Art Collectors’ Home – Westchester

Westchester House

Art Collectors’ Home

The clients, empty nesters with a house in Westchester, New York are passionate and discerning art collectors. Modest in size, and superlative in quality, their collection includes works by Cy Twombly, Joan Miro, Jim Dine, Edvard Munch, Jean Dubuffet, Richard Serra, Robert Motherwell, Henri Matisse, Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg, and Frank Stella.

We sought to create a setting for these pieces that would display them prominently yet without ostentation. It was the clients’ desire truly to live with art, meshing seamlessly the works on the walls with fine pieces of twentieth-century furniture, to live in the comfort of understated style, design originality and quality.

As many of the artworks are from the mid-to late twentieth century, we countered this emphasis with furniture of the earlier to mid-part of the century, designed by Mies van der Rohe, Pierre Chareau, Carlo Scarpa, and in the manner of Jean-Michel Frank, with accents by Hans Wegner and Eero Saarinen. As always, we did not limit the furniture repertoire to Modernist icons, but introduced earlier finds–even of the Colonial era– of comparable simplicity, along with his signature emphasis on wonderfully comfortable custom upholstery and rugs. Altogether, this residence–calm, considered, above all comfortable–flashes with excitement from the seminal works of art which punctuate its rooms.

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The living room is a study in soft greys and mellow burgundies, with sofas by Jonas Upholstery. The stool is 19th century, made from whale vertebrae, from Amy Perlin; the tree-trunk table is of petrified wood.

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1920’s stools by the legendary designer Pierre Chareau vie for attention with a work on paper by another legend, American artist Cy Twombly in the living room.

Glenn must have made a thousand decisions. We don’t regret any. We worked together in a collaborative way. He made suggestions and we discussed them. Nothing was forced. The final result was a warm comfortable modern interior, esthetically pleasing, simple not cluttered. The ultimate compliment came from many visitors, including art patrons on a house tour, who said “I would love to live in this house.”

– Client

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The cerused oak dining table and chairs in the manner of Jean-Michel Frank represent Frank’s gift to the twentieth century: elegantly plain furniture that bears the discrete neo-Baroque curve. Above hangs a faceted pendant lamp by Pierre Chareau. The startling scarlet of the walls is Donald Kaufman custom paint, its color inspired by Jim Dine’s painting, “Bathrobe” which hangs against it.

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A long Colonial bench with original paint, almost modern in it simplicity, is surmounted by a series of eight self-portraits by Jim Dine.

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The cerused oak dining table and chairs in the manner of Jean-Michel Frank represent Frank’s gift to the twentieth century: elegantly plain furniture that bears the discrete neo-Baroque curve. Above hangs a faceted pendant lamp by Pierre Chareau. The startling scarlet of the walls is Donald Kaufman custom paint, its color inspired by Jim Dine’s painting, “Bathrobe” which hangs against it.

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A nineteenth-century chair, modern in its angles, is accompanied by an etching of Edvard Munch.

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Quality and patina attend this smallest room: the countertop is of limestone, supported by legs of polished nickel, with vintage style faucet in the same finish. The antique round mirror is from J. Garvin Mecking, the vintage style wall sconce, from Urban Archaeology.

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In a corner of the family room, we created a lively dialogue between pieces of 1950s furniture–including Eero Saarinen’s famous ‘Womb’ chair and ottoman, a crisp white “Akari” floor lamp designed by Isamu Noguchi, later works of contemporary fine art, and a suite of boldly calligraphic works on paper by Richard Serra. The platform bench is by George Nelson.

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The rustic patina of the Kitchen is in sharp contrast to the elegance of the other rooms. An antique oak farm table is surrounded by antique 17th century rush-bottomed chairs, all lit by a single pendant from Urban Archaeology. The sheer simplicity of the farm furniture presages that of the 20th century pieces used elsewhere in the house.

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Soft neutrals suggest repose and subdued luxury. Etchings by Henri Matisse set the mood, expressed further by the pale, rosy beiges of the fireplace surround, bedclothes and leather upholstery of the Mattaliano side chairs and sleek X-framed stools, and the curtains framing the French doors.

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Above the upholstered headboard, two vibrant prints by Joan Miro, and at the bedside, a classic Louis Poulsen lamp.

