Design in Depth: Hartford Show House Shown

By Stacy Kunstel

Last weekend the Junior League of Hartford‘s 12th Decorator Show House closed. If you didn’t have a chance to see it, you missed out on some inventive ideas in beautiful settings. Here are a few of our favorites. You can also look for more photos in our summer issues of New England Home and New England Home’s Connecticut.

Kristen McCory of Ammatti Design redid the entryway to the 1920s home, painting the floors and adding an Ankasa upholstered settee.

Just off the entry, Richard Ott used warm red tones in the living room, mixing a camelback Chesterfield sofa with an oriental rug placed over a larger sisal rug. In the bookcases he used a book-patterned wallpaper instead of books on shelves, giving a nod to the Kindle generation.

The sun porch, in a palette of white and pale blue, was divided into two seating areas, with a round table on one end and custom settees on the other. It was decorated by the mother-daughter team of Keatha McCue and Cynthia Kranz, who own Galway Stallard in Avon.

Spring colors dominated the dining room, with its lavender ceiling and back-painted shelves by Peter Robbin and Robin Jones for Lafalce, Campbell, Robbin, Inc. One entire wall was faux-painted in blocks of pink, blue, purple, and green, contemporizing the traditional space.

Tucked under the stairs, Ann Wolinsky of AKB Design installed the tiniest of water closets, complete with crystal chandelier and quilted tiles.

The Moroccan-inspired sleeping porch, by Hoye and Huber Design, used layers of fabric, texture and color to transport visitors to northern Africa via design.

Just as whimsical was the little girl’s bedroom, with its giant wall stencils and pink and yellow colors, by Jean Poulin Interiors.

Because the house didn’t have a family room, Sharon McCormick took one of the upstairs rooms and turned it into a family sitting area complete with game table and a gilded ceiling.

The MacKenzie-Childs–inspired bathroom by Interior Remedies adds whimsy to a room devoid of architectural interest.

Period Design and Hahn Interiors teamed up create a children’s play space with horizontally painted striped walls and a colorful puzzle-piece ottoman.

Cynthia Mason Interiors took inspiration from a wilderness camp in installing the third-floor boy’s room. The walls and ceiling are covered in canvas tenting on all but one wall, where there’s a realistic mural by Patrick Ganino.