A second marriage and merging families meant Karen Davis’ clients needed a place where many people could gather comfortably at once. Davis, a longtime judge for this magazine’s annual Detroit Design Awards competition and owner of Connecticut-based Davis Raines Design, was the interior designer for the job. “The home is in Connecticut’s Litchfield County and is a weekend/country home,” says Davis, who has been in the design industry for nearly 30 years. “My clients live full-time in New York City and spend a lot of their summer here.”
The ground-level master bedroom is quite possibly the most relaxing and comfortable of all the home’s wonderful spaces, thanks to lovely appointments. French doors lead out to a terrace, a quintessential East Coast stone wall, and the pool and pool house beyond.
“This room represents summertime’s carefree living, with doors and windows open, sunshine, fresh air, and living indoors and out,” Davis says. How can you bottle that summer breeze feel and enjoy it year-round? Mix together dollops of rich blues and crisp whites that, when paired, seem to sing a summer tune evocative of the bluebird’s song. Add a jute rug and you get an instant easy-living ambience.
“The homeowners love navy blue, so we selected fabric, bedding, artwork, and more to highlight blues and also to complement the warm cream color,” Davis says of the bedroom’s palette.
The settee’s Robert Allen Ikat pattern (Sedona, embroidery in Indigo), which is also used as the drapery’s border, mingles perfectly with Duralee’s Sapphire silk-velvet covered pillows. Also joining in on the blues: Christopher Spitzmiller’s custom-fired ceramic lamps.
These days, Davis’ second-home portfolio is growing quickly, due in part to COVID-19. “Because of the pandemic, a lot of people are buying second homes,” she explains. “That’s a big part of my clientele right now.”
Text by Megan Swoyer, Photograph by John Gruen, Styling by Karin Lidbeck
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