After the past few years’ frenzied market, the market is hitting more of a buyer-seller equilibrium, with inventory levels moving up ever so slightly, buyers getting used to a new normal of interest rates, prices generally holding steady, and high-end home seekers expanding their reaches to more parts of the globe.
There are lots of changes happening, and the report explores them in depth—everything from the newest tech tools currently disrupting the real estate market, from artificial intelligence to smart-home technology, to pinpointing the parts of the world where tax incentives are increasingly enticing wealthy citizens.
Luxury Outlook 2024 also looks at the growing importance of sustainability and climate resilience to home builders and buyers, how hybrid work has shifted the world’s real estate needs, and how provenance can help homes sell.
This is a difficult time when it comes to geopolitical challenges, with several conflicts raging around the world at once. That makes it difficult to predict what the future will bring, and whether an intensification of conflict could affect financial markets.
For now, there continues to be economic uncertainty into 2024, despite some sporadic positive news. In the U.S., for one, economic growth accelerated in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to the Commerce Department.
While many experts are torn about the effects the conflicts are likely to have from a financial perspective, many market watchers predict an overall positive 2024 for the real estate market. As Sotheby’s International Realty CEO Philip A. White Jr. points out in his interview, Freddie Mac is forecasting prices rising by 0.8% between August 2023 and August 2024, followed by another 0.9% gain in the following 12 months, pointing to “tremendous” demand for houses relative to supply, continuing “to keep upward pressure on prices.”
For now, at least, most of the worries about the real estate market stalling due to rising interest rates haven’t come to fruition, with demand strong, as people move both because they’re going through major life events—such as new children and new jobs—or simply because they want to upgrade their homes and, with it, their lifestyle.
Speaking of the lifestyle factor, as always, we explore the high-end purchases people are making outside the real estate realm, including art, collectibles, and more.
Luxury buyers and sellers want to spend wisely, and staying well-informed is just the way to do it.
The Gasparilla Inn was featured in the Fall Winter edition of Midwest Living Magazine.
In the article, “Take a Winter Jaunt Down South to These 8 Beach Resorts,” the Inn was featured as a top destination for snowbirds looking to escape the cold of winter.
From rooms with beach facing balconies to private cottages and sumptuous breakfasts, the Inn offers the ultimate resort experience, modern amenities and a dash of Old Florida decor that is not to be missed.
Read the entire article from Midwest Living by clicking here.
Old Florida meets laid-back island living in elegant Boca Grande.
While the state of Florida welcomes nearly 140 million visitors each year, only a small portion of them make their way to serene Gasparilla Island and its main town, Boca Grande, an upscale yet down-to-earth community on the Gulf of Mexico that’s just the right amount of sleepy (except when it comes to its role as “Tarpon Capital of the World”).
ENTERPRISING COLLECTORS ARE CREATING LUXURIOUS LOCATIONS WHERE LOVERS OF ART, ARCHITECTURE, WINE, AND FINE FOOD CAN EXPERIENCE THEM ALL, SAYS CHRISTINA MAKRIS
People who love art usually enjoy the other finer things in life, such as good food, wine, picturesque landscapes, and elegant architecture. Now it is increasingly possible to enjoy these pleasures all at once. Across the world, owners of historic buildings and vineyards are boosting their potential as tourism destinations by using them as a backdrop for their art collections. From wineries in Chile, Tuscany, and California, to castles in Ireland and Italy, a former monastery in Croatia and a coaching inn in Scotland, they have created immersive spaces where a range of cultural and culinary offerings meet in beautiful surroundings. Some provide luxury accommodation and spas, others are the perfect spot for a day trip. All eight are a feast for the senses.
The Fife Arms’ Drawing Room with Pablo Picasso’s Femme assise dans un fauteuil (Woman seated in an armchair), 1953, on show
THE FIFE ARMS, SCOTLAND
Hidden in the Scottish Highlands in Braemar, close to the Balmoral Estate—which was bought by Queen Victoria in 1852 and is beloved by the British royal family—the 46 sumptuously decorated bedrooms and suites of this 19th-century coaching inn are inspired by local places and famous visitors to the town. Among them were novelist, poet, and essayist Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote parts of Treasure Island while on holiday in Braemar, and fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, who is now commemorated in the art deco Elsa’s cocktail bar.
