A Touch of Magic
Downstairs Great Room by Benson & Babb
There are living rooms, there are parlors and then, there are salons. Presided over by a series of legendary instigators, from the Marquise du Deffand to George Sand to Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, salon society has been the hothouse for many of the world’s greatest literary and artistic minds — a stimulating environment that breeds ideas.
Ashley Smith, Lynn Critcher and Margaret Siler have invoked this tradition in a great room that is both classic and clever, combining elegant lines, sumptuous fabrics and unexpected juxtapositions.
The essential contours of the furnishings are timeless, but brought into the here and now with an artful mix of pattern — and the integration of a surprising touch of petal pink. Above the Venetian mirrored sideboard, a minimalist painting incorporates this signature color and plays off the organically shaped, gilded chandelier (which brings to mind a mandrake root). It’s elegance — with a twist of la vie bohème.
“We’ve taken a very earthy element and turned it into something that is very refined,” says Ashley. Nowhere is that refinement more evident than in the accoutrements — milky pink glass urn lamps, discreet oriental embellishments, a luxuriant, pedestal glass terrarium and a showpiece mirror that is echoed by an arrangement of fine pierced porcelain plates on the reciprocal wall.
There is something to engage the eye in every corner, on every surface. Something to spark the imagination or simply delight the senses. To incubate dreams. Which is, of course, precisely what a salon is meant to do.
