Verandaの May/June 2025 の目次

TIME IS A FLAT CIRCLE? Perish the thought, suggests Cartier. Here, time makes the rounds with sculptural poise in the Reflection de Cartier haute joaillerie watch. At tantalizingly separated ends of an open bangle, a delicate watch face regards itself in reflective white gold, as if gazing into a petite mirror. It’s a near-hidden moment surrounded by an exuberant architecture of angles and space and, of course, diamonds: The first of three designs in the collection evokes Cartier’s peacock palette in chrysoprase, obsidian, emerald, and Paraiba tourmaline (left); another shimmers in a celestial cascade of diamonds in snow and inverted settings (center); and a third purrs chromatically with opal, amethyst, spessartite garnet, and tiger’s eye (right). It’s never been more divine—and timely—to mind the gap.…

HEATHER CHADDUCK HILLEGAS knows exactly where her love of antiques and period detail comes from. “My parents took us to Williamsburg all the time. I grew up submerged in America’s largest living museum,” says the Birmingham-based interior decorator and textile designer. So when Chadduck Hillegas was invited to be the 2022–2023 designer in residence at Williamsburg’s Nelson-Galt House, she embraced the homecoming. “Only then did I fully realize what a huge influence that early exposure had on me. Whenever I had a question about what to do in a certain room design-wise, I could just look around Williamsburg, and the answers were there.” New York–based designer William Cullum traces his affinity for 18th-century moldings and architectural details to his love of house museums. “My dad brought me to the Aiken-Rhett…

A LONG BELLE MEADE BOULEVARD, a prominent thoroughfare just outside the hum of Music City, old oaks and towering magnolias stand sentinel in front of historic estates. One such 1926 Greek Revival home had become something of a landmark to neighborhood residents Megan and Brian Fox, who had passed by often enough to have fallen completely in love with its preserved grandeur. “We would drive by and look at it in awe—it was always such a gorgeous, beautifully maintained home,” says Brian, whose fascination with the property came as no surprise to his wife. He is a fifth-generation Nashvillian whose great-grandfather built a house in 1920, which his grandmother and mother grew up in. “He had always wanted an older house like this, one with a lot of character,” Megan…

REFINED TEXTILE AND WALLPAPER DEBUTS IN HISTORIC FLORAL MOTIFS ♦ A RARE TULIP RENAISSANCE ♦ ARTISAN STUDIOS USHERING CLASSIC DESIGN FORWARD ♦ SPARKLING PROFILES OF NATURE IN NEW HIGH JEWELRY ♦ TROMPE L’OEIL WALLPAPER WITH ARCHITECTURAL VERVE ♦ A CARTIER BANGLE WITH REFLECTIVE ÉLAN…

IS LONGEVITY THE NEW LUXURY? When it comes to creating lively epicenters of connection with family and friends, an emphasis on permanence and quality is a rising hallmark of the well-lived house—even for spaces once considered most vulnerable to the elements. Now, thoughtful design and cutting-edge materials are turning outdoor living areas—historically rehabbed or replaced every few years, especially in moisture-rich climates—into beautiful rooms that last across generations. TimberTech’s Advanced PVC decking mimics the textured, familiar allure of real wood without organic materials susceptible to mold, mildew, and decay, extending the life cycle of a deck from an average of five years to upwards of 50. And for homeowners in fire-prone areas, decking from TimberTech’s Vintage and Landmark collections provides additional protection against wildfires, earning Ignition Resistant and Class A…

It feels like artist Pierre Mottier is channeling all of Switzerland into his slender blade. The jagged ridgelines of its Alps, the broad slopes of its chalets, the bristled branches of its forests—he slices these intricate shapes into the paper spread before us. I watch as he takes a breath, steadies his cutting hand, and traces the minute curve of a leafing tree, plucking out the tiny shards of paper with the knife’s tip and blowing them out of the way. Down goes the knife again, another curve, another bit of negative space removed, as Mottier carves out more of the scene that will render a Swiss idyll in silhouette. I’m here on this sunlit fall morning on a pilgrimage of paper, a journey into the rural origins and modern…

MY AIM WAS TO GIVE THE property an unmistakably eclectic character, as though it had been passed down through generations or had always been a cherished family home,” Amaro Sánchez de Moya says of the Seville apartment he transformed for his friends and clients, Raúl and Manuel Romero. Charming, sharp, and, of course, a true aesthete, de Moya combines architectural design with a deep understanding of the past. “I wanted to avoid any sense of it having been designed all at once, to create the impression of layered histories—of many past inhabitants who never actually existed—while also reflecting the experiences of the current proprietors.” Located in an 18th-century palatial building in La Antigua Judería (“Old Jewish Quarter”), the roughly 1,300-square-foot apartment was acquired in 2019 by Raúl and Manuel, who…

OVER-THE-TOP PALAMPORES The bountiful tree-of-life patterns that first blossomed on humble Indian bedcovers soar to ceiling height on printed linens for sweeping, mural-like scenery. What hasn’t changed? Their pretty, oh-so-traditional palette of indigos, earthen reds, and heady browns. For buying information, see page 26. THE SILK ROAD HEIRS Stylized, single-flower patterns (think Ottoman Empire carnations and tulips, or the ancient Egyptian lotus) expand their repertoire to include Art Deco–inspired ferns and California poppies, along with woven and machine-printed fabrics—all fresh salutes to the hand-blocked textiles traded across continents. GRAND-SCALE FRESCOES It’s as if India’s millenniums-old miniatures have swelled to meet the moment in motifs reminiscent of the botanically rich Mughal images that swept the decorative arts scene during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. Jali screens, Jharokha arches, and balustrades…

I MEET, AT LONG LAST, CLEOPATRA. I had begun to wonder if she really existed—her brief but storied reign in the first century BCE was to me a watercolor plate in a history book, a verse from Shakespeare, a celluloid shimmer of a movie star. But now, here I stand at her feet, her regal silhouette rising above me in stone carved in sunken relief by an anonymous artist some 2,000 years ago. Beneath an exterior wall of the Temple of Hathor on the West Bank of the Nile, I am borne to this ancient queen, to greet the contours of her existence. This would be epiphany enough for any one journey. But revelations like this flow as steadily as the waters of the Nile from its origins in sub-Saharan…

AFTER THE WILDFIRES tore through Pacific Palisades in January, the Kehillat Israel synagogue stood almost untouched, surrounded by incinerated homes. The Santa Ana winds had blown an apron of ash and soot under the doors, an ugly new welcome mat for a building whose congregation was established in 1950 on the same spot. For now, the building is unreachable, and thus unusable. Associate Rabbi Daniel Sher lived less than a mile from the sacred place where he worked. The house he shared with his wife, their three children, and two dogs burned to the ground. Just two weeks after the fires, he went back to KI, and to his home, and reflected on the questions he hears most: What does it all mean? Where do we go from here? He began…