Farmhouse Revival by Susan Daley

Author:Susan Daley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Abrams
Published: 2018-03-19T16:00:00+00:00

This prime example of Greek Revival architecture, with its pronounced portico and square box columns, was built in 1840 in the village of Oak Hill, New York. When Jack McGroder found it in 1990, the house had been left in its original condition and never modernized. It was surrounded by fields of waving rye grass, grown to three feet tall.

The dignified dining room abounds with some of Jack’s favorite neoclassical pieces. Chenille curtains, embroidered with a Greek anthemion pattern, were a lucky find at the Twenty-sixth Street flea market in Manhattan. Jack has painted the interior of the broken-pediment china cabinet Pompeii Red; he found the piece at an East Side thrift shop for next to nothing.

As Jack, who trained as a fine-art painter, relates, “Being in the design end of theatre, I’ve always enjoyed going a slightly different route when it comes to my living spaces.” Indeed, his striking palette is a bold and joyous combination of sharp chartreuse green, salmon, gorgeous azure, and robin’s-egg blue hues, all of which acknowledge the strong colorings of the 1820s and 1830s, but with a very modern twist. His theatrical background is evident in each room’s presentation: each one can be seen as a beautifully decorated set piece. The very formal dining room is furnished in a combination of red, black, and white, and the focus is on two swagged curtains created from embroidered chenille fabric. His bedroom is in effect a proscenium; a toile valance and jabots mimic the curtains of a stage, while a brass bed and chaise become players in the cast and heavy gilt frames, some mirrored and some empty, look on.

Jack’s rustic, homey kitchen is a colorful play upon farmhouse style. Its potbellied coal stove, simple hutches, rush-bottomed chairs, and wispy chandelier each bring to mind the interiors of kitchens typically found at the turn of the last century. His uninhibited paint choices take their cue from Homer Laughlin’s Riviera dishware. Jack possesses the artist’s eye, and rather than arranging multiple items of the same type, each vignette is thoughtfully made to draw attention to the specific nuances and interrelationships of the objects. As in nature, the many colors, shapes, and textures of a variety of materials can come together happily in a harmonious balance.

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