Annette de la Renta’s Magnificent Bedroom
Some years ago a friend of mine declared that she always dreamed of living in a ballroom. As I recall, it had something to do with the gala nature of the space, the promise of flirting, fun, romance, and glamour. As for me, I’d settle for living in a library. Books mean everything to me, coupled with research and stretches of isolation enjoyed in comfort, perhaps with a crackling fire framed by a marble mantel, miles and miles of bookshelves, and a few old, slumbering dogs.
Annette de la Renta’s magnificently seductive bedroom in Kent, Connecticut, fits that bill quite nicely. Yes, it’s a bedroom, though the coziness that that word implies isn’t really relevant when one is talking about a long, wide double-height space wrapped with and segmented by bookcases and punctuated with leafy Corinthian pilasters. Back in 2008, Vogue described the barrel-vaulted space, which was designed by architect Ernesto Buch, as “the world’s grandest bedsit.” That’s a Brit term (definition: half bedroom, half sitting room) for a one-room apartment where one lives, sleeps, cooks, and eats. Well, there are bedsits (think SROs), and there are bedsits.
