Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1500319
In the hall to the primary bedroom, Venetian plaster walls radiate light. Antique table from Chateau Domingue. Historic Belgian doors found in Round Top. Above the bed, Christy's canvas bears a quote from a cherished book, Isak Dinesen's Out of Africa, which references the author's belief about the connectedness of all things. 34 wing with his and hers bedrooms, dressing areas, and baths preserves the air of privacy. Contemplating the inspiration for their home, Christy says, "I had a vision. I was driving through the French countryside, and I loved some of those buildings." She pulls out a faded folder with photocopies of a chapter from a 2005 Taschen volume, Provence Interiors by Lisa Lovatt-Smith, clipped and carefully saved. The priory pictured in that book was restored by French executive Daniel Vial, who commissioned Anthony Ingrao, an American designer then living in Paris, to turn the early- medieval ruin in France's Luberon region into a rustic vacation retreat that was subsequently published in Architectural Digest in 2017. "I wanted it to be very serene and austere. I didn't want a lot on the walls. This is a country house. I preferred one large, very simple room." While there are no Provençal fields of lavender, bluebonnets and other rampant Texas wildflowers run wild. If the strains of Gregorian chants wafted from the walls, one would not be surprised. Dream achieved.