The Fife Arms belongs to the art dealers and philanthropists Iwan and Manuela Wirth, co-founders of the international gallery Hauser & Wirth. The hotel incorporates 14,000 antiques and artworks, ranging from the 16th century to modern masterpieces and contemporary commissions. There is a self-playing Steinway piano decorated by Mark Bradford, portraits by Picasso and Lucian Freud, photographs by Man Ray and Hans Bellmer, and a ceiling painted by Zhang Enli. The main restaurant is the Clunie Dining Room, which features a mural by the Argentinian artist Guillermo Kuitca that was inspired by the local landscape. thefifearms.com
The Viña Vik winery, Chile
VIK, CHILE AND URUGUAY
Norwegian financier, investor and art collector Alexander Vik and his wife Carrie founded their 11,000-acre Chilean winery, Viña Vik, in central Chile in 2004. Guests can enjoy award-winning wines while dining on a seasonal organic menu devised by executive chef Rodrigo Acuña Bravo.
A visit to the vineyard and adjacent hotel, Vik Chile, involves an extensive encounter with art. The 22 rooms and seven glass-walled bungalows were each designed in collaboration with architect Marcelo Daglio, enabling guests to stay in an immersive artwork while enjoying 360-degree panoramic views of the spectacular landscape. The futuristic winery building was designed by the Chilean-Croatian architect Smiljan Radic, who designed the 2014 Serpentine Pavilion in London, and the couple’s art collection is spread throughout the building. Works include paintings by Roberto Matta, a light work by James Turrell, and a diptych by Anselm Kiefer.
There are three other Vik hotels on the Atlantic coast of Uruguay, in José Ignacio near Punta del Este: Estancia Vik, Playa Vik, and Bahia Vik. vikwine.com
Daniel Buren’s installation Sulle Vigne: punti di vista, 2001, on the grounds of Castello di Ama
CASTELLO DI AMA, ITALY
A visit to the Castello di Ama vineyard, between Siena and Florence in the Chianti region of Italy, is a sensory feast. Since 1999, the estate’s proprietors, Lorenza Sebasti and Marco Pallanti, have commissioned sculptures and installations as an offering of thanks to the land and its spirit, which also infuses the philosophy of their wine-making. Artists who have made works include Michelangelo Pistoletto, Daniel Buren, Giulio Paolini, Anish Kapoor, Carlos Garaicoa, Cristina Iglesias, Louise Bourgeois, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Chen Zhen, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Lee Ufan, and Roni Horn.
The latest work to be unveiled is a garden installation by Jenny Holzer, which features heavily scented helichrysum flowers and excerpts of poetry by Patrizia Cavalli and WS Merwin.
There are five bedrooms in the 18th-century manor house, allowing guests to stay and experience the sculptures at different times of the day in different light. The main restaurant is headed by the family’s personal chef. castellodiama.com
Lopud 1483
LOPUD 1483, CROATIA
The history of this former Franciscan monastery on the small island of Lopud, just off the coast of Dubrovnik, is a little hazy. It was built in 1483, but many of its records were lost in the massive earthquake that hit the area in 1667, which largely destroyed the city. The monastery fell into disuse, and while there was still a functioning church on the site in the 1990s, the surrounding buildings were becoming increasingly dilapidated, a situation highlighted by the World Monuments Fund in 1996.
The following year, the collector and philanthropist Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza began what would become a 20-year project to restore the monastery buildings. The 13 monks’ cells have been sympathetically transformed into five suites that fuse ancient and modern. Traditional plaster walls and woodwork are combined with handmade furniture by the Italian designer Paola Lenti and carefully curated works from Thyssen-Bornemisza’s extensive TBA21 contemporary art collection.
