Tag: Cullman & Kravis

Contemporary Traditional Design: Southern Mansion

For our design inspiration today, we have an extraordinary, Federal-style mansion newly built in Houston’s exclusive River Oaks neighborhood. The design of the home reflects the city’s historical heritage as well as its location in the South. The residence, with its American classical architecture, appears as though it has always been there. The home’s contemporary Traditional interiors, created by Elissa Cullman of Cullman & Kravis, set the standard for Traditional Design created for contemporary life.

It is a very grand and proper house with airy, light, and cheerful interiors created with soft colors and materials that respond well to heat and sunshine. The owners wanted to walk in and feel cool relief from the Houston climate. This was accomplished by keeping the color palette in shades of white, off-white, and refreshing sherbet tones. The minimal palette also helps maintain a good balance between the formal classical architecture, gardens, traditional furniture and modern art.

The home includes quiet areas for the family with plenty of rooms for guests. A succession of formal spaces on the main floor with multiple French doors opening to gardens and terraces provide for entertaining both inside and out. Custom-made furnishings combine with a range of nineteenth and early twentieth-century English, Continental, and American furniture and objects. Straight-lined pieces with a strong silhouette, imposing in their size and scale, have a linear quality that keeps the interiors fresh.

CONTEMPORARY TRADITIONAL DESIGN INSPIRATION

The living room organizes into three seating areas. In the opening photo, traditional furnishings gather on an antique pale blue, chocolate brown and beige Tabriz rug before one of two custom marble fireplace mantles. A pair of gilded Empire chandeliers illuminates the spaces along with a set of four twentieth-century bronze sconces.

A Hans Hoffman hangs over each of the custom mantles designed by Jamb in London with inlaid Emperador stone. Two Anthony Lawrence-Belfair sofas upholstered in Pollack silk gather with circa-1780 French fauteuils.

The owners burgeoning collection of Abstract Expressionist and contemporary paintings, collages and drawings provide bursts of color throughout the residence.

An octagonal apse at the garden end of the living room serves as a perfect place for afternoon tea. An unusual set of Biedermeier chairs surround a table with a strongly patterned specimen marble top. A Gerhard Richter work displays on the wall. Appliqued and embroidered curtains frame the windows.

In the entry, Picasso ceramics display on a Regency center table arranged with Biedermeier chairs beneath an Empire chandelier. A Richard Serra drawing hangs above a William IV cabinet.

The reception hall left of the entry provides an additional path of circulation. A nineteenth-century Italian painted-and-gilded table stands in the center. A 1970s abstract painting by the French artist Simon Hantai hangs on the wall.

Rose-gold glazed walls shimmer in the formal dining room. The Regency mahogany table and circa-1880 Chippendale-style chairs stand beneath a nineteenth-century empire ormolu and cut-glass chandelier. A large work by Lee Krasner hangs over the fireplace. A painting by Richard Pousette-Dart hangs over the sideboard.

In the Oak paneled library, the cabinet beneath the Hans Hoffman holds the concealed television. The painting carefully slides down, and the television pops up.

Holophane pendant lights suspend from the elaborate honeycomb patterned ceiling moldings in the kitchen. At the far end, an octagonal apse holds the breakfast room beneath a three-tiered chandelier.

Gracie chinoiserie wall-covering in cool silver and warm beige lines the powder room walls. A retrofitted Directoire commode with onyx top serves as the vanity.

The architect punctuated the bedroom hall with a circular space defined by an overhead cupola, and an inlaid compass rose on the floor. Chris Ofili collages display on the far wall of the upper hall with Paul Ferrante lanterns.

For the master bedroom, the designer custom created a mahogany framed, Kravet upholstered bed and bench in an antique style with gilded accents. A Joan Mitchell painting hangs above the bed with a rug by Beauvais Carpets beneath. Lee Jofa silk forms the curtains, with bed linens by Matouk.

A white stone grid floor design unites the his-and-her bathrooms. The accent stone changes from blue celeste in hers to green onyx in his.

That concludes our American contemporary Traditional design inspiration, my friend. Architect Allan Greenberg and the Cullman & Kravis design team spent over three years designing and building this Southern mansion.

