By her own sights, photographer and artist Laura Resen has always had uncanny luck when it comes to the places she’s called home. In a way, each of her special, oft-published homes has found her more than she found—or was even looking for—them.
Such is the magic that brought Resen to her current residence, a light-filled loft in a barn in Glen Ellen, California. Both the barn and the neighboring Cape Dutch house with which it shares a property were built by interior designer Patrick Printy, a longtime friend of Resen’s, who originally intended to use the loft above as his studio. But after living on the bucolic, slightly remote property, Printy and his partner, Dan Holland, began thinking they might like someone to share it with them.
Laura Resen in the grove of beautiful California oaks that surround the barn.
Laura Resen
A cupola with clerestory windows brings natural light into the center of the loft.
Laura ResenMeanwhile, Resen was looking for her own change of scenery, a place to recharge in between her own travels for magazine, book, and brand assignments all over the world. After many years in the gentle bustle of nearby Sonoma, she was ready for a more rural setting, and as a new empty nester, with daughter Tessa off to the East Coast, she needed less space and more flexibility. Printy offered her the loft, and Resen’s new live-work retreat was born.
She brought with her a cherished core group of fine early modern furniture and collections of art and possessions that she had carried with her through each of her homes over the past three decades. The goal was not to add or rebuild, but to edit—to reassort those favorite old friends in the puzzle of a new space that was just one large, 900-square-foot open room.
The living room area is centered under the folded planes of the intricately beamed ceiling. To balance that complexity, the furniture arrangement is simple and symmetrical. The sofas are slipcovered in natural linen, with pillows in Schumacher’s Erindale and Una Hand Block Print fabrics. The pair of Marcel Breuer Bauhaus Wassily chairs are complemented with pillows in Dorothea silk velvet by Patterson Flynn. Parsons coffee table, Susan Sneider.
Laura Resen
In a library corner, her beloved Alvar Aalto table and cantilevered lounge chairs create a quiet reading space that can easily be transformed into a serving table for gatherings. Pendant light by Alison Berger; silver gelatin photographs by Gary Schneider and landscapes by Resen.
Laura Resen
In the bath, a vintage Chinese table holds the type of quiet still life Resen is known for, with a combination of natural found objects, a Russel Wright plate, and vintage stoneware vase atop a Williams Sonoma tray.
Laura ResenThe first job was to create a sequence of spaces that could function as a dining and work area, a living room, and a bedroom. “It was easy to start with the wonderful, whitewashed quality of the barn architecture, and to think of the way the light plays across it all,” says Resen. “I saw that as a primary design feature that I wanted to enjoy and pay attention to, so other things needed to be grounded and practical once I started placing furniture into the space. I knew it had to be very neutral with lots of organized storage, or the room was going to feel cluttered and too complicated.”
To create more storage space for her collection of tableware, Resen and Printy added open shelving above the main kitchen counter, neatly tucked into the eaves. Clair creamware by Thomas O’Brien echoes the soft white palette that runs throughout the loft. The sink is vintage and the custom cabinetry beneath was designed by Printy.
Laura Resen
Printy previously used the loft as a studio on his property; to turn it into a residence, he added an expanded bathroom with a mix of antique fixtures and traditional elements; Resen added a custom shower curtain in Schumacher’s Wesley ticking stripe.
Laura Resen
The kitchen’s space-saving measures include an inset for a vintage-style Smeg refrigerator; in the adjacent bathroom, a wall sconce by Thomas O’Brien for Visual Comfort hangs alongside an early American mirror from Resen’s grandmother.
Laura ResenIt didn’t take long to sort out the floor plan. Coming up the stairwell into the space, and adjacent to the small kitchen, Resen positioned her living room seating under a central skylight. By the window beyond would go her Alvar Aalto table and chairs and vintage Danish book and record cabinet, which would serve as her library. To the west, she placed the midcentury table and set of vintage Mies van der Rohe chairs that have long served her for work and dining, with easy access to the built-in desks and drawers on either side that Printy had previously designed for his own studio.
To keep her bedroom area feeling private from the rest of the loft, Resen knew she would need to create some sort of partition. She solved the issue with a four-poster bed enclosed in translucent linen bed hangings, placed against the east-facing window as though it were a headboard.
Since the sleeping area is open to the rest of the room, a solution was needed to create a sense of privacy and enclosure. Resen found a Serena & Lily four-poster bed in nearly the same color as the loft’s woodwork (painted Benjamin Moore’s White Dove), creating the illusion that it is part of the architecture. The bed hangings, in Schumacher’s Piet performance linen, were chosen to diffuse the eastern morning light that pours into the space. A favorite midcentury Scandinavian teak armchair is covered in Schumacher’s Elbert fabric. The tall candlestick lamp is by Thomas O’Brien for Aero Studios; behind it is a large-format photograph of the Maison de Verre in Paris by Adam Bartos.
Laura Resen“Closing the bed panels and just being able to look up at the glowing structure of the ceiling is a dream, like being in a James Turrell space.”
Laura Resen
Pristine light filters through the leaves of the California oaks surrounding the barn, filling the loft with a quiet, artful stillness. It’s all very fitting for a photographer who uses almost every other inch of wall space to display the heart of her collection—deeply observed paintings from her mother and father, both accomplished artists; many photographs from admired colleagues, luminaries, and friends; some of her own work. “Being with my most essential things as though they always belonged here, that’s what feels timeless. They speak to the space. And the space sings back.”
THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN VOLUME 16 OF FREDERIC MAGAZINE. CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE!
