[post_ads]Alban Barrus has fallen in love with two things in his life practically at first sight: his wife, Juliet Barrus, and the blueprints for the couple’s French Country home in Kinston, North Carolina. In fact, three months after the couple met they were engaged. They married three months after that. Building the house took a bit longer.
Alban and Juliet Barrus’s French Country Home was drawn and built by William S. Harvey, Sr. with interior design by Otto Zenke.
From
the one-of-a-kind architectural details to the stunning art—quite a bit
of which was created by Juliet, an accomplished artist—to the peerless
antiques adorning the spacious rooms, it’s easy to imagine that such a
home could become a look-but-don’t-touch kind of place. On the contrary,
Juliet says, “It’s not a showplace. It has been so lived in.”
The shape of the entrance hall allows for
passage into all of the homes main entertaining areas—and is a perfect
sunning spot for Sam, the family dog.
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The Barruses raised
their two sons, Alban III and Charles, in this very home and Juliet
recalls them playing in front of the fireplaces, riding their tricycles,
and running down the halls. One has to wonder if tricycles and toy
trucks were what William Harvey, who happens to be my
grandfather-in-law, imagined when he drew and built this estate,
complete with pool and attached pool house.
The chest in the corner is from the 15th Century and once resided in Countess Fortuny’s office. The interior of the chest is still covered in Fortuny fabric.
And
it’s unlikely that interior designer Otto Zenke pictured children,
grandchildren and dogs among the millwork he hand designed and
furnishings that he either personally created or scoured the globe for.
The chandelier over the dining table was a gift from Mr. Barrus’s aunts.
And,
yet, this home is lovely yet not too precious, picturesque but real, in
the way the best homes always are. “It’s such an easy house,” Barrus
says. “We live all over it.”
Juliet saw a fender similar to this one in
another Zenke-designed home and knew it would be the perfect addition to
the room—and would keep the children away from the fire. Mr. Zenke
found one in London and it was cut and recovered to fit the space.
[post_ads]You
can tell by the way her face lights when she talks about this house
that the memories here are so vivid, so real, that this home, though
updated and changed over time, is in some ways a relic of a beautiful
life, that each room contains memories of birthday parties and cocktail
soirees, cherished houseguests and family Christmases. Although she has a
degree in interior design, Juliet did little to the house when she
moved in, so as not to disrupt Zenke and Harvey’s almost perfect
vision.
As the years have gone and the home has evolved, one of the
loveliest changes has been the addition of Juliet’s stunning art to the
rooms. The power and grace of a racehorse is exquisitely captured in a
piece over the den mantle, a subject that is close to the artist’s
heart. She has long had a love of horses. Her favorite movie is
Seabiscuit.
Another of Juliet’s paintings, "Red Poppy Field," adorns the downstairs guest bedroom.
Perhaps
one of my favorite things about this house and the couple who has made
it a warm and welcoming home, is that they share it so willingly. In
fact, they have opened their doors to celebrate the launch of my new
novel, Slightly South of Simple and raise money for a cause near and dear to all of our hearts, the Lenoir County SPCA.
The newly remodeled kitchen features Carrara Marble counter tops and a honed granite island
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It
is another act of love, one that will have widespread and far-reaching
consequences, another memory that will be made in a home so full of
them.
Juliet’s art studio overlooks the stunning pool. The paintings are for her new book Siete.
There
is no denying that that one little glance—at a blueprint and at a
future wife—created not only a family but also a life well lived.
Kristy Woodson Harvey’s third novel, Slightly South of Simple, the first book in the Peachtree Bluff series, combines her two loves: writing and interior design. She writes the blog Design Chic,
an inaugural member of the Design Blogger Hall of Fame, with her mom,
Beth Woodson. Harvey lives in North Carolina with her husband and
five-year-old son. Slightly South of Simple (Simon & Schuster, 4.25.17) is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, and wherever books are sold.From the next “major voice in Southern fiction” (New York Times bestselling
author Elin Hilderbrand) comes the first in an all-new series
chronicling the journeys of three sisters and their mother—and a secret
from their past that has the potential to tear them apart and reshape
their very definition of what it means to be a family.
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