For more elegant residences completed by Cullman & Kravis be sure to see:

Fifth Avenue Classical Design

Georgian Modern Traditional Elegance

Venetian Waterfront Residence: Cullman & Kravis

Transitional Design Update: Park Avenue

HOUSTON CONTEMPORARY TRADITIONAL DESIGN

This home is featured on the cover of Elissa Cullman and senior designer Tracey Pruzan’s latest book From Classic to Contemporary – Decorating with Cullman & Kravis. The book presents fabulous interiors by Cullman & Kravis that convey their new take on design. The book shows how the firm embraces modernism to add a new and welcome tension to their classic work while showing how the classic principles of design guide their modern work. Beautiful photography and engaging text make it a MUST READ! Be sure to check out the other lavish books by this renowned Interior Design firm as well.

Architecture: Allan Greenberg

Interior Design: Cullman & Kravis

Photography: Bjorn Wallander

Thank you so much for reading along with me today! I look forward to hearing from you in the comments. Let me know what you think.

Have a great day!

March 14, 2018
Georgian Modern Traditional Elegance

This gracious Georgian-style mansion, situated on 100 rolling acres in New Jersey’s horse country, features richly detailed modern traditional interiors. It is newly built but designed to feel like it has been around forever, yet perfectly equipped for modern life. Architect Allan Greenberg designed the 16,000 square-foot home with its twenty-five well-proportioned, generously scaled rooms with interiors by interior designer Elissa Cullman of Cullman and Kravis.

The owners desired a home with the precise composition of Georgian architecture, which led them to Greenberg. The architect has been creating stately classical residential and public buildings for over 40 years. He is considered one of the leading classical architects of the 21st century.

To give their new home the warmth and comforts of modern traditional design, they knew they could count on Cullman and her senior designer Jenny Fischbach, who had completed two other residences for them. The design firm has been doing interiors for 30 years and is one of the leading proponents of modern traditional design. Their fresh and clarified take on traditionally designed spaces, which is ideally suited for contemporary life, was what this home needed.

MODERN TRADITIONAL DESIGN INSPIRATION

A grand scale house needs an equally grand entrance. Greenberg created a sequence of three rooms for the greatest statement-making entrance. Sharp geometry is a fundamental element in the home’s design. Each of the three rooms has a different shape. A square foyer at the front door gives way to a larger elliptical reception hall and then on to a long stair hall. The flow is perfect when entertaining larger groups of guests.

In keeping with the Georgian ideas, the architect used a variety of geometric shapes and volumes to create a natural circulation that flows from room to room throughout the home. The elliptical room sets a very classic, formal tone with its domed ceiling and Ionic columns.

Porto Beige and Lagos Azul limestone make up the floor’s intricate designs. The twisting shapes in the bronze sculpture by Tony Cragg echo those of the elegant winding staircase above it.

Frank Stella’s Opposites Attract painting from the 1960s hangs over a George III settee upholstered in ribbed silk.

An oversize console is appropriate for the grand scale of the spaces. Above it, an antique gilded mirror reflects a modern painting by Kenneth Noland hung across the way.

The main living room access is on the entrance pathway. Antique leaded-glass over-door windows give the interiors a sense of age. A 1965 painting by Joan Mitchell hangs over the sofa upholstered in Lee Jofa fabric inside the room.

The gracious living room is a comforting space divided into two full seating areas, with a Regency center table placed between them. A 19th-century red-ground Sultana rug sets the palette for the entire residence. The toasty beige Venetian plaster finished walls provide a neutral base for the contemporary art.

A contemporary blue painting by Robert Motherwell hangs over an antique bookcase.

A pair of antique gilded Chippendale mirrors flanks the fireplace, which has a contemporary work above it.

The Octagonal sitting room is a less formal living area, though still quite elegant and designed in the modern traditional style. The beautiful Cinnabar walls give the room an exotic energy. A comfy custom sofa upholstered in a Gray Watkins fabric anchors the room before the window. A pair of converted Japanese Meiji period bronze trumpet vases form the lamps. The coffee table is composed of a specimen marble top on a carved mahogany base. The silk striped draperies pull together all of the colors in the room and had the tassels worked in beautifully too. The works on either side of the windows are by Stuart Davis.

The wood-paneled library, located across the way from the living room, offers a soothing palette of blues. The traditional rug establishes the color which repeats around the room; silk draperies, pillows, art, accents, and in the blue-and-white Chinese porcelain on the shelves.

A rare 18th-century hand-painted wallcovering from Gracie covers the walls in the elegant formal dining room. It is among the best examples of its kind, with every bird and leaf painted differently. A pair of consoles gilded in white and yellow gold flank the opening from the hall. A pair of gilt-framed mirrors with both plate and convex glass hangs above them. The five-foot-tall ormolu-and-cut-glass Empire chandelier from 1815 is the centerpiece of the room. The beautiful light sparkles above the table from the fluted ceiling medallion, whose form echoes the shape of the drapery heading.

