Moroccan Style in a Cotswold Style Home
Interior Designer, Katie Ridder teamed up with her architect husband, Peter Pennoyer, to create a near-east interior for their home in Westchester, New York. Katie and I share a love of color and pattern. Her home was featured in this month’s Elle Decor. I thought I’d share it with you.
I love the mix of colors throughout the home. And the way they all work together. This is done by mixing textures and patterns – then taking colors from those patterns and repeating them in other rooms. The living room is primarily blue – and a rich blue at that.
But there are touches of orange and gold tones in the room’s accessories and in the color of the wood coffee table, above. Adding little touches, like the red books and the red in the floral toss pillows help to round out the play of color elsewhere.
I also love the way Katie and Peter mix up antiques with modern elements. This home is professionally decorated. Yet it doesn’t look decorated. By that I mean everything isn’t matched to death. Each piece sort of stands on its own, yet works together. It’s the difference between buying a matched living room sofa set and buying several things that just go together. Antiques and contemporary forms can live happily side by side.
As for color, what doesn’t really come through in the photo is the red railing with silver leaf touches. The repeat of red throughout the home works so well. And I love the soft blue against the black tile floor.
The Zam Zam Room (what we’d call the family room) is a Moroccan masterpiece of color. I adore it in every way. The owners used lighting and accessories from their travels to Turkey and elsewhere and combined them with Jens Rinsom chairs from Knoll.
I love the Moroccan lattice work over the fireplace. It’s from Mosaic House. Some of the pillows were found on eBay. Notice how the blues and golds and reds are all in play here.
Finally, the dining room. It’s always a great place to add lots of drama because, unfortunately, most of us only use the room when we’re entertaining. I think this is my favorite room in Katie and Peter’s home. They painted the floor black (a big money saver). And they covered the ceiling with a foil wallpaper from Roger Arlington. The crown molding is a gloss red. I love those chairs! What a great idea to repeat the blue on the seat and the orange and red on the back.
Can you see yourself creating a home like this? Would you like me to write more about how to go about doing it yourself? It takes practice and some gumption (at least for me it did). But it can be done. Let’s hear your opinion.
 image source: William Waldron
One Response to “Moroccan Style in a Cotswold Style Home”
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I have to say, the way they incorporated the Jens Risom chairs and amorphous coffee table into the family room is quite genius. They’re really quintessentially mid-century designs and you barely notice their modern-ness in that room.
Great post, LOVED the pics!