 |
|
Gallery
Entry / In the foyer,
a pair of barrel chairs covered in a Robert Allen / Beacon
Hill damask sits beneath an oil painting by by Nadia Mabfuz.
Roman
Empire / Brunschwig & Fils Roman shades
(left) add flair to the living rooms's rich color palette.
The sofa, chair and low tables are all from Beacon Hill. Splash
of Color / An antique table from Baker
Greenwich (right) is brightened with a tabletop vignette that
includes ladies' luncheon and dessert plates from MacKenzie-Childs. |
|
 |
 |
| Newly
married, she and husband Howard Fields acquired a picturesque
Connecticut classic—an early 1900s side hall Colonial
with wide, welcoming porches and a white picket fence lined
with yellow roses.
Inside,
though, the style moves from quintessentially Colonial toward
a look "between traditional and modern," says the
designer, who chose a mix of classically constructed furnishings
from Swaim, Baker and Henredon along with European antiques
and streamlined Danish pieces. But no matter whose home she
finds herself working in, she insists on rooms that work.
"I'm so over form taking precedent over function,"
Fields says firmly.
She points
to an elegant settee covered in a glossy, diamond-pattern
satin embellished with velvet details—a deceptively
rigid-looking piece with durable fabric and a deep, comfortable
seat. "You could cuddle with a child on this," she
says. "A good designer can make a space that functions
but still looks formal.
Fields
relies on color to both style a home and establish a flow
among its various rooms. "All the rooms need to speak
to each other," she says. "Styles can shift but
there has to be a visual flow." The walls in her dining
room are painted a deep olive, for example, a color that's
repeated in the curved velvet sofa in the living room and
the stripe in the Brunschwig & Fils Roman shades. The
sofa is tossed with pillows in gorgeous, complimentary colors—copper,
peach and gold tones—with one a deep sapphire that corresponds
with the blue in the kitchen. |
|
 |
 |
 |
| Throughout
the house, Fields's passion for textiles is on display. "Certain
pieces have been with me for years," she says, admitting
she is a serial re-upholsterer who changes the look of her furniture
to reflect new moods or moments in her life. For instance, a
dramatic China-red love seat was countrified when Fields moved
it from her New York apartment to her Greenwich kitchen, where
it now sits covered in blue gingham. |
|
| Colonial
Times / Built in the 1900s, the Greenwich
side hall Colonial features a mahogany porch overlooking a yard
of boxwoods, holly trees and yellow rosebushes. Pomp
& Circumstance / A table and lamp from
Mac Kenzie-Childs enhance a playful depiction of an old-fashioned
circus. Personal Office
/ Debbie Fields's home office doubles as a workspace for her
company, Designs by Deborah, and a place to display photographs
of friends and family. Moody
Blues / Fields has owned the kitchen love
seat for years. Formerly cloaked in a China-red fabric, it was
reupholstered in a blue gingham to match her Greenwich home.
|
|
 |
| Regal
Touches
/ Fields was drawn towards rich blues in the master bedroom.
A cobalt blue Brunschwig & Fils leather headboard
is paired with antique table lamps in a satin nickel finish.
A hand-painted urn from Beacon Hill in a similar color
sits atop an antique burl chest. Fields upholstered an
antique bench chair with French blue scroll arms in a
regal fleur de lis fabric. |
 |
|
 |
|
Likewise,
curtains are a Field specialty, though she frowns upon
voluminously swagged windows that look like an entire
fabric store hangs around their frames.
Fields's
windows are tailored with the fine taste of a bespoke
suit, with crisp and precise lengths of good silk constructed
with dressmakers' details. However, they're not so decorous
that they go unnoticed. In her own home, for instance,
she uses buttercup yellow and a raspberry rose.
Fields
admits that she returns to favorite colors when decorating
her own spaces. For instance, she loves French blue
in a bedroom—her headboard is covered in blue
leather and she prizes a pair of painted urns detailed
with the same shade—but for clients she's willing
to work in almost any color. "Almost," she
says with a smile.
An
avid art collector, Fields has amassed a trove of paintings
that are also all about color. One favorite depicts
a simple bowl of lemons; another Charleston, S.C.'s
Rainbow Row of townhouses, famous for their many-hued
facades. Admiring them, she says, "I simply don't
view the world in black and white." |
|
|
| |
|
