At Home in Connecticut at River Road Farm

[Music] [Music] we bought river road farm 15 years ago this month rob and i we were looking for a property with an old house and we wanted something with patina that was really somewhat untouched that we could put our own stamp on we both love antiquing and had been collecting for many years so so much of what we had fit perfectly in here or to our eyes it did as you can tell we're definitely not minimalist and many pieces are also inherited from family like the tall case clock which when it strikes brings back memories of my childhood and they mean a lot to us you know it's the history and memories of all of these items that put soul into a home so when we arrived it was a clean palate it was a period home 1732 in the middle of a field basically little by little we would add stuff the first thing we did was the fountain we created the rondelle down there and from that everything developed once we got the hedge around the garden we created the perennial beds one day we were outside trimming the hedge we realized it was wasted real estate so we added the white garden and that's how it developed that along with i feel leaving and coming back with fresh eyes seeing things differently trying to step it up a notch and also budget you know things happened when you could afford it so nothing happened instantly we basically really just finished suzanna i have to show you this this is the garden room that's the whole reason why we're in connecticut it's by timothy mawson we found it at an antique place in nashville and after looking through it it's all places in connecticut and it brought us up here and now we know most of these people in here you know tom at the blackwell antiques he does these things like trump trump that's amazing and we're the this okay this is a very unusual idea which i love baskets hanging on the wall with house plants touches with them like shells where did you get that idea so we had all of these baskets and i wanted to put them on the wall just the way it takes up the space and we had all these extra plants so rob said why don't we put them on the basket so i've got to show you this this is what the house looked like before from this exact same we loved it because it was so pure and simple and as you could see we went a little quick there's absolutely nothing here except for a lawn and you guys added in all the layering of the gardens and changed a few others yeah amazing [Music] [Applause] [Music] now what strikes me right away is that you guys have the most elegant potting sheds of anyone in the entire world we actually call this our warming shed um it's technically not a greenhouse but it it houses the winter plants i would happily live here let the records reflect in the summer it just has a wonderful formality to it from the architecture what's with the columns was this job in atlanta and the customer wanted square columns so we salvaged those and years later we thought what can we do with those and build the portico so there was nothing here when you bought the house and it looks like it has always been here but it has your own magical touch to it this is how my passion started with collecting card these were my mom's garden tools really and they mean a lot to me and so i saved those and was she a big gardener as well did she inspire your loved ones these are collections when we would go to gardens that we really loved or stored places we would take a piece of bark from a tree and then we would label it and this is apart from bunny williams house in falls village from may of 2006 which was our first trade secrets trip the oldest part of the house dates to 1732 and like so many of the old farm houses it's been added on to over the years which gives it that quirky charm which really appealed to both of us rob and i both love the fact that the house has not been overly modernized on the inside and still retains a lot of patina we're not fans of the open floor plan and this has cozy rooms low ceilings we have six fireplaces many of which we keep burning in the winter time and every room serves a purpose we have a little snuggery off of the kitchen which is a perfect spot for winter and to have something cooking on the stove with the fire going is sort of a perfect setting for us [Music] so we built a structure purposely with no electric so we would come up here and keep it simple and we know ourselves if we had electric we would end up turning into a greenhouse a palace and at night it's just filled with nothing but candlelight it's beautiful and everybody looks good in candlelight everyone does and what i like is that this is quite a ways away from the main house so it really feels like a destination here i mean it's a little bit of a walk and many people would say why are we doing that there's no running water there's no but that's the charm of it and we have the bonfire going yeah it's just really nice in all seasons but i like that it's an effort to get here because it's special once you've arrived that's great i appreciate that so the trump loy is done by our friend tom rose and he did a wren and a nest because my name is last name is reynolds and rob's is nestor so ren's nest this was the best day thank you something for you what are you kidding me these are like of course the wrapping stacy is like that's enough of a gift for me do you love that marble i love it can i open this of course it's for you okay and it looks like it's the exact same thing as stacy every time i come here you give the most thoughtful gifts that reflect the spirit of this place i know it's not eggs last time i got but this is a book that really meant a lot to us and that i think will mean a lot to me the well-gardened minds the restorative power of nature this is amazing and this is exactly how i feel after being here today with you both is restored thank you guys [Music] [Applause] [Music] don't miss another video visit click on the orange queue to subscribe and have quintessence 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Channel: Quintessence

Views: 403,952

Keywords: Quintessence, at home with, gardens, garden design, house renovation, old house love, Connecticut colonial, antique house, River Road Farm, New England garden, interior design, decorating, Susanna Salk, decor, quintessence video series, design inspiration, house tour video, home tour, collecting, antiques

Id: 9mCrRfYJO_U

Length: 9min 24sec (564 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 07 2021