Lopud 1483 offers a variety of locations that can be tailored to every taste, from private gatherings to high-profile events, as well as seminars, performances, and concerts. lopud1483.com
The Drawing Room at Lismore Castle
LISMORE CASTLE, REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
The Anglo-Norman Castle was built in County Waterford in 1185, on the site of a seventh-century monastery within sight of the imposing Knockmealdown Mountains. In the late-16th century the statesman and adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh bought the castle, but had to sell it after he was imprisoned for high treason in 1602. It later became the Irish home of the dukes of Devonshire, who acquired it in the mid-18th century. William Cavendish, the sixth duke, commissioned the Gothic revival architect Augustus Pugin to add a medieval hall, and asked Sir Joseph Paxton, the designer of the Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London, to create the lower garden.
The castle is still owned by the family, and their 15-bedroom residential wing is available for hire, but only in its entirety, rather than as individual rooms. The castle is an ideal venue for a celebration as it can accommodate up to 27 guests. One wing has been converted to house Lismore Castle Arts, which promotes contemporary Irish art and stages temporary exhibitions.
The seven-acre gardens, which are open to the public between March and October, are divided into upper and lower areas. The upper garden dates from the early 17th century and is considered by many to be the oldest cultivated garden in Ireland. The flower borders and lawns coexist with sculptures by Antony Gormley, Franz West, Bridget McCrum, and Eilis O’Connell. The lower garden has an impressive collection of plants that love its acidic soil, including magnolia and camellias. lismorecastlegardens.com; lismorecastlearts.ie; thehallandlismorecastle.com
Gao Weigang, Maze, 2017, Donum Estate
THE DONUM ESTATE, CALIFORNIA, USA
Founded in 2001, the Donum Estate in Sonoma, northern California, is a leader in single-vineyard pinot noir and chardonnay wines. Spread over 200 acres of hillside, it also includes groves of olive and eucalyptus trees and lavender fields.
The estate was acquired by the Danish entrepreneur and businessman Allan Warburg and his wife Mei in 2010, and the collectors have spent the past 13 years transforming the landscape with sculptures from their personal collection. Their taste is broad: artists whose work they have acquired include Ai Weiwei, Lynda Benglis, Anselm Kiefer, Louise Bourgeois, Gao Weigang, Ugo Rondinone, Zhan Wang, Keith Haring, Jaume Plensa, Elmgreen & Dragset, Fernando Botero, Richard Hudson, and Yue Minjun.
Warburg first went to China as student, and by the 1990s had set up a joint venture there with the Danish fashion company Bestseller, importing and selling western fashion into a fast-growing emerging market. Bestseller Fashion Group now has about 7,000 stores in the Far East. Warburg now resides in Hong Kong with his wife Mei. There isn’t a hotel at the Donum Estate as yet, but there are daily tours for visitors to taste the wines in a specially commissioned pavilion designed by the artist Olafur Eliasson and the architect Sebastian Behmann. thedonumestate.com
Michele Mathison, Everything and Nothing, 2019, San Basilio, Basilicata
CASTELLO SAN BASILIO, ITALY
This fortress, near Matera in the southern Italian region of Basilicata, was built to protect a monastic community in the seventh century. It is now owned by the Berlingieri family, who have housed their art collection throughout the property for the past five decades. In 2019 the young collector Aloisia Leopardi was invited to start a program dedicated to artistic research, experimentation, and collaboration. The castle is now a project space for cultural exchange between artists, curators, collectors, and arts professionals, which aims to encourage the local communities in the surrounding villages to experience contemporary art.
