Inspiration Lane
Connecticut Domesticity
Federal houses, garden thresholds, Greenwich restraint, Ridgefield calm, and New York proximity.
The Connecticut lane is quieter than the Alpine one and no less exact. Threshold, stair, painted wood, garden, water, old proportions, and the cultivated ease that makes a fine house feel privately held.
The Federal on three to seven acres
Twelve-over-twelve sash, wide-board pine, painted plank doors, restored boiserie in chalky French gray. The Salisbury Federal as the working type. The hand-troweled lime kitchen and the boot room before the foyer set the discipline of the house.
The Shingle Style on the water
Eastern white cedar hand-split and ordered green, lead-coated copper gutters, fieldstone foundations laid in lime mortar by a Litchfield mason. Greenwich back-country and the Round Hill ledger.
The Connecticut farmhouse on the Litchfield ridges
Two-part kitchen with a working scullery behind a swinging door. Boot room before the foyer sized for ski boots and a labrador. Kachelofen at the long wall. The carriage barn read as the second house on the property.
The garden threshold
Gravel court in crushed Connecticut trap rock, pietra serena steps, a hornbeam allee, four boxwood-edged quarters around a stone plinth. The garden writes the entry sequence.
The American canon we cite by name
Gil Schafer on the Hudson, Robert A. M. Stern in Greenwich, Wadia in Bedford, Allan Greenberg on the shoreline, Ferguson and Shamamian, Haynes Roberts. Richard Hampton Jenrette's restoration discipline as our working ground rule. Call 917.502.9236 to walk a Connecticut brief.
A Salisbury Federal
Twelve-over-twelve sash, painted plank doors, chalky French gray boiserie.
A Greenwich Shingle Style
Eastern white cedar, lead-coated copper, fieldstone foundation.
A Litchfield farmhouse kitchen
Working scullery behind a swinging door; two-part plan.
The gravel court at arrival
Crushed Connecticut trap rock; lantern; lichen-stained granite.
Sources and notes
American canon
Wadia Associates in New Canaan, G. P. Schafer Architect, Robert A. M. Stern Architects, Allan Greenberg, Jenrette's Classical American Homes Preservation Trust. Ferguson and Shamamian and Haynes Roberts cited for selected Connecticut commissions.
Call 917.502.9236 to walk this lane.
Send a brief or call the studio. We respond to every serious inquiry within two working days.