Billy Cotton imparts a sense of modern grace to a grand old American house

Having previously worked in the world of interior design herself, the owner was not short on ideas or inspiration for the house’s transformation. But after hiring the Connecticut-based Kahlil Hamady of Hamady Architects, she also sought the counsel of a decorator. When she emailed Billy, they instantly hit it off. ‘She’s a great aesthete with a real sense of fun,’ says Billy. ‘But she needed an editor.’

It transpired that they shared a mutual friend in the painter Rosy Keyser (whom they later commissioned to create a canvas for the lavishly pretty dining room). ‘That was the kismet,’ says Billy, who has made his name conjuring idiosyncratic homes infused with an art-world sensibility for a slew of creative clients, notably the American artists Cindy Sherman and Lisa Yuskavage. ‘But I don’t often get calls for grand houses like this,’ he admits. ‘It was exciting.’

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The starting point was an almost textbook notion of an elegant American home. Drawing on the restrained grandeur of interiors greats, including David Easton, Albert Hadley and Billy Baldwin, the owner worked with Billy and Kahlil to devise a picture of a living, breathing family home that paid tribute to those illustrious interiors without being what Billy would regard as a museum-like re-creation.

Over the following four years, this triumvirate of creative forces instilled the handsome but down-at-heel house with a unique modern grace. However, this project was not without its challenges. ‘These houses look grand from the outside, but it is fake,’ explains Billy. ‘Inside, it’s doll-like architecture.’ In the end, the stairwell was the only original element that remained.

A Cogolin rug demarcates this area of the open-plan kitchen, dining and sitting room with its sofa and armchairs in Claremont’s ‘Carreaux de Tours’ and leather ottoman, all designed by Billy. The distinctive wooden chair was sourced from Arthur Bruet. Walls in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Skylight’ set off two Richard Tuttle prints, flanked by vintage Jacques Adnet lights.

Stephen Kent Johnson

The first thing Kahlil did was to refine the exterior, reworking the neo-classical porch columns and installing a bank of sash windows at the rear that drop sumptuously to the floor. Inside, Kahlil’s classical tastes come to the fore, in the chalky-blue panelled kitchen and in the library, which is inspired by Dries Van Noten’s Beaux-Arts women’s boutique in Paris. In the palatial hallway – which gives way to the formal sitting room to the west and an expansive open-plan kitchen, dining and family sitting room to the east – Billy pushed for architectural restraint. The resulting absence of moulding or decorative detailing creates what he terms ‘breathing space’, lending a sense of equilibrium to the layout.

When it came to the interiors, there was an ongoing – and highly fruitful – tussle between conservatism and cool. ‘The owner wanted something more outré; I was trying to stay true to the traditionalism of the house and its location. Every time I went more classic, she would pull me back,’ he says. When Billy sourced a gold Regency sofa from the antique dealer David Bedale, he discerned a note of panic. ‘I think she got nervous that I was living out some kind of glamorous granny fantasy,’ Billy says, with a laugh.

A marble table from Rose Uniacke and vintage leather chairs by Jacques Adnet provide an ideal set-up for informal family meals in the breakfast room.

Stephen Kent Johnson

In truth, he could not be more eclectic in his approach. It was his unerring eye and his own sleek creations that first endeared him to the owner: ‘He not only knows how a room should look, but also cares deeply about every single object that goes into it,’ she says.

Billy trained in industrial design at New York’s Pratt Institute and worked on decoration magazines and at decorative arts studio John Derian, before making his name creating objects and furniture with a reductionist, Bauhaus aesthetic that segued organically into the world of interior design.

In the more formal dining room, the table, covered in a cloth made of pink wool from Holland & Sherry, is teamed with antique chairs. A George III Chippendale giltwood mirror hangs above the Chesneys chimneypiece.

Stephen Kent Johnson

These skills came to the fore in this project, in which almost everything – aside from the family portraits and a 19th-century Italian chest of drawers in the hall – was specially designed or sourced. ‘We bought a lot,’ admits Billy, who took the owner on an epic five-day shopping spree in Paris. There, they picked up everything from the marble-topped, spidery-legged ‘Pythagore Console’ by Patrick E Naggar – which acts as a drinks stand – to a beautiful botanical tapestry by the fashion designer Paul Poiret, sourced from dealer Marie Haour. After Billy had spent two years trying to use this fabric as a starting point for a sitting room rug, it finally found its place as a resplendent backdrop to a bamboo four-poster bed in a spare room.

The surprising epicentre of the house also happens to be its most pared-back space. Light-filled but bijoux, the breakfast room is furnished with only a marble table by Rose Uniacke and leather Jacques Adnet chairs. It is here that the family gathers to eat, work and gaze at the bucolic Bedford Hills terrain.

‘It is a total joy,’ the owner says of this collaborative triumph. Her only regret? ‘That I don’t get to talk to Billy 12 times a day any more’.

billycotton.com | hamadyarchitectsllc.com