Visiting the artists in residence and exhibitions is by appointment only; it is also possible to book a suite or room at the nearby agriturismo, Il Filaro del Castello del Castello San Basilio. Basilio alumni include the emerging artists Oren Pinhassi, Lucy Henshall, Michele Mathison, and Sheida Soleimani. The artists for 2023 are Kat Lyons and Anna Perach. castellosanbasilio.com
Photos: Andrea Bosio; Sim Cannetty-Clark; Alessandro Moggi; Lucy Henshall; Robert Berg; courtesy of @vik_wine and @vikchile, The Fife Arms, Lismore Castle and Lopud 1483
Daniel Roseberry at Maison Schiaparelli, overlooking the Place Vendôme
Daniel Roseberry, the artistic director of Schiaparelli, has long been fascinated by Elsa Schiaparelli’s collaborations with the leading lights of Surrealism. After establishing her venerable fashion house in the 1930s, Schiaparelli became one of the first couturiers to collaborate with artists, working with Salvador Dalí and Man Ray, among others.
“I’m always so nostalgic for that period,” Roseberry says. “I think of those collaborations as ones that were happening between people who were creating culture around them, and who found themselves in real relationships. I often wonder if they had any idea that their work would be romanticized and fetishized for generations after. Even if it was transactional in some way, those creative partnerships feel so deeply natural compared to most of what we observe today.”
Texas-born Roseberry has been reinterpreting Schiaparelli’s historic vision through his dramatic collections since taking the reins of the house in 2019. This March, the Surrealism and Its Legacy sale at Sotheby’s Paris brings together works by artists associated with the movement, including René Magritte, Francis Picabia, Salvador Dalí and Max Ernst, and works from those influenced by it—such as Lucio Fontana and Alexander Calder.
The sale reflects a period of renewed interest in Surrealism, with recent auctions and international exhibitions including last year’s Venice Biennale adopting it as a central theme. For Roseberry, the enduring appeal of the Surrealists is obvious. “Generations and times shift and change, but the urges of the subconscious feel timeless and truly inescapable. They were able to tap into this and exploit it,” he says.
Elsa Schiaparelli with Salvador Dalí, 1949
Elsa Schiaparelli was born into a family of intellectuals and aristocrats in 1890 in Rome, and her encounter with the Surrealists was utterly fortuitous. Sailing on an ocean liner in 1916 to North America with her husband, she met Gabrièle Buffet-Picabia, first wife of the Dada artist Francis Picabia. Buffet-Picabia introduced her to New York’s avant-garde art scene via Société Anonyme, an arts organization founded in the city by the painter and collector Katherine Dreier, Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray. Returning to Paris in 1922, Schiaparelli made her foray into fashion, encouraged by a new acquaintance: preeminent designer Paul Poiret. Her first success was the now-renowned trompe-l’œil bow jumper, a design hand-knitted by Armenian women in Paris. Schiaparelli then went on to set up business in a garret on Rue de la Paix and, in 1935, moved to a boutique in the prestigious Place Vendôme. Her connections with artists became central to the brand’s success.
It is her work with Dalí that stands out most. “From my point of view, it is the most striking and influential [collaboration] in the history of the house of Schiaparelli,” says Marie-Sophie Carron de La Carrière, head curator of the fashion and textile collections after 1800 at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, which hosted the exhibition Shocking! Les mondes surréalistes d’Elsa Schiaparelli (July 2022–January 2023). Among other pieces, Schiaparelli and Dalí worked together on the Shoe Hat, 1937–38, absurdly fashioned from an upside-down black shoe, and the Lobster dress, 1937, for which Dalí designed a crustacean to appear on a white organdy dress, which was interpreted into a fabric print by silk designer Sache.
After returning to Paris from the US after the Second World War, Schiaparelli commissioned the Catalan artist to design the crystal bottle for her new fragrance, Le Roy Soleil, in homage to the “Sun King”, Louis XIV. The resulting bottle comprised a golden sun painted with swallows above a gold and blue sea.