The home includes a china hall. The design team finished the wood floors with a stenciled design instead of a rug.

A second, smaller modern traditional dining room created for more intimate gatherings features a double-height gilded dome ceiling. The embossed leather chairs shimmer with gold designs. Beautiful iridescent striped silk drapes frame the windows. Contemporary art adorns the walls.

The kitchen’s modern traditional architectural features include intricate cabinetry design paired with layered plaster ceiling moldings. It’s a very modern rendering of a traditional style kitchen. Simple, understated Roman shades dress the windows. The kitchen is rather large, and this photo only shows the semi-circle end, which looks out over the cutting garden.

A third dining room looks out over the back lawns. The restrained décor allows the view to take center stage. Simple full-length draperies styled to match those in the kitchen flank the large French doors that open onto the lawn. The unadorned design of the silvered-bronze chandelier perfectly reflects that of the room, while its subtle curves mimic the embroidered details on the draperies.

The richly layered master bedroom is a sumptuous delight. The custom wool carpet’s delicate designs balance the elaborate plasterwork detailing on the ceiling. Antiques reside side-by-side with contemporary pieces in perfect modern traditional harmony. Saturated yellow Venetian plaster walls subdue the formality of the refined millwork. The beauty is in the mix. The colors are fresh and alive, yet still subtle to render this bedroom calm and serene.

This pic only hints at the many beautiful details that make up the master bathroom. The sublime space features a gilded barrel vaulted ceiling, slab onyx floors, and gilt bronze chandeliers and hardware. The spacious layout includes all of the necessities for a luxurious contemporary bathroom in the modern traditional style.

The dressing room located beyond the master bathroom is almost poetic in its effect. A gilded dome ceiling crowns the light-filled space, and the custom cabinetry includes Verre églomisé panels. A peaceful haven to both begin and end the day.

“We like to say inspired rooms are more than just pretty—they have an underlying logic and layering of information. Whether it’s the inclusion of a motif that relates to geographical location, a connection we make between a client’s beloved collection and a fabric scheme, or simply an emotion that the room itself evokes, the details create a more wholly integrated environment—rich with meaning, full of sparkle and life.” – Cullman & Kravis

That concludes our design inspiration for today, my friend!

To see more wonderful interiors completed by Cullman & Kravis, be sure to see:

Venetian Waterfront Residence: Cullman & Kravis

Fifth Avenue Classical Design.

Contemporary Traditional Design: Southern Mansion

Transitional Design Update: Park Avenue

MODERN TRADITIONAL ELEGANCE

This residence is one of the beautiful projects featured in designer Elissa Cullman’s book The Detailed Interior: Decorating Up Close with Cullman & Kravis, which is fabulous and you should check it out. I have enjoyed my signed copy very much I must say!

Architecture: Allan Greenberg

Interior Design: Cullman & Kravis

Photography: Eric Piasecki

All photos and info courtesy of Cullman & Kravis!! Thank you so much!

Thank you so much for reading along with me, my friend. I hope you enjoyed the modern traditional designs created within this lovely Georgian Mansion. Be sure to let me hear from you all in the comments!!

Have a great day!

October 8, 2016
Venetian Waterfront Residence: Cullman & Kravis

This classic 1930s Mediterranean-style waterfront residence near Palm Beach, Florida has undergone an extensive renovation and expansion from a summer vacation retreat to a comforting full-time family home. The transformation was completed by leading interior design firm, New York-based Cullman & Kravis.

To the designer’s delight, the existing vacation house already held an impressive collection of the owner’s Italianate furniture and fine art. These treasured pieces would serve as the heart of the home’s newly designed modern traditional interiors.

Italian interior architectural details and materials combine with a careful mix of the existing Italianate furniture, art, antiques, and new custom pieces the designers brought in to create a warm Venetian ambiance. Newly designed floor-to-ceiling windows open up the principal rooms. Nearly every room now provides access to the outdoors. Gorgeous shades of sunflower yellow, vermilion red, grass green and ocean blue bring in the beauty of the outdoors.

