“the minute you walk in the door,
you know a family’s character”
Choreographer of the project was architect and
interior designer Suzanne Lovell, who gracefully
waltzed her way through a complete restoration based
on the original renderings. The process was helped
along by the fact that Lovell had worked with Barry
and Shauna Montgomery before and, thus, was
thoroughly acquainted with the clients’ eclectic taste,
which runs the full gamut from abstract 20th century
contemporary art to animal skins and Swedish Empire.
What’s more, the Montgomerys own an extremely fine
collection of antiques and objects, with which they
would not part and which Lovell would need to weave
effortlessly into her design.
From the gallery entrance hall, guests immediately
get a hint of the sumptuous art and antiques that lie
beyond. Here, Lovell, for dramatic effect, chose a black
and white checkerboard for the wood floor, and then
placed custom pieces, such as a Paris mirror, alongside
the clients’ leather armchairs, griffin-form table lamps
and two Robert Motherwell paintings. “The minute
you walk in the door, you know a family’s character,”
the noted designer says. “I want my clients’ guests to
know that an elegant person lives here.”
In the living room, a soft palette of black and white,
with touches of yellowy olive green, provides a refined
and neutral backdrop to the abstract Seymour Fogel
painting above the mantel, visible from the adjacent
formal dining room. Around a custom, sprawling
dining table stand simple beige upholstered chairs in
a setting that is elegant in its sparseness. It is in the
library where the Montgomerys’ varied tastes shines