Schiaparelli’s Shoe Hat, 1937–38;
Other memorable creations include two pairs of spiral spectacles that Man Ray made for Schiaparelli in 1936. Jean Cocteau, the Surrealism polymath, brought his passion for optical illusion and metamorphosis to Schiaparelli’s collections in 1937 and 1938. Designs include a linen evening jacket featuring a woman in profile, her hair rendered in gold thread, shimmering down the right arm with two hands encircling the waist. On a silk jersey coat, Cocteau designed two facing profiles to form the shape of a vase, filled with a bouquet of pink taffeta flowers. Surrealist artist Leonor Fini designed the bottle for Schiaparelli’s fragrance Shocking, inspired by the hourglass torso of Hollywood film star Mae West, one of Schiaparelli’s clients. Artist Meret Oppenheim traded Schiaparelli a design for a piece of jewelry: a brass bracelet covered in animal fur that Schiaparelli included in her Fall/Winter 1936 collection.
A nod to Jean Cocteau’s evening dress for Fall 2021 Couture
Schiaparelli held these collaborations close to her heart. “Working with artists like Bébé Bérard, Jean Cocteau, Salvador Dalí, Vertès, Van Dongen; and with photographers like Hoyningen-Huene, Horst, Cecil Beaton and Man Ray gave one a sense of exhilaration,” she wrote in her autobiography, Shocking Life. “One felt supported and understood beyond the crude and boring reality of merely making a dress to sell.” They helped her to become one of the most important designers of the 20th century, rivaling contemporaries such as Coco Chanel.
Salvador Dalí, Dream of Venus, 1939
Today, the Surrealists’ influence is carried forward by Roseberry through his own designs for the house, which closed in 1954 and was relaunched in 2012 by Diego Della Valle, the founder of Italian luxury group Tod’s. Roseberry had not worked in a couture atelier before, joining from upmarket fashion brand Thom Browne, but his eye for tailoring and experimentation has made him a perfect fit, and he has resurrected iconic Schiaparelli motifs in bold new ways. Pink silk roses, a nod to Cocteau’s evening dress, cover the billowing arms of a black mini dress from his Fall 2021 Couture collection. For Spring 2022 Couture, he presented a “cage” dress exquisitely crafted from gold leaf and vintage gemstones, which resembles more of a giant brooch than a garment.
To keep the founder’s intentions alive in a new century, Roseberry has “learned to stay loose”. “When you look at Elsa’s process, it feels free and unburdened, and spontaneous,” he says. “It’s like the shower principle: that the best ideas come to you when you’re not thinking about them, or when you’re in the shower. I think her work has this free-wheeling intelligence that feels so ahead of its time. It wasn’t just about beauty, or of the ‘line’ of a dress. It was about a concept, an idea, a notion of reality. She would take this notion and bend it to her will.”
Roseberry’s love of Surrealism extends to his own art collection, too. He has “just bought a small painting by the Belgian surrealist Marcel Delmotte”, who drew from a range of sources, including the Italian Mannerists to contemporaries such as Giorgio de Chirico for his dreamlike works. “French Surrealism in the 1950s has something I love. I am repeatedly drawn to French and Italian art from the 1920s and the 1930s, such as Gaston Lachaise [known for his exaggerated bronze nudes], and I’d love to one day own an important piece of American art from the 1950s or 1960s, like a giant Helen Frankenthaler.”
Like Schiaparelli, Roseberry is eager to collaborate with artists of his time: “I love Katie Stout”—the artist and furniture designer who pushes the boundaries of functionality, and often references organic matter and female figures. “The photographer Nadia Lee Cohen, and my friends—the sculptor F Taylor Colantonio, and the writer and playwright Jeremy O Harris [his Slave Play made waves on Broadway in 2021],” he adds. “I would love to make a short film with Janicza Bravo [her work includes the movies Lemon and Zola]. Tilda Swinton would make an amazing Elsa Schiaparelli one day in a film, and I’d love to be involved in that.”
In the meantime, Roseberry’s eyes are firmly focused on his work with Schiaparelli and, just like the house’s imaginative founder, “creating things that people might remember, and that might last more than a moment”.
