View Gallery
After three decades of friendship, the interior designer Betsy Brown and the architect Paul Bates—both based in Birmingham, Alabama—have developed a symbiotic relationship. “We understand each other,” says Brown, who has not only collaborated with Bates on several projects for clients, but also enlisted him to design two of her own homes. “It’s fun to have a friend you can gossip with, talk about work with, and chat about all the cool things you’ve found.”
It follows, then, that when it came time to decorate one of Bates’s most significant projects—a rigorously modern retreat for longtime clients on Lewis Smith Lake in northern Alabama—he turned to his trusted confidant.
The house is hidden behind an outer wall made of raw board-formed concrete, which was poured on-site; a massive steel gate has a geometric pattern that provides a glimpse inside.
Adrian Gaut
An entry courtyard planted with autumn ferns and serviceberry trees, part of the verdant landscape design by Zachary J. Westall, leads to the open living area.
Adrian GautOver a decade earlier, the homeowners—a Birmingham couple whose city residence is a 1920s Tudor Revival—had requested something in a completely different vein for the lake house. “They wanted a house that was unapologetically modern,” Bates says.
He took it a step further with an audacious design in steel, glass, concrete, and wood—all hidden behind a massive board-formed concrete wall that, with its steel geometric double doors, lends the aura of a Mayan temple. “I wanted the brutal nature of the wall to be in stark contrast with what would be revealed as you passed through it,” Bates says. “It was intended as a transition to a calmer world inside.”
Brown used well-worn rugs throughout the home to add what she calls “a little bit of antiquity” to the modern architecture. In the living room, a Mahal rug from Marc Phillips anchors a seating area with a pair of Liaigre sofas in chocolate brown mohair and two vintage Finn Juhl leather chairs. The artwork over the fireplace is by Jean-Marc Louis.
Adrian Gaut
Quartersawn white oak clads the ceiling and door. The custom live-edge walnut coffee table was designed by Bates; a pair of custom oak benches were modeled after Axel Einar Hjorth’s midcentury “Utö” stools.
Adrian Gaut
In the living room, a black three-armed standing lamp by Serge Mouille echoes the hue of the windows’ steel frames. The vintage teak-and-rope table lamps are by Fog & Mørup.
Adrian GautBuilding the house was no small feat: The concrete took nine months to pour on-site and the budget doubled. Still, the clients loved it. They furnished it sparsely and, for the next decade, lived happily within its rugged beauty, delighting in the views through the expansive glass walls. But while gracefully elemental, the interiors were not what could be described as snug. When the family was ready, Bates turned to Brown to bring warmth to the home and make it inviting for their three children, who are now in college. “They wanted it to feel cozy and intimate—if that’s possible in a house made of board-formed concrete,” she says.
The main living space also encompasses the kitchen. Its oak-clad island features a travertine counter. Walnut counter stools by BassamFellows.
Adrian Gaut
In the dining area, a Saarinen table is surrounded by vintage Niels O. Møller Model 75 chairs. The pendant is from David Bell Antiques, and the vintage kilim is from Marc Phillips.
Adrian GautBrown often begins by setting a project’s palette, as was the case here. “I’ve done several mountain homes, and I always look for the colors that are already there,” she says. She worked with those moody hues—the caramel of the rift-cut oak, the black of the steel-framed windows, the cool gray of the concrete— rather than against them, selecting upholstery in dark chocolate mohair, ochre, and black accents, and vintage furnishings by Jens Risom, Eero Saarinen, and Serge Mouille.
A guest room features a restful scheme of creamy whites, from the C&C Milano coverlet to the curtains in a Larsen sheer to the walls painted in Benjamin Moore’s Mountain Peak White. The woven Klismos bench is from Monc XIII; a pair of glazed ceramic Danny Kaplan lamps top the custom bedside tables.
Adrian Gaut
A vintage Guillerme et Chambron chair is covered in an alpaca bouclé from Rosemary Hallgarten; the artwork is by Maysey Craddock.
Adrian Gaut
A daughter’s bedroom has a custom bunk bed, a vintage rope armchair by Adrien Audoux and Frida Minet, and a kilim from Marc Phillips.
Adrian GautFor Brown, true comfort goes beyond the surface; she seeks to tap into an understanding of how the inhabitants of a room live. A 12-foot-long center table in the living area is made for multitasking: It’s a place to sit with a laptop or a book, watch television, or grab lunch, as well as a display space for the family’s collection of birds’ nests, skulls, and feathers gathered from the surrounding woods. A sectional was replaced with an elegant pair of Liaigre sofas and two Finn Juhl leather chairs that can be angled toward the fireplace. And on the terrace, the furniture was rearranged so the wife could enjoy her favorite view of the lake. “I just wanted them to walk through the doors and not feel cold,” Brown says. “Just very, very warm.”
The guest bedroom opens onto a courtyard.
Adrian Gaut
A custom oak screen frames the bed in the primary bedroom, where a vintage Paul Mayén wicker lamp tops a nightstand.
Adrian GautThe rugs, sourced from a dealer in Los Angeles, were perhaps the most considered element of all. Brown had a selection laid out across a warehouse floor—“like a Persian bazaar,” she says—so the client could walk among them and truly see them. Together they picked out an antique Mahal for the living area and a vintage striped kilim for under the Saarinen table in the dining area.
When Bates saw how their faded warmth added depth and subtle color to the interiors, he nodded approvingly. “We always want the project to be rich and meaningful,” he says. “Most importantly, we teach each other.”
THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN VOLUME 21 OF FREDERIC MAGAZINE. CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE!
