Green Steals The Show In A Connecticut Home For Jeffrey Alan Marks
The colorful hues of designer Jeffrey Alan Marks’ Plain English kitchen, with dual islands painted Mushy Peas, are tempered by white lacquering and oak planks from New England Custom Floors. The sconce is from The Urban Electric Co.
Infusing West Coast cool into a Connecticut manor home proves a beautiful chapter for designer Jeffrey Alan Marks.
When the opportunity struck to purchase a 1928 Georgian Manor-style home in Greenwich—once decorated by his personal icon, Billy Baldwin—designer Jeffrey Alan Marks packed up his life in Montecito, California, energized by the prospect of test driving the Connecticut idyll and restoring the residence to its former grandeur. Naturally, one such home needed a showstopping kitchen at its heart.
“The house merited this very interesting kitchen,” muses Marks. The designer teamed up with Plain English (“their clean lines and simple yet elevated cabinetry matched the legacy of the property perfectly,” he notes) to craft a layered space defined by a blue, green and pink palette—a request from his five-year-old daughter, James, that proved surprisingly sophisticated.
The challenge: Bringing an airy disposition to the room’s dark, patrician architecture. “By adding a large picture window over the sink, gallons of high-gloss white paint on tongue-and-groove siding, and window screens to enclose the bar, the space became breathable,” he explains. And oh, what a bar it is. More glossy paint—this time emerald green, gives the feel of an old-timey pub room. Another star detail is the cocktail serving island Marks fashioned from an oversized antique French laundry basket purchased on a whim. “We spend a lot of time in there as a family; it’s cozy and intimate,” Marks reflects. “And whenever we have parties, it’s the room that everyone gravitates towards.” Coziness similarly defines the breakfast nook, a sunken space off the kitchen where casual meals are enjoyed fireside, ensconced in a green velvet banquette that echoes the tones of the bar.
The living room, trimmed with Baldwin’s original moldings, graces the cover of Marks’ new monograph This Is Home (Rizzoli). Featuring an array of residences for repeat clients, the tome explores the idea that we don’t stay in multi-generational dwellings as our ancestors did—we move and change with the people we call home as compass. Practicing what he preaches, Marks recently sold the Connecticut property, embarking on a California comeback and leaving a transformed piece of history for its next lucky stewards.
A breakfast nook off the kitchen is enlivened by collected artworks. The banquette is clad in Loro Piana velvet and joins a Richard Wrightman table, Paul Ferrante pendant and Paul Smith for The Rug Company rug.
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