Senior Designer Craig Strulovitz
Photos by Gross & Daley

Family Home – Westchester

WESTCHESTER, NY

Family Home

Mixing it up in the Suburbs

In a leafy suburb of New York City, we designed the interior of a spacious 1920’s Colonial Revival home for a family of five. The décor is a blend of classical elements, with contemporary items reflecting the tastes of the young family.

Rich wood tones, golden hues, and the color purple are favorite elements for these owners which were skillfully woven into many rooms in a variety of ways, whether in large pieces of furniture, curtain panels, pillows, piping, or accents giving continuity to many spaces.

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The seating arrangement on one side of the living room balance a baby grand piano and an antique French daybed on the other side of the room. The tailored furniture is upholstered in golden hues, deep purple, and vibrant leafy green has the room feel luxurious yet inviting.

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A circa 1820’s antique French-Empire daybed layered with rich pillows and antique textiles create the ideal corner for respite in the spacious living room

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The seating arrangement on one side of the living room balance a baby grand piano and an antique French daybed on the other side of the room. The tailored furniture is upholstered in golden hues, deep purple, and vibrant leafy green has the room feel luxurious yet inviting.

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A large center table from the 1940’s inspired by the Chinese Chippendale style draws you in to the bright and spacious Living Room with windows on three sides. The center table offers a rich tableau of books, objects, and plants, but also serves as a buffet for food during larger events. A small scale work by photographer Robert Mapplethorpe mimics the form of the large scale bronze Asian style urn set upon the center table.

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The graceful center hall foyer is a warm mix of neutral tones that invite you into the home. A luminous painting be female abstract expression painter Mary Abbot hangs above a circa 1850’s Chinese alter cabinet Shanxi province of China to create a complex cultural mix in the traditional space.

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The home’s original paneled Library was painted a glossy aubergine to create a rich backdrop of the owners’ collection of black and white photography and antique leather bound books.

"He combined his expertise in furnishings, textiles, design and art to create an elegant, beautiful and comfortable home and paid attention to every detail. We highly recommend Glenn and his team!"

– Client

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Formerly, the Sun Room was essentially unused. After a complete make-over, it is now one of the favorite spots in the house in all season. The large mirror strategically placed above the L-shaped seating area reflects the view and light from the large flower garden.

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Bold-scaled furnishes including the 18th-century French armoire and a new wood four-post bed were put into the spacious Master Bedroom to anchor and break down the scale of the generous volume. Both the soft palette and hand-embroidered drapery with a delicate pattern give the room a counterpoint to the more bold elements.

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In the corner next to the grand scale armoire sits a cozy reading chair upholstered in a soft blue. A grid of photographic prints by Karl Blossfeldt, a brass topped Austrian table, and a lamp made from a bronze Chinese vessel complete the area.

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A seldom-used guest room was transformed into a playful media room for the owners’ three daughters. The room combines a graphic mix of patterns with a vibrant color palette to create the perfect place for the teens to hang out with friends.

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A collection of mid-century glass vessels in vibrant hues of acidic yellows, oranges, and lavender add preverbal pops of color to the colonial style dining room fireplace mantel.

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A grid of framed 19th century pressed botanicals was added to breakdown the scale of the large white family kitchen and brought in the texture and warmth of the homes beautiful landscape.

Senior Designer Craig Strulovitz
Photos by Gross & Daley

Summer House – Hamptons

Remsenburg, NY

Summer House Hamptons

For a large, newly-built house near Westhampton Beach, our challenge was to forge dimension, texture and style through a sequence of architectural interventions. By adding more windows we created a symmetry to the elevations which had been missing; replacing sliding doors with French doors augmented the atmosphere with dignity.

Our goal was not to encrust a contemporary house with period ornament, but to lend it the time-honored language of understated architectural detail, a way of accentuating and humanizing space.

The floors of the house were originally surfaced in a variety of materials, including tile, which made the rooms feel “chopped up.” To create an unbroken sense of flow–and warmth– from room to room, we installed dark wood floors throughout, using sea grass and sisal area rugs to further unify the rooms.

