah, Color: Rose, IMOGEN HEATH at Supply Showroom, supplyshowroom.com. Floor: Méridor, Color: Red, NCW4494-04, OSBORNE & LITTLE, osborneandlittle.com. Jardiniere: Elphin, Color: Red, J172W-03, JANE CHURCHILL, cowtan.com. Flowers: Tulips of Belgravia, Color: Pink and Burgundy, OTTOLINE at Supply Showroom, supplyshowroom.com. Stamens: Cleeve, Color: Bright, CLOTH AND CLOVER at Brooks Thomas, brooks-thomas.com. FROM THE DESK OF… Page 40 Bateau cement tile in Everglade + Bone, 8” x 8”, ZIA TILE, ziatile.com. Highgate ASH NYC Edition lavatory faucet and volume control valve trim, both with porcelain lever handles in Nickel/Jade Green, WATERWORKS, waterworks.com. Serpentine bath with painted exterior, DRUMMONDS, drummonds-uk.com Page 41 Smithfield cloakroom basin painted in Aztec Jade and Midtown taps in Matte Black, CLAYBROOK, claybrookstudio.co.uk.…

Even though Philip Trammell Shutze (1890–1982) designed hundreds of structures during his career as a distinguished American architect, it is the grandeur of Swan House—the edifice, the setting, the grounds—for which he is best known. Tucked away in Northwest Atlanta, the city’s preeminent English Palladian–style villa was completed just prior to the Great Depression as the sumptuous home of business magnate Edward Inman and his wife, Emily. Likely inspired by the swan motif that is part of the interior décor, Mrs. Inman gave her palatial residence the name “Swan House.” A native of Columbus, Georgia, young Philip, not long after his father’s death in 1900, moved to Atlanta with his two siblings and their widowed mother. By 1920, he had received degrees in architecture from the Georgia Institute of Technology…

Andrew Trotter remembers his first building. Just as any of us recall the first experience of something new and joyous, so, too, does Trotter continue to cite with affection the first real building he designed as an architect. “In some ways, of course, I like all the hotels and houses I’ve designed, but Masseria Moroseta is very special to me,” he says, referring to the boutique hotel in Ostuni, Italy, that was completed in 2016. “It was my first project, and one that brought me many things. All my projects have come from that one project. And I’ve met many wonderful people as a result.” So iconic has the design of the hotel become in the Puglia region of southern Italy that it is as much a landmark in the…

ALTHOUGH THE HOUSE hidden within the mountains above California’s Carmel Valley was built in 2006, three generations of the same family have already lived there. “All family members wanted a place where they could be at peace, where things felt calm and balanced,” explains Los Angeles–based interior designer Caroline Irvin Davis. “The landscape itself, just miles inland from the Pacific Coast, provides serenity already, so it was really important that the interior reflected that, too, without distractions.” The house, which at first glance appears as a cluster of connected, barn-like structures that seem generations old, is sited within the majestic Santa Lucia Preserve—nearly 20,000 protected acres where residents share the land with wild turkeys, families of deer, and other freely roaming wildlife. Davis describes the setting in poetic terms: “As…