ELEMENTS SURPRISE

light had to be shipped all the way from Hong Kong andfitted by a team from Germany. “We were all thinking,If we’re making a mistake, what are we going to do?”Couturier says. “But it made the structure of the roommore what it is, more exciting.”The focus of frequent weekend entertaining, thelibrary is also central to the other ground-floor receptionareas, with the dining room on one side and drawingroom on the other. The dining room’s glory is itsrich walnut paneling, which spreads up from the wallsto frame part of the ceiling—a circle of plaster fruit andfoliage whose center Couturier has brightened withgilding and a Gio Ponti brass light fixture from 1964. Inthe nearby billiard room, an extraordinary carved-chalktable (now accompanied by a burgundy Zaha Hadidsofa) takes pride of place; the ballroom, a Lutyens additionfrom the ’20s, is dominated by a great mullionedand transomed window, which is ingeniously balancedby an identical mirror. Here and elsewhere, Couturierhad the original light fixtures painstakingly reproduced,Left: The billiardroom’s Zaha Hadidsofa for Sawaya &Moroni and pairof vintage Italian armchairscomplementa reproduction byLutyens Furniture &Lighting of the originalbilliard-table light.Opposite, from top:The ballroom, addedto Marshcourt in the’20s, features chandeliersreproduced fromthe originals. TheFrench sea-greenvases arrayed acrossthe kitchen counterand breakfast tableare ’50s Primavera.156 ARCHDIGEST.COM