The double-height living room had a rather blank fireplace with a sheetrock surround. Using Connecticut fieldstone, we built a floor to ceiling surround using the “drystack” building method, in which no mortar is visible; the rough effect added shadows and texture to the space. A massive 19th-century wooden chandelier brings human scale to the 18-foot ceiling.

With the house itself thus reimagined, furnishing became a delightful enterprise of layering English and American 19th century antiques with pieces from South America, the Far East and India, including colonial styles. Warmth, materiality and restrained rusticity became the keynotes of this house, which now appears rooted and timeless, inside and out.

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The blue-grey of the house’s exterior shingles is complemented by the use of bluestone surrounding the swimming pool, punctuated, in turn, by small gridded metal lamps.

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An old chest harbors a collection of objects evincing texture and interest, including the lamp, which we had cast, and an 18th century architectural engraving of an obelisk.

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An 18th century Italian armoire, ten feet high, sheathes the family’s entertainment center and balances the fireplace on the opposite side of the living room.

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Dark wooden floors carry through into the kitchen, contrasting crisply with finely crafted millwork lacquered in off-white, and the taupe window frames of the double-height dining area.

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The double-height drystack fireplace, its hearth and mantelpiece made of slabs of bluestone, is a dominant organic element in the room, suggesting the earth tones of the upholstery fabrics: grey plush velvet, antique linen and leather. A heavy coffee table, a relic of the Raj, is counterpointed by a delicate William Morris Sussex chair. Traditional Shaker doors and moldings are painted a soft taupe.

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Regency rules in the master bedroom, with a caned bench at the foot of the bed. A comfortable armchair upholstered in maroon and white stripes and printed curtains of the same color heighten the 19th century atmosphere of the room.

Senior Designer Craig Strulovitz
Photos by Gross & Daley

Waterfront Residence, Westchester, NY

WESTCHESTER, NY

Waterfront Residence

These clients, empty nesters, desired what Glenn calls “a new old house,” a residence with all the charm–including the detailing, stone and millwork–of a 19th century house, but the amenities of a contemporary one. The siting of this 1960s house was magnificent; it overlooked Kirby Pond and Long Island Sound in a neighborhood of beautiful late 19th and early 20th century houses. But massive renovation was necessary to create an aura of age as well as to effectuate modern conveniences. From the footprint of a generic Colonial-style house, we forged a house redolent with late 19th and early 20th century architectural references which meshed with the ethos of the early houses nearby.

Windows and doors were added, especially to emphasize views of the pond, and the layout was reconfigured, with some room additions, notably the vaulted-ceilinged dining room. The master bedroom, with his and hers bathrooms, remained downstairs, while one of three bedrooms upstairs was converted into an office for the lady of the house.

In furnishing the house, we made use of some pieces already owned by the clients, as well as selecting antique furniture that had patina and character, not necessarily heavily pedigreed. Rugs throughout the house were custom, and included some interesting techniques of fabrication, including braiding and hooking. The overarching decorative effect of these rooms is a kind of restrained, even reductive American Colonialism, a fresh interpretation of the style with a light streamlined touch.

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French doors in the living room open onto splendidly landscaped views of Kirby Pond. The custom Tibetan weave rug resembles an updated Colonial hooked rug, with its warm tones. The curtains are a traditional print; and the porch chairs are rockers from Charleston, South Carolina. The husband’s desk and work area are at right.

Rebuilding the house from virtually the ground up, we redesigned the elevations with multiple windows to augment symmetry, natural light and views. A stately curving gravel drive leads to the entry. Beautifully mullioned sash windows now flank the front door.

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A 1780s English bureau in the Entry signals the character of the whole house.

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In another view of the living room, we accentuated the existing homely low ceilings by adding beams. An antique Chinese bed is used as a coffee table; and we commissioned a contemporary landscape painter to create a view of the pond at dusk.

"We purchased an unremarkable Colonial house on a great site overlooking the Long Island Sound that needed a complete renovation, and found Glenn Gissler Design after researching interior design experts on the internet. We could not be happier with the process and the results."

– Client

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In the kitchen, vernacular elements–beadboard ceilings, rustic tiles and an antique rug–create an atmosphere of slightly countrified tradition rendered with new lightness and energy. Eighteenth century pewter plates on the wall accentuate the early American feeling.

