today’s first sneak peek is into the 1890 home of tyler doran and his husband mark in providence rhode island. they instantly fell in love with the old victorian house with 12ft ceilings, columns and crown molding located near brown university. every square inch of the place needed repainting, but the result is absolutely stunning, and reminiscent of heir, tyler’s beautiful antique shop. click here for more, full-sized images and stay tuned for another stand out sneak peek at 1pm! [thanks, tyler!] -anne
[above: We painted the master bedroom a dark navy and added panelling in the same color to give it a gentleman's club feeling. I'm a huge Merchant Ivory/Brideshead Revisited fan.]
I like mixing that formality with irreverence and unexpected art and objects.
While working on the house I slowly amassed the inventory for Heir on trips all over the country, finding great folk art pieces and industrial furniture and objects. And Providence has an incredible artist community with RISD churning out some amazing talent. It’s the mix of carefully edited antiques and objects and contemporary work that make the house and the store dynamic. The spaces i design are subtly intriguing and i restrain myself from having too many wow moments that overpower a room. I love Karin Blake’s restraint and use of form in minimal spaces and Daryl Carter’s organic and texture driven Virginia Farm House is insanely inspiring. I have images of that house peppered all over my home and office.
No matter where I am I always like to imagine i can just step outside to a picnic by the lake and listen to the victrola with a gin and tonic. Hard to imagine in providence in January in 9 degree weather. We soldier on though.
My family had always been collecting strange pieces from their travels, so it came naturally to me to seek out the more unusual items. I was born in Saudi Arabia, and we moved to New Hampshire when I was three, so our 1803 farmhouse was filed with Afghani Rugs, Middle Eastern antiques and peppered in with all that were American rustic pieces. It was incredibly influential in my design aesthetic allowing me to explore that juxtaposition.
[the iron work above is part of a series tyler creates (and sells) himself]
