Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles, September 2024
Source: Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles
Author: Lauren Iverson/Photos by Xavier Béjot
Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles: From the grand entry foyer to elegant sitting rooms and verdant grounds, La Chevallerie delights and intrigues. What space of your home do guests gravitate toward most, and what pulls them in?
Timothy Corrigan: The Blue Salon tends to be one of the most popular hangout spaces. It’s the first of the public rooms that guests enter, but it’s also bright and welcoming with comfortable furniture, upholstered in my outdoor fabrics for Perennials. Blue and white is a favorite color combination around the world, so people feel at home there.
AH&L: Entertaining can be overwhelming, and in the book, your use of unexpected spaces (like passageways) and items (like floral bed sheets as tablecloths) break the traditional “rules” of entertaining. What is your advice to readers on achieving an air of effortlessness when hosting?
TC: Have fun and don’t take entertaining too seriously. Mix and match linens, china services, and glassware. It communicates a sense of confidence and effortless style while creating a relaxed atmosphere that will delight your guests.
AH&L: At Home in France is a love letter to your adopted home, featuring expertly curated, thoughtfully designed spaces. And while lavish, you express “even the world’s most beautiful room is not successful if it is not also comfortable,” reminding readers that homes are meant
to be lived in. What would you say to those who desire an inviting space, but don’t know where to start?
TC: I strive to create environments where people feel welcome and at home, and comfort is the key ingredient. Comfort is more than just being soft and cozy, it’s also a mental thing. Is the furniture the right scale for the space? Is the color palette warm and inviting? Can you let kids play in the room without being afraid they will ruin something? A room communicates that it’s comfortable in so many subliminal ways. With terrific performance fabrics available, it’s crazy to have a home filled only with fragile materials or fine objects, and we no longer need to make a trade-off between beauty and practicality. Mix furniture, art, and design from different periods to keep rooms from looking too studied and “matchy.” Fill your home with things you love and be willing to rearrange this regularly. That way, your home will always be pleasing and feel fresh.
At Home in France
In his third book, world-renowned designer Timothy Corrigan shares the joys of decorating and living in his Paris apartment and countryside château, both historical structures that have been lovingly restored for modern-day living. A must-read for lovers of French style, the new tome’s inspiring spaces encourage readers to design à la française.