88 house garden september 2018
‘We want everyone who walks in here to feel like they can
be at home,’ says sylvana. The children’s quarters feature petite
bedrooms filled with furnishings from the home wing of Maisonette
- an Incy Interiors crib in the nursery, where a white-noise machine
is on full blast despite Millie’s absence; oeuf rabbit chairs around
a play table in gracie’s blush-coloured room; and a navy chloe club
chair in henry’s nautical-themed bedroom, which boasts built-in
bunk beds. sylvana informs me that he sleeps on the top one and
gracie on the bottom. ‘she doesn’t want to sleep in her own room.
henry’s cool with it,’ she continues. ‘I think he’d be bummed if she
didn’t sleep in here with him.’
The attic floor was transformed into a multipurpose media
room, play area and guest suite – the built-in banquette cleverly
designed to house three twin-size mattresses and two trundles,
so ‘when the cousins come, all the kids sleep up here,’ sylvana
explains. ‘every time it happens my heart sings.’
Blue, white and beige striping lends a beachy vibe and, combined
with the fact that it’s perched in the treetops, almost makes you
forget you’re in the urban jungle. ‘We did the circus-tent stripes
on the ceiling,’ says Jesse, ‘because the architects had the great
idea of carving out space in the rafters, which created this funny
pitched shape.’
as we wind our way back down to kid central, sylvana recalls
their first holiday here. They had been living in the attic ‘eating
cereal on the floor’ while the bottom half of the house was
being completed, and serendipitously removed the construction
tarps just in time for christmas eve dinner. sylvana’s family was
visiting. ‘We sat down at the dining table for the first time, and
it was exactly as I had imagined it,’ she says, blissfully. ‘It suddenly
felt like home.’
‘Mommy! Mommy!’ calls a child as soon as we step off the landing
onto the garden level. gracie rushes toward her mother, her mouth
cherry-red from a lollipop she’s just polished off. ‘Mama, I want
spider pasta with cheese. can you make it for me?’ of course she
can, sylvana assures her. she takes gracie’s hand and walks into the
kitchen. henry will arrive home from soccer moments later, ready
for dinner, too. caesar salad and lollipops might make for good
amuse-bouches, but the main course awaits. n‘We want everyone who
walks in here to feel like they
can be at home’
sylvana ward durrettfrom left
The library’s well-sTocked
bar; a roberT crowder
wallpaper adds drama To
a powder room