Schiaparelli coat designed in collaboration with Cocteau
Axel Vervoordt is a man with many hats: art and antiques dealer, interior designer, initiator of groundbreaking exhibitions and an impresario of musical, artistic and architectural experiences. Central to all this activity is his long marriage to his wife, May. Their evolving interests have been the guiding thread in their esteemed family business. Whether in their private home, the 12th-century Kasteel van ‘s-Gravenwezel, outside Antwerp, or in their impressive business headquarters, Kanaal—a restored late-19th-century distillery and malting complex on the nearby Albert Canal—their shared aesthetic and philosophical values are expressed in every atmospheric interior and the juxtaposition of carefully selected artworks. It is appropriate, therefore, that as Axel and May celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this spring, they have created a book about their collecting.
Axel and May Vervoordt in their home near Antwerp
What has interested them above all on this journey has been a dialogue between traditions—the exchange between east and west—which is reflected throughout their home and in their exhibition-making. It is also expressed in this new book, which celebrates artworks from contrasting traditions to emphasize continuities of thought and feeling. For Axel, his touchstones include works by Kazuo Shiraga and the numinous Fontana sculpture Concetto Spaziale, Natura, 1959–60. May has a favorite painting—Urbino, 1978, by Belgian artist Jef Verheyen, known for his exploration of light, color and geometry. She also loves the Japanese Head of a Lohan, or Buddhist monk on the edge of enlightenment, in their library: “Every time I see them, I learn something new.”
This interest in Asian art can be traced to their friendship with Dr Jos Macken, a neurologist who was a great friend of Verheyen and a passionate collector of eastern art. Through Macken, Axel became interested in eastern philosophy, especially the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi: the wisdom of imperfection. Axel explains that his mother instilled in him a feeling for “the beauty of simplicity—she liked very humble things”.
A collection of figurines in the library
Axel and May had visited Japan before they married and, from their late twenties, traveled through Thailand, China and Japan, developing a passionate understanding of Zen philosophy, ceramics, sculpture and calligraphy. Furthermore, Axel eagerly discovered the East Asian idea of the “void”—a potent emptiness; a latent creative energy beyond human comprehension.
Through Verheyen, the couple discovered the broad network of European artists connected to the Zero movement in Germany, including the Argentine-Italian Lucio Fontana and the German Günther Uecker, who were exploring similar ideas. Axel remarks: “After the terrible destruction of the Second World War, the idea of starting again from nothing was very appealing.”
The “Oriental Salon” at Kasteel van ‘s-Gravenwezel, with a 17th-century Japanese folding screen by Tan’yu Kano (left) and Fusta i Marró Forodat by Antoni Tàpies, 1972 (right)
These ideas were all percolating in the Vervoordts from the beginning of their relationship. They met when they were very young. May reports that Axel, then aged 21, “was a young antiques dealer,” while her interests, as a student of graphic design aged 18 or 19, “were more contemporary.” One of Axel’s early purchases—an oil painting by René Magritte of his famous motif, La Mémoire, 1948—suggests that he was always looking for a sense of “timelessness, the universal”. In addition, what was evident in their shared preferences was that, “the things we loved and bought, they had a sense of silence. They were never aggressive,” says May.
Axel Vervoordt seized upon dealing as a means of exploring his own interests in art. What he bought was always something that he and May loved: “I had to feel it in my breast,” he says.
The loft in the outer buildings of the castle. An Artempo disc by Axel Vervoordt hangs above painted works by Gutai artist Sadaharu Horio. Signal by Takis, 1958, is on the table.
In 2005, Axel discovered the Gutai artists in Japan. Alongside Fontana, Shiraga in particular is an essential reference for them both. May comments: “You feel strength in this art, but with that, a meditative feeling. You see the movement in a Shiraga painting, but recognize the stillness that came before.”
Both agree that they will never stop collecting. May refers to one of her favorite works, a six-fold Japanese screen from the 17th century, decorated with round stepping stones, black and white, with the motto: “By this way, bring you luck.” Collecting has become a series of steps, May explains. “There is an evolution. You continue to look and to buy.”
Welcome to Sotheby’s YouTube, where we bring you inside the world’s premier auction house for art and luxury. Hear from our world-renown specialists, experts in their fields, and watch the bidding action live from the auction room. We’ll take you behind the scenes in artist studios and into the living rooms of some of the greatest collectors around the world.
