Let the Sun Shine
Designer Scott Sanders uses color to restore the radiance of a prewar living room
Written by Marjorie E. Gage
“Everything in this room was inspired by the light that pours through the French doors,” says New York– based designer Scott Sanders of the sunny living/family space he designed for a country estate. “When I entered the room for the first time, it gave me such a happy feeling that I knew it had to be yellow,” he says. Guided by instinct, Sanders painted all the walls and woodwork Benjamin Moore’s “Golden Groves” (number 313), a color “that’s not too gold, not too pale—just really warm and inviting.”
More glimmers of gold were introduced in the room’s furnishings—a mix of new and vintage chairs, tables, textiles and accessories that balance the room’s prewar elegance with contemporary comfort. A chevron-patterned Ikat rug, custom-woven in the room’s signature yellow and sea-glass green, anchors a seating area filled with oversized furnishings designed to relax in. A white-resin console table with a sculptural base reminiscent of a coral reef serves as a bar for entertaining. And a rattan desk, positioned near a window overlooking a river, supplies a comfortable place to work, study or write. “I wanted this to be an approachable room that a family could use in a lot of different ways,” Sanders explains. “It’s not a space to admire from the threshold, like a museum exhibit.”
Sanders’ design was created for the Stately Homes-by-the-Sea Show House, held to benefit the Visiting Nurse Association Health Group (800.400.0981), which provides Medicare- and Medicaid-certified home care, round-the-clock nursing, rehab therapy, infusion therapy, medical social work and other services. For more home- design inspiration, check out the work of leading designers at two upcoming local show houses: the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club Decorator Show House in Manhattan (May 7–June 4, kipsbaydecoratorshowhouse.org) and The Hampton Designer Showhouse in Bridgehampton (July 21–September 2, hamptondesignershowhouse.com).
