Northshore Home magazine highlights the best in architectural design, new construction and renovations, interiors, and landscape design.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/579535
129 print that reflects the room's horizon-line theme with a stark horizontal created by planes of black and white. "The house is becoming a reflection of our two worlds, our tastes, and our visions," says Spindler. "We absolutely have influenced one another's ways of seeing." Spindler's way of seeing is born of his pedigree as a curator of fine historical objects, the training for which he pursued at Brown and Yale universities and So- theby's Institute. The heavy influence of Arts and Crafts in the house belies his devotion to the classical—evi- denced in almost every room. A large painting of a neoclassical scene of Pegasus over a classic landscape by Rockport painter Vesper George is affixed to the ceiling of the two-story entry vestibule. An orange 1820s French daybed is a center- piece of the yellow library upstairs, which Spindler describes as "filled with neoclassical things." A bright- green gilded neoclassical bookcase presides over one of the guest rooms. "I happen to love classical things," Spindler says. "It's never gotten old. Good proportions and clean lines." But as the pairing of a 1968 Danish harp chair and a English chaise (circa 1810) in the master bedroom suggests, the house's décor is nothing if not multifac- eted. Bumping up against the classical furnishings is a charming, prismatic mix of styles. For example, the daybed in the library shares space with a 1920s club chair upholstered in a bold plaid fabric by hip New York designer Lulu DK. Prairie School stained glass windows grace the dining room, while the master bathroom features salvaged stained glass from Switzerland (circa 1890). An Anglo-Indian chaise upholstered in "guerande" velvet from Manuel Cano- vas rubs elbows with a Frank Lloyd Wright table in the living room. As the Wright table suggests, the Arts and Crafts influence is stronger on the first floor, particularly in the living room, where a Charles Linbert table shares space with Gustav Stickley chairs—including one from the estate of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. A hori- zontal mural (circa 1920) by Gloucester painter Jonas Lie, founder of the Norwegian Arts and Crafts Club, tops the room's walls. The painting, which used to grace a lodge in the Adirondacks, depicts the voyage of the Vikings from Scandinavia to North America. From the outside, the house is also predominantly influenced by Arts and Crafts, with double-hung and casement windows with four-pane top sashes in cela- don-green, square columns on square stone bases in the portico, and sidelights on the front door. The lower story is made of local thick-cut granite, reflecting the Arts and Crafts movement's reverence for indigenous materials, and the upper portion is covered with overlapping fish- scale shingles imported from Switzerland. Andrew Spindler in his garden. Opposite top, the living room is an ecclectic mix of Arts and Crafts furnishings and antique art. Opposite bottom, Cabinets display a collection of antique china. "It has a warm, Hansel-and-Gretel-y vibe to it," muses Spindler. The 1.5-acre garden that surrounds the house is also a stunning example of Arts and Crafts design, which, according to Harvard garden historian Judith B. Tankard, "bequeathed a rich legacy of gardens." Arts and Crafts gardens focus on making use of the natural qualities of a site, incorporating local materials, and linking the outdoors to a building's interior. The garden is a magical maze of paths and secret spaces created by the undulating landscape of glacier-deposited boulders on which the house was built. During the Arts and Crafts period, Tankard notes, "gar- dens took on a new meaning as an essential component of the house, rather than as a separate entity."