Three Rooms Designed for Elegant Entertaining

November 13, 2024

Get the party started with these stylish spaces designed for welcoming family and friends.

November – December 2024

Stylish home billiard room with a modern pool table, dark walls, unique lighting fixtures, and vintage game decor, creating a sophisticated and cozy ambiance.

Elegant home bar with pendant lighting, red leather barstools, and dark blue cabinetry, featuring a stocked shelf of glassware and a scenic wall art in a cozy, luxurious setting.

A Swanky Home Bar and Billiards Room

Some might call it a rec room, but the term hardly seems adequate to describe this luxurious basement retreat in Simsbury, Connecticut, which includes a full bar, pool table, golf simulator, gym, and dry sauna. Although the room gets no natural light, designer Jeanne Barber of Camden Grace Interiors resisted requests to make things sunny. “This is a party room that you’re going to be using in the evening, so we wanted it to feel like a cocktail lounge—moody and romantic,” she says. Gold-leaf wallpaper accents the nine-foot ceiling, suffusing the room with a burnished glow. “It’s a homey space,” marvels owner Ron Mairano. “You don’t feel like you’re in a basement.”—Fred Albert

Project Team
Architecture: Schadler Selnau Associates
Interior design: Camden Grace Interiors
Builder: Zel
Photography: Jared Kuzia
Styling: Matthew Gleason

Luxurious home wine cellar with glass doors, illuminated wooden shelves displaying wine bottles, and a marble tasting table, creating an elegant, modern ambiance.

Close-up of a luxurious wine cellar featuring illuminated wooden shelves filled with wine bottles, glassware, and a marble tasting table with wine bottles and glasses

A Luxury Wine Celler with all the Bells and Whistles

A secret door leads to an elegantly moody wine cellar that Lisa Miao designed for a young family in Boston’s Beacon Hill. The broom cupboard-like portal pushes into a dramatically-lit passage with forty-two-inch-thick stone walls—a grotto of sorts—then onto the wine room. Kessick Wine Storage Systems outfitted the space with walnut shelving for 1,500 bottles. Chiseled limestone floor tiles and a Moroccan lime-plaster ceiling accentuate the old-world feel, and a polished Italian marble island is a favorite gathering spot for friends. As for what the clients are drinking, Miao says the husband, who approaches wine like an anthropologist might, is moving from an Italian phase dominated by Barolos and Barbarescos to France. “I think that could consume him for a while,” she says with a laugh. —Marni Elyse Katz

Project Team
Architecture and builder: Sleeping Dog Properties
Interior design: Lisa Miao Interiors and Lifestyle
Cabinetry: Kessick Wine Storage System
Photography: Greg Premru

Elegant seating area with cozy armchairs around a round table, surrounded by dark built-in shelves, decorative accents, and a gold geometric chandelier for a sophisticated ambiance.

Luxurious home bar with mirrored backsplash, dark cabinetry, built-in wine storage, brass fixtures, and black marble countertop, creating a sophisticated, elegant look.

A Cozy Lounge and Glam Butler’s Pantry

Robin Gannon’s clients didn’t need a dedicated office, so she turned the library in their Dover, Massachusetts, home into a lounge. The couple can dine à deux here once the kids are in bed, or friends can join them for drinks. (The setup is equally effective for playing games or using a laptop.) “We painted the millwork almost black, so the room wraps you up,” the designer says. Cork wallcovering with gold metallic flecks on the ceiling and mirrored bookcase backs lend after-hours glamour. On more formal occasions, drinks are mixed in the butler’s pantry. Iconic Schumacher wallpaper adds edge without straying from the home’s traditional bones, while the teal cabinetry and mirrored-tile backsplash introduce the bar-like vibe from the lounge.—Marni Elyse Katz

Project Team
Interior design: Robin Gannon Interiors
Photography: Dan Cutrona