French Connection
With an infusion of Parisian details, a hilltop home in Morris County, New Jersey, goes from nondescript to magnifique.
Perched on a mountaintop in rural Morris County, New Jersey, the house had spectacular views. Inside, however, the new owners faced vast planes of unadorned drywall. Enter Deborah Candice of Safavieh’s flagship Livingston store, with an architectural vision.
“The living room has a long wall of windows offering great vistas, but the end walls, which are nearly 20 feet high, were totally blank,” she recalls. “I wanted to evoke the feeling of France, where the homeowners like to vacation, so I began by designing the kind of limestone fireplace surround one would see in a Loire Valley château.” The gothic mantel is surmounted by a limestone chimneypiece that climbs almost to the ceiling. This masonry serves as its own work of art, so there was no need to hang a painting over the fireplace.
These elements provided the “bone structure” for a contemporary salon, complete with curvaceous furniture by Christopher Guy that channels the Art Nouveau style of fin-de-siècle Paris.
At the opposite end of the room, Candice was inspired by the public spaces of a favorite Paris hotel, Le Meurice. The wall is paneled in squares of beveled mirrors, providing an elegant, modern feel.
Into this architectural setting she added furniture by Christopher Guy—big, bold and curvaceous seating, along with sinewy end tables and a console that recall the Art Nouveau style of late 19th-century France. A large acrylic coffee table and a shimmering rug from Safavieh’s Dream Collection complete the room.
To impart the feeling of France, Deborah Candice of Safavieh designed mirrored paneling and a limestone chimneypiece for this Morris County living room.
“In the daytime, the view out the window wall is exceptional, but you can’t see the view after dark!” remarks Candice. “This space really shines at night, when all the mirrors, crystal and acrylic reflect the soft light of the room.”
