Architectural Digest

KEEP A LOW PROFILE JOHNSON ESCHEWS STANDARD SEATING IN FAVOR OF FLOOR CUSHIONS UPHOLSTERED IN GRAPHIC OUTDOOR FABRIC. BOLSTERS AND THROW PILLOWS KEEP THINGS COZY. LAY DOWN ROOTS FOR PLANTERS, STICK TO ONE MATERIALS PALETTE BUT GET PLAYFUL. JOHNSON MIXES NEW AND OLD (LIKE THIS VINTAGE WILLY GUHL NUMBER) IN CERAMIC AND CEMENT. BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES FACT: ROOFTOPS GET WINDY. CHOOSE SECURE SEAT CUSHIONS LIKE THOSE ON THE EOS BENCHES BY MATTHEW HILTON THAT SHE PICKED FOR THIS DINING AREA (DWR.COM). LIGHT IT UP THE BEST SUMMER DINNER PARTIES LAST WELL PAST MAGIC HOUR. KEEP CONVERSATION AGLOW WITH PORTABLE LED FIXTURES SUCH AS HER BARBER OSGERBY CUTIES (USA.FLOS.COM). FOR MORE SMART IDEAS VISIT ARCHDIGEST.COM/AD-IT-YOURSELF…

“I wasn’t looking for a cool midcentury house in the Hollywood Hills, with exquisitely tasteful interiors. I didn’t want a house that looks like everyone else’s.”—Mary Kitchen Summer and escapist houses just go hand in hand, and no matter your personal vision of warm-weather nirvana, this issue of AD does not disappoint. Take our cover story, an extravagantly reimagined 1960s residence that interior designer Jamie Bush calls “a glamorous throwback fantasy” and West Coast editor Mayer Rus memorably describes as “a blockbuster vision of Los Angeles swank—a fearless pasticcio of Hollywood Regency, Art Deco, Palm Springs camp, tropical modern, granny chic, and a dash of Morris Lapidus–style Miami Beach cha-cha.” Bingo! Says homeowner Mary Kitchen simply, “I just love that it feels fun to me.” Fashion designer Ulla Johnson is a master…

The provenance of the Adirondack chair—that sensible, slat-backed porch staple—is murky at best. Historians aren’t even certain it originated in its eponymous range of New York mountains. Pressed to pin down a pedigree, most point to a close cousin—the Westport chair—as its likely predecessor. Around 1900, on the banks of New York’s Lake Champlain, a man named Thomas Lee tinkered with some seating for his summer cottage. “I can vaguely recall Uncle Tom’s nailing boards together [into a chair] and getting various members of the family together to sit in it and tell him when the angles felt exactly comfortable,” wrote his niece Mary Lee in a 1962 letter. “Then he evolved those great wide flat arms on which you set a cup or glass.” The chair, with its angular sit-back-and-relax…

I get very mood-board-y,” muses fashion stylist Kate Young, reflecting on her approach to designing her own homes. The same, she explains, is true when it comes to devising red-carpet ensembles for the likes of Jennifer Lawrence, Selena Gomez, and Dakota Johnson. “I like to study, pick pieces, and mix it all together.” So one might say that her own personal Oscars has been the circa 1945 Bauhaus-style house in Woodstock, New York, that she shares with her husband, record executive Keith Abrahamsson, and their two sons, Stellan and Leif. Armed with modernist William Muschenheim’s original plans (sleuthed from Columbia University’s Avery library) and aided by their architect friend Graydon Yearick, the couple set out to revive the spirit of the home, executing a near gut renovation after purchasing it three…

At the American Academy in Rome, a Baroque villa atop the Eternal City’s second-highest hill, the recipients of the annual Rome Prize gather five days a week for lunch at 1 p.m. After loading their plates at the buffet, these 30 or so scholars and creatives in residence sit at tables that run the length of the courtyard’s loggia. That community and diversity of expertise is, according to current architecture fellow Germane Barnes, “one of the cool things about being at the academy.” While breaking bread, he muses, you could ask any question aloud, like What were the racial dynamics of ancient Rome? “And an archaeologist might chime in.” (The answer? It was complicated.) In his own work, Barnes, founder of the Miami-based Studio Barnes and assistant professor at the University…

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