PALM BEACH WATERFRONT RESIDENCE

In the living room, the designer raised the to give the slightly narrow space a more open feel. A pair of custom giltwood chandeliers define the two separate seating areas. A custom hand-woven carpet in a Polonaise design with large scroll pattern and tonal color palette gives the space a wider effect. Delightful Christopher Norman plaid silk taffeta draperies frame the expansive windows and beautiful ocean views. Custom sofas and Jansen armchairs were bespoke created and upholstered by Cullman & Kravis. A large Venetian mirror hangs over the fireplace while a pair of antique wrought-iron sconces flanks an 18th-century painting of Venice’s Grand Canal. An heirloom Italian pietra dura coffee table given a new lighter base groups with a pair of 1940s French side tables with Verde marble tops.

The owners early 19th-century French tric-trac table – a game table made of fruitwood with a light finish that reverses to a leather surface – shines beautifully here in the center of the living room. Gold bullion trims the skirts of the sofas to create a formal classic tailored touch.

The classic tones continue here in the dining room of the Venetian-style waterfront residence. The designer had the walls hand-painted with a multicolored damask stencil overlaid with gold and copper which creates shimmer and depth. Richly embroidered silk draperies formally dress the windows. The Coquina stone floors keep the room from becoming too formal.

In the library, vermilion Venetian stucco walls support the groin-vaulted, stenciled ceiling. A vintage tole-painted light fixture punctuates the room. Tailored gold silk draperies with blue cuffs and inset red flange hang before the blue Roman shades on the windows. A bright paisley sofa with custom coordinating pillows group with a powder blue velvet chair and ottoman to perfectly complete the room in harmonious unity.

A less formal, coastal inspired family and breakfast area share a light-filled space that gives way to the kitchen. The ocean view, the room’s greatest asset, reflects in the décor. A custom plaid wool rug in aquamarine and apple green covers the floors and mirrors the color palette outside. Comfortable traditional furnishings reflecting the same hues create the sitting area. A whitewashed oak dining table surrounded by custom rattan chairs with sunburst back designs stand beneath a customized chandelier.

This Veneto-style garden well made of Vicenza stone serves as the focal point of view from the pool loggia.

The master bedroom suite evokes the sky and sea with its watery blue tones. Embroidered silk draperies convey a light and airy feeling of transparency. Venetian stucco walls, Murano glass, and a gilt-wood chandelier are in keeping with the Italianate feel. The style in all the bedrooms reflects the ocean and tropical greenery outside while creating a calm and welcoming mood inside this transformed waterfront residence.

That concludes our design inspiration for today, my friend.

For more of the perfectly harmonious interiors created by Cullman & Kravis, be sure to see:

Fifth Avenue Classical Design

Georgian Modern Traditional Elegance

Transitional Design Update: Park Avenue

Contemporary Traditional Design: Southern Mansion

CULLMAN & KRAVIS WATERFRONT RESIDENCE

Cullman & Kravis provides the highest quality of design excellence and personal service. The award-winning firm, headed up by Ellie Cullman, collaborates closely with their clients to realize their ideas and needs. Ellie Cullman collaborated with architect Jeffery Smith, of Smith Architectural Group in Palm Beach to complete this residence, her third for these owners.

Ellie Cullman is a distinguished interior designer and founding partner at Cullman & Kravis. The designer has been honored with many of the industry’s highest accolades. She has been on the Architectural Digest AD100 list since 2000. This year she was bestowed with the Albert Hadley Lifetime Achievement Award.

Today’s waterfront residence is featured in the designer’s beautiful book The Detailed Interior-Decorating Up Close with Cullman & Kravis. This book showcases a wide range of projects, from classic New York City pied-à-terres and penthouses to vast Connecticut estates, from airy Floridian mansions to luxurious ski retreats. Each project is illustrated with lavish full-color images, illuminating the effect of the room as a whole as well as providing close-up shots of precisely detailed spaces. The photography is coupled with informative text explaining how each of the room’s elements complement each other, breaking down how Ellie Cullman achieves these distinct interiors step by step. It is a must read!!

Interior Design: Cullman & Kravis

photography: Eric Piasecki

Thank you so much for reading along with me today. I hope you enjoyed this beautiful Florida waterfront residence. What do you think of the wonderful layering of details, with every room so effortlessly graceful and balanced? I look forward to hearing from you in the comments.

Have a great day!

August 16, 2016
Fifth Avenue Classical Design

For our design inspiration today, we are taking a look at an elegant Fifth Avenue apartment located within a handsome prewar residential co-op building on New York’s Upper East Side. This residence serves as a pied-a-terre for a couple who wished to create for themselves a very special luxury home in the city. Their appreciation for classical design elements allowed for the creation of a home rich with architectural ornamentation and exquisite detail. These classical-inspired features include highly articulated ceilings and decorative wall treatments forming rooms with ordered and balanced compositions rendered in a subdued but sophisticated color palette. Bespoke designed custom furnishings and an array of period antiques combine with the owner’s significant collection of modern art in a seamless fusion of refined luxury.

