Lee Ann Thornton’s Picture Perfect Living Room

We asked interior designer Lee Ann Thornton to create a room inspired by Connecticut painter Willard Leroy Metcalf’s The Breath of Autumn (Waterford, Connecticut). Metcalf, whose painting hangs in the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, holds an interesting place in history: in 1923, one of his pieces set the record for the most expensive work sold by a living American artist at the time. “When working with art, my recommendation would be to use the art as a mood,” says Thornton. “It doesn’t have to dictate all decor, but it can very easily add to the feeling you want to evoke.”

1. Headlands bell pendant in natural, Serena & Lily, Westport, Conn.
2. Oversize glass vase, West Elm, West Hartford, Westport, Conn.
3. The Breath of Autumn, by Willard Leroy Metcalf
4. Sawtooth linen in Cesious for chair cushion, Rogers & Goffigon, Greenwich, Conn.
5. Mattituck armchair, Serena & Lily
6. Lark accent table, Williams Sonoma, Danbury, Westport, and South Windsor, Conn.
7. Skye sofa fabric in Orchid, Rogers & Goffigon
8. Ming square coffee table, Williams Sonoma
9. Bedford sofa, Williams Sonoma
10. Posy linen and cotton toss pillow fabric in Santolina, Rogers & Goffigon
11. Asia Minor table lamp by Barclay Butera for Bradburn Home, One Kings Lane, New York City
12. Lee Ann Thornton

Painting courtesy of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund

Lee Ann Thornton Interiors, Greenwich, Conn.