COUNTRY IDYLL: THE MILLBROOK WEEKEND HOMES OF VIVID COLORISTS CHRISTOPHER SPITZMILLER AND KATIE RIDDER
How do designers and creatives get away from it all on the weekends? For potter Christopher Spitzmiller and designer/architect duo Katie Ridder and Peter Pennoyer, weekends are all about spending time amidst antiques and color in Milbrook, New York. Escaping to this beautiful enclave an hour and a half outside of the city, each has renovated nearby Greek Revival style homes and designed gardens that have been featured in back to back issues of Architectural Digest. Showcasing their love of antiques, American classics and unique color combinations, the interiors Spitzmiller and Ridder have created are highly personal and inspiring. With with a nod to tradition they show how to live with antiques in this day and age. Visit their bucolic getaways below.
Photos courtesy of Architectural Digest
The exterior of Spitzmiller's 1830's Greek Revival home is animated by brightly painted doors. The addition of an impactful color outside looks especially nice against the picture perfect lawn.
A sitting room with pale yellow walls gets punches of color from red and teal solid upholstery and a Bennison print covered tufted chair. Balance comes from the mix of seating styles in the room, all comfortable options. To bring in linear pattern, he included a Zebra rug that once belonged to Albert Hadley, a charming hooked rug that resembles the real thing.
What makes this dining room so wonderful is the mix of humble and haute. Pairing a divine brightly painted 18th century scenic paper with a sisal carpet, antique dining table and white Frances Elkins loop chairs is fresh and lively.
Guest bedrooms should provide a respite with comfort, ease and restful feel. With blue painted floors and pops of red and white, the effect is more energizing and fun. Working the room scheme around the vibrant Albert Hadley-designed Fireworks wallpaper, the results are playful chic.
Decorator Katie Ridder and her architect husband created a perfectly symmetrical Greek Revival style home, where each side of the house features distinctive classical architectural design elements. As the first home Pennoyer has designed for his family, the goal was to create a light-filled weekend escape that his three children could enjoy. From there, Ridder set about designing the home in her signature way, mixing highly unusual but fabulous colors with ethnic prints and patterns surrounded by beautiful period antiques and finds.
Not one to shy away from vivacious print and pattern, the living room shows Ridder's ability to take classical antiques and make them feel contemporary. Starting with the antique Oushak rug, she mixed peachy rose walls and green window treatments with pops of red and blue. The layered room has a variety of sitting areas and interesting and eye-catching decorative accessories.
Using a crazy fun Swedish floral and fruit pattern at the windows and on a reading chair, the library, painted in a rich berry hue, is at once impactful. Ridder's incredible skill of using color comes across with orange lampshades and even brighter pillows.
It is hard to decide which is more captivating in the yellow-walled master bedroom- the red wool tufted headboard or the antique green Queen Anne Secretary, as both vie for attention and pick up on the incredible antique carpet colors.