New York-based architect John Murray, a noted master of the classical design tradition, created the three-bedroom residence by combining two original one-bedroom units. The relatively small 2,500 square-foot pied-a-terre doesn’t have the requirements of a year-round home, so space gave itself to design. The public rooms arrange as a series of enfilades with each room opening to one another creating a formal sense of progression. Ornate crown moldings designed as part of the paneled walls make the ceilings appear higher. Tall baseboards and chair rails placed low on the walls make the rooms seem proportionally taller. These and other such principles carry throughout the apartment expanding the volumes to their best proportions.

INSPIRING CLASSICAL DESIGN

New York-based interior design firm Cullman & Kravis brought together the homes furnishings and decorating details. In all their projects, the firm embraces a modern traditional design aesthetic.

By artfully mixing antiques of all periods and origins alongside contemporary works and bespoke designs, the results are always timeless and comfortable, just as they are here.

The living room’s paneling includes curved corners and other effects to create a graceful line around the room, as well as for the practical purpose of concealing various structural components. The design includes a highly stylized custom acanthus leaf molding that lines the room beneath the plaster cornice.

The fireplace features custom bronze work cast by P. E. Guerin. Its design has been integrated into the paneling of the south wall to create the rooms focal point. Note the gator leather with tack trim on the Klismos chairs. Hand painted and beaded silk forms the window draperies. Art by noted contemporary masters displays on the walls.

For the grand entrance into the apartment, a rotunda-shaped entry vestibule was created. The dome ceiling, highlighted with a stylized Greek key in gold, creates the perception of greater height. This space gives way to a rectangular gallery to one side and to a vaulted gallery down the center of the apartment leading to bedrooms.

A group of graphite drawings by Alan McCollum, 1989-1990 hang in a modern grid as per the artist’s instructions. To prevent any early notions that the place is period or overly formal, the design team installed simple art lighting in the vaulted ceiling.

Painted wood with leather panel insets ornamented with bronze stud work dress the library’s walls. The articulated ceiling incorporates a layering of banding that serves as a decorative organizer for the lighting. Corner details enhance the form of the cove ceiling.

How exquisite is this powder room? These are really quite glamorous interiors!

Here in the master bedroom, the custom plaster cornice features a repeated geometric design. Various geometric designs incorporate around the room; in the carpet, the glass panels of the very fabulous closet doors, and as trim along the bedding and draperies. The overall impression of the apartment is that it has always been here, and yet it is still very current. It is timeless. It is just as the couple wanted for their pied-a-terre.

That concludes our classical design inspiration for today, my friend. I hope you enjoyed Fifth Avenue Classical Design.

To see other homes complete by Cullman & Kravis be sure to see:

Venetian Waterfront Residence: Cullman & Kravis

Georgian Modern Traditional Elegance

Contemporary Traditional Design: Southern Mansion

Transitional Design Update: Park Avenue

Classical Design Inspiration

This residence is one of the beautiful projects featured in designer Elissa Cullman’s book The Detailed Interior: Decorating Up Close with Cullman & Kravis. Cullman & Kravis has a remarkable ability to see the whole picture and, at the same time, appreciate the smallest of its pieces and intricacies. Each of their rooms is a magnificent and elaborate tapestry—step back, and a stunning image emerges; look up close, and every stitch is perfectly aligned with its neighbor, every thread a mirror of a larger pattern. This focus on detail subtly influences every component of the residences they design, so that every room harmonizes with the architecture, the setting, the furniture, and the artwork. Hand-carved moldings subtly reflect the embroidery of a throw pillow. The form of an antique chandelier echoes the drape of the silk curtains. Complementary colors emerge in the needlework of a rug, the brushstroke of an abstract painting, the fresh flowers on a table. Each room appears as the quintessence of effortless grace and balance, while only the designers know the meticulous research and extraordinary passion that went into creating such a perfectly harmonious space. The Detailed Interior: Decorating Up Close with Cullman & Kravis reveals how the firm achieves this effect, and how readers can employ these details to endow their rooms with the same sense of elegance and poise.

Architecture: John B. Murray Architect

Interior Design: Cullman & Kravis

Photography: Durston Saylor

Thank you so much for reading along! Let me hear from you in the comments! What did you think of Classical Design in this Fifth Avenue pied-a-terre?

Have a great day!

December 30, 2015