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Windows added on three sides provide expansive views for the breakfast room. The table, chairs and chandelier are antique; the rug is custom braided.

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The powder room is resplendent with a hand-blocked golden wallpaper by Alpha Workshops. The bronze washstand contrasts beautifully with the countertop of black combed granite. The light fixture is early 20th century French.

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In the master bedroom, a four-poster bed with caned headboard is illuminated by a Christopher Spitzmiller lamp in black pearl finish.

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The “Hers” master bath is a luminous essay in off-white, highlighted by Perlino Bianco floor tile.

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The guest room is an enclave of rich simplicity, created by an ensemble of sisal matting, an antique barley-twist table, crewel curtains, and iron bedstead with antique quilt.

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In the guest bath, an intricate floor of mosaic tile creates a textured ground for a traditional wooden washstand.

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An ultra-simple Mudroom epitomizes honest construction, reminiscent of that in Shaker houses. The walls are beadboard with hooks for clothing, the floor a durable dark green slate.

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An outdoor view overlooking Kirby Pond shows a low, curving fieldstone wall added by Glenn.

Senior Designer Craig Strulovitz
Photos by Gross & Daley

Oceanfront Home – Hamptons

Watermill, NY

Hamptons Oceanfront Home

We began designing this waterfront weekend house in Water Mill, Long Island, overlooking both the Atlantic Ocean and Mecox Bay, over twenty years ago – and we venture to say it has stood the test of time. In fact, like any good house, the design we forged in the early 1990s has demanded change and evolution; but there is a certain consistency of style and predilection–both the client’s and ours–for art, furniture, and artifacts, European and American, of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For a Shingle Style house on a grand scale–9000 square feet–our penchant for spareness was challenged by the obvious need for a sense of fullness in the rooms.

East Hampton architect Francis Fleetwood, who built the house for Hirsch, had endowed it with aspects derived from late-19th-century sources: porches, facades, fireplaces, shingles, and wood paneling. Yet finally the house evinces a late twentieth-century simplicity, a subtle drive towards modernity. In furnishing the house, we endeavored to strike a balance between old-fashioned comfort and warmth and modern legibility.

Fleetwood’s design is notable for its many windows–and window seats–giving the house an extraordinary lightness. Therefore we were able to place rather deeply colored, rich furniture in it–Shaker and Mission pieces; Arts and Crafts era antiques; fin de siecle Austrian elements. The result is a house that is welcoming to its many summer guests, yet cozily suited to romantic winter weekends a deux.

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A long carved-wood trestle bench beckons to guests in this tableaux replete with Chinese Chippendale tables.

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A towering double-height entry, paneled in white painted mortice-and-tenon squares, echoes the great houses of Lutyens, with an elegant sweeping staircase.

"I first worked with Glenn Gissler over 25 years ago when I was building a new oceanfront home in Watermill, New York that I still enjoy today. We recently did some refreshing of the main floor, but the countless decisions we made decades ago stood the test of time."

– Client

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Stunning Arts & Crafts chairs from Newel Art Galleries with splats formed like arrows and spades, a mysterious, moody seascape painting and abundant low lighting–designed by us–create an atmosphere in this dining room that seems of another time and place.

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A glimpse of the dining room from the living room reveals an Arts and Crafts-style chandelier of five shaded lamps. The tall velvet sofa, with deep fringe at the bottom, is accompanied by an early 20th century table and lamp.

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The capacious and embracing English-style sofa is covered in wool from Coraggio; the tapestried Louis XIII chair is from Reymer-Jourdan. The low table is Dutch Colonial, from Rene Antiques. A richly figured indigo and orange carpet from Safavieh enhances the complexity and color of the room.

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An electrified oil lamp hangs over a rugged trestle table surrounded by English chairs from Newel Art Galleries.

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A delightful corner of the library evokes the cafes of Vienna and Berlin. Dutch Colonial Indonesian chairs, 1920s, in a late Arts and Crafts style, accompany an Austrian walnut table of 1910. French iron wall sconces are from Reymer-Jourdan Antiques.

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The porch, its floor faced in pale grey stone which echoes the blue-greys of the ocean in the distance, is a space for the pleasures both of entertainment and solitude.