The artist here is interior designer Barry Dixon, who worked with Mary, a professional art curator, to shape a home that celebrates her collected pieces and the house itself. Mary and architect Anne Decker renovated the 1939 structure for modern family life. “I wanted some formal rooms to keep the interiors authentic to the architecture,” Mary says. “But our spaces have to be more than just pretty. They have to be livable.” The storyline here includes three active boys and one playful pup. And, yes, they are going to sit on the sofa. “I wanted to play off the home’s Tudor overtones and give them a modern twist and a bit of color,” he says. “Mary’s artwork and her love of art also were an inspiration, particularly for our choices of painterly fabrics.” The colors commingle like family and friends in an inviting gathering area that puts a twist on the old formula of two sofas plus two armchairs plus one large coffee table. Instead of calling on a coffee table, a piece he believes can become an albatross in a room, Dixon pulled up a side chair to a tea table near one sofa and slipped in a large ottoman near the other. The arrangement delightfully dashes symmetry as it achieves balance and creates spots for intimate tête-à-têtes. A round center table coquettishly interrupts the rhythm of a coffered ceiling. Clad in flowing cloth, it repeats Dixon’s taupe-and-salmon refrain and serves as a lovely catchall for a smattering of treasures and a lush arrangement of current garden offerings. A modern sectional’s clean lines juxtapose a gilded antique chair; the sectional’s tailored white upholstery serves as canvas for a pillow dappled with Impressionist style. The multiple seating options that cater to family time play just as well when the Ritcheys welcome a crowd. “I love to throw open the doors and entertain,” Mary says. French doors are left undressed for simplicity, crispness, and contrast to the luxurious draperies in adjoining rooms. “I like the dynamic tension of formal and less formal, old and new,” Dixon says. “Art was really the catalyst of the color story from room to room,” Dixon says. “The mix of art is reflected in the mix of furnishings. It creates a home with the same charm and warmth as the Ritcheys. It’s a home with one foot in the modern world and one foot planted in tradition, the best of everything that’s come before.”
