Today’s post features a magnificent spread from Elle Decor July/August 2010. At first glance, I couldn’t help but notice the porcupine-quill mirrors and thought to myself, could these be the same mirrors that I adore from Sunday’s post, the 1863 Italianate gem? Sure enough, this home is owned and designed by John Dransfield and Geoffrey Ross! Like with their Hamptons home, this New Jersey masterpiece has an incredible story…here is an excerpt from the Elle Decor article describing their most remarkable journey (I thought about condensing the story, but it’s narrated so well, I just had to share it with you! To learn more about the interiors and resources, click on the Elle Decor link above)
” A few years ago, John Dransfield and Geoffrey Ross found the home they had been searching for—a grand Georgian Revival estate named Cherryfields—a short distance from where they were living in New Jersey’s Somerset County. The only problem was that the house was already occupied. “We were obsessed,” Dransfield says. “We’d drive by in the morning to see if anybody was up, and drive by at night to see if the lights were on.” The owner, a recent widow in her 80s, had lived in the house for nearly half a century and wanted to move to a smaller home. “You must meet her,” a friend told them. “She’s just outrageous.” A 9 A.M. appointment was made. “She walked out in full regalia,” Dransfield recalls, “wearing a fabulous suit, a jeweled bib necklace, a big hat. She extended her hand and said, ‘Hi! I’m Nancy Pyne . . . but you can call me Princess.” They made a deal on the spot, but before they could complete the transaction Princess had to find a new home. She searched for months, leaving Ross and Dransfield on pins and needles. “Finally,” Dransfield says, “she asked us, ‘What kind of house do you have?’” Princess toured their 1806 farmhouse and fell in love. In the end, they simply swapped homes. “She has become our Auntie Mame,” Ross says. “She still has full rein of Cherryfields. She comes over when we’re out and leaves little notes that say things like, ‘Love the new chair in the library.’ Cherryfields is in what Dransfield describes as New Jersey’s horse country. (Princess’s sister introduced John F. Kennedy to Jacqueline Bouvier, who rode on the adjacent property; the late Mrs. Onassis’s quarter horse still lives next door.) The house was formed in 1929 when two sisters commissioned the architect A. Musgrave Hyde, who designed some of the district’s palatial homes, to unite the 1840s caretaker’s and chauffeur’s cottages of a nearby estate.”
How rare it is, to be moved by the story behind the interior…in both cases, (the Hamptons home from Sunday’s post and Cherryfields from today’s post), I was deeply moved by the history and the spirit of each home…of course, both are masterful environments re-imagined by artistic and passionate designers but what I find most memorable, and what I will always cherish, are the personal stories behind these extraordinary homes…
photos and resources from Elle Decor
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a thoughtful eye 