Landscape painters are telling stories that reach far beyond stars, sky, and sea; backyard barns are playing host to elaborate get-togethers; and custom cocktail bars are serving drinks in style at home.
Here are the latest trends in art, architecture, and design.
Amy Bennett’s Camp, 18 by 24 inches, oil on panel, 2020.
Photo Credit: Chris Snook Photography
ART
In the hands of contemporary artists, landscapes—which for centuries have served as voyeuristic travelogues of exotic locales—are pushing traditional boundaries.
From edgy scenes to outright abstractions, these new works have become settings for imaginative interpretations and narratives that allow viewers to see the world in a vastly different way.
Amy Bennett, whose studio is in Cold Spring, N.Y., sees herself as an omniscient narrator, an explorer not of the geographic terrain but of inner themes such as “isolation, family, time, and the difficulty of knowing and relating to one another.”
Her works, which she says offer a “God’s eye view,” start with a realistic miniature 3-D model that serves as a still life as well as a stage set.
For Small Changes Every Day, a 48-inch by 60-inch agrarian-themed oil painting, she created an eight-square-foot model that ultimately featured over 500 structures that she cut out of wood and painted by hand.
The models, which she often takes apart so she can reuse pieces for future works, allow her to control everything from lighting and poses to colors and to remove walls and “peer into places I don’t belong.”
Bennett’s inspiration, for the most part, comes from her own life and observations, including things she has read and watched. “The scenes usually percolate in my imagination,” she says.
She’s more interested in depicting a scene that makes viewers wonder than in painting a setting purely for its aesthetic appeal. A cocktail bar by Emma Green Design
Photo Credits: Galleri Magnus Karlsson, Stockholm
ARCHITECTURE
Bespoke backyard barns, which are being built to host big events as well as private parties in primary residences, are expanding the concept and physical boundaries of the traditional family room.
“They serve multiple uses,” says Daniel K. Glick, founder and partner of B&D Builders, an award-winning barn-building company based in Paradise, Pa. “People are drawn to spending time in a barn structure because of the inherent feelings of comfort and relaxation the atmosphere naturally provides.”
He notes that the company’s barns, which typically are made of Douglas fir, include accent beams, wall paneling, and furniture crafted from reclaimed wood. They also feature hand-forged hardware, and are used for everything from large-scale charity events to family reunions and weddings to yoga studios, basketball and tennis courts, and art studios.
In some cases, existing barns are renovated. For a private historic estate in Chester Springs, Pa., B&D Builders was commissioned to reimagine a working barn as an events space that features heated floors, a full kitchen, restrooms fashioned out of old horse stalls, a guest suite, a bar, several seating areas, and fireplaces.
The trend for party barns, Glick adds, took off in high gear when people were forced to stay home during the pandemic.
“Typically, they are a labor of love for the owners,” he says. “And we end up being invited to the first big event, which is always fun.”
DESIGN
Sophisticated and glamorous, the bespoke cocktail bar has taken up residence in the private abode.
“Clients want the option to entertain more from home without forgoing the fun or luxury of a night out,” says Emma Green, whose namesake interior design firm is based in London. “They are using them to reward themselves with a drink at the end of a stressful day or busy week and as a reason to have their guests in their best room, which is often the living room, and to create something of a spectacle.”
The cocktail bars offer sparkle power to new and old homes alike. Outfitted with illuminated mirrors and glass shelves that showcase glittering collections of cut-crystal bottles and drinks glasses, they are comfortably inhabiting alcoves, including those on each side of the fireplace, and hallways adjacent to public rooms.
“I tend to design the bars to be a feature in themselves,” Green says. “Who wants to hide a gorgeous cocktail cabinet away?”
Called into action for before-dinner aperitifs and after-dinner cocktails, they often feature a refrigerator/freezer that promptly produces ice cubes as well as a small sink for washing all those lemons
