English Accents in Northern California
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To design their Atherton, California, house, Sally and John Robinson turned to Paul Vincent Wiseman.
The carpet, from Soraya, echoes the living room's ceiling. Brunschwig Fils ottoman and red pillow fabrics. Old World Weavers armchair velvet.
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"The living room's print helps to bring the garden indoors," notes Wiseman. "Sally is a passionate gardener and loves her roses." A 19th-century English armchair is before a tall walnut fall-front secretary. Clarence House fabric.
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"The tablecloth in the entrance hall sets the color tone," says Wiseman, who worked on the project with associate Joseph Matzo. "Pale shades, particularly green, are used throughout the house." A Ming vase was made into a lamp. The Fo dogs are 19th century.
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Paul Vincent Wiseman with Joseph Matzo.
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An antique mantelpiece highlights the family room. "To keep the space from being too formal, we fringed the draperies with hemp," says Wiseman. A rug from Foster Gwin, foreground, rests on a Stark carpet. Chair velvet, Brunschwig Fils. Scalamandré sofa cord. Beige pillow fabric, Zimmer + Rohde.
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A mixture of French, English and Italian antiques and 19th-century photographs contributes a "sense of romance to the master suite," comments Wiseman. "It's neither too feminine nor too masculine." Clarence House print. Lee Jofa pale apricot cotton taffeta.
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"Beige plaster walls, a celadon carpet and peach and red silk accents make the dining room tranquil," says the designer. "And the clean lines of the Hepplewhite chairs prevent it from being fussy." Old World Weavers drapery fabric.
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An 18th-century bust of Louis XVI is on the master bedroom's Louis XVI mantel. The late architect Gerald Taylor designed the English-style house. Léron bed linens.