There's history, there's fantasy, and there's an enchanted world that hovers somewhere between the two. On a rainy fall day in Brooklyn Heights, the front door of a town house opens to reveal an entrance hall giving onto a large, well-proportioned living room, its tall windows overlooking the neighborhood's leafy backyards; rousing Russian music playing on the sound system; a fire crackling in the grate; and an elegant oval table set for lunch, with a bottle of champagne already opened in an ice bucket. The room is furnished with eighteenth-century slipper chairs, sofas, and bergères; the walls are hung with Russian paintings, drawings, and porcelain; and on several surfaces, stately samovars stand at attention.
No, you have not stepped into a White Russian salon 150 years ago, but you may as well have. This is the domain of Olya Thompson, née Yakovleva, a Muscovite textile designer and former dancer often sighted around town in beautiful, ethereal outfits, with her equally romantic-looking husband, Charles, a photographer, and sometimes an exquisite toddler or two. (The couple have three daughters and a newborn son.) For the past three years they have lovingly restored and furnished this house, ripping out Sheetrock, repairing plaster, opening up bricked-in windows, and scouring auctions, antiques stores, and flea markets from Paris to Moscow to Connecticut to create a richly textured family home of unusual elegance. Only the occasional touch of modernity—bright flashes of color, a few contemporary artworks, red and blue Stokke high chairs glimpsed around the kitchen table—reminds you of your bearings in space and time. - Vogue
Images Coutsey of Vogue
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