Former editor turned digital doyenne for fashion brands, Eva Chen knows about design; Chen held positions at Lucky magazine and Teen Vogue before becoming the director of fashion partnerships at Instagram.
But when it came to designing her new country home in Connecticut, the New Yorker turned to the design experts at the Sharon-based interior design firm of Hendricks Churchill. Principal interior designer Heide Hendricks and creative director Rafe Churchill melded their design vision with Chen’s to create a home for her family in Litchfield County. The results were written up and photographed for the September issue of Architectural Digest (AD).
“She has great style,” Hendricks said, noting the two worked well together in a true collaborative effort. “It was really fun working with her. She introduced us to some vendors who she had come across in her editorial work and likewise we introduced her to some of the vendors and resources that we work with as designers.”
The Litchfield County home of fashion powerhouse Eva Chen was recently featured in Architectural Digest after a remodel by Connecticut-based design firm Hendricks Churchill.
Chris Mottalini / Contributed
The Litchfield County home of fashion powerhouse Eva Chen was recently featured in Architectural Digest after a remodel by Connecticut-based design firm Hendricks Churchill.
Chris Mottalini / Contributed“She doesn’t necessarily have the experience of pulling rooms together and selecting the right size piece of furniture and where it should be placed,” Hendricks added. “At the same time though, when we presented options to her, she was better able to articulate what she liked and didn’t like once we were able to map it out for her.”
The 3,300-square-foot Cape Cod home on 9 acres in Litchfield County has plenty of room for the family as Chen and her husband, Thomas Bannister, welcomed their third child earlier this year, but the layout needed work. Hendricks Churchill created a space where the family could thrive, knocking down a wall, enlarging the living room as well as a guest suite for parents and, of course, adding all the requisite interior design touches to give the home warmth and character.
“The house had really good bones and nice high ceilings on the main level,” Hendricks said. “It is well laid out and we could easily add the amenities needed. We did not have to increase the footprint but just worked with the existing footprint but made it work better.”
Eva Chen wears a beige long coat, a white t-shirt, green leather pants, pointy shoes, outside Koche x Pucci, during Milan Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2020-2021 on February 20, 2020 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Edward Berthelot/Getty Images)
Edward Berthelot/WireImageWhile the article detailing the design project just hit newsstands, the actual project began in November 2019, slowed down a bit due to the pandemic and was done by fall 2020.
Growing up in New York City, Chen reportedly never considered herself a “country girl” but a weekend getaway she and her husband took in Amenia, N.Y., introduced them to the joys of country living and allowing their kids lots of room to play among nature.
“They were inspired to start looking for a house and found a house that was not ideal in terms of how it was configured or how she imagined living there with her family,” Hendricks said. “Some basic changes needed to be made like for instance she needed a guest room for her parents to really live with her a lot of the time as well as additional bathrooms.”
The Litchfield County home of fashion powerhouse Eva Chen was recently featured in Architectural Digest after a remodel by Connecticut-based design firm Hendricks Churchill.
Chris Mottalini / ContributedThey also made the eat-in kitchen larger and more homey as that was to be the nucleus of the home. Since the family is made up of avid readers (Chen herself has authored children’s books), Hendricks and her team created several cozy book nooks.
“Beyond that, we had a lot of flexibility to just sort of put our designer spin on things. Rafe and I are especially drawn to New England vernacular and recreating old houses to work with contemporary lifestyles but still looking to make the old house look like an old house,” she said. “In the case of Eva’s house, it wasn’t really an old house (the home was built in 1987), but we made some modifications that make it feel like a bit more of an older Colonial influenced kitchen with lots of beadboard.”
The Litchfield County home of fashion powerhouse Eva Chen was recently featured in Architectural Digest after a remodel by Connecticut-based design firm Hendricks Churchill.
Chris Mottalini / ContributedCiting an example of how their design visions blended, Hendricks said the dining room turned out to be her favorite room. She chose Persian-inspired wallpaper, “Jaipur,” from Antoinette Poisson, a French company that creates wallpaper based on 18th Century textiles and papers.
“I had submitted it a few times to Eva for her consideration and she was afraid that it was just too busy and too bold and that she would tire of it,” Hendricks said. “I sort of wore her down. She eventually said ‘Okay, let’s try it’ and now it is one of her favorite elements too.”
Hendricks noted AD approached them, after the firm was recognized with a Stanford White design award, to see if they had any unpublished projects in the works and were immediately excited by the Chen home. Although Hendricks Churchill projects have been profiled online by AD before, this was the first time the Connecticut designers made the print edition of the magazine.
“It has sort of been one of our goals,” Hendricks said. “So to achieve it and with such a fun project that Rafe and I worked on together was very satisfying.”
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