above: Green is the grounding theme in the living room, where a pair of club chairs and mirrors lend symmetry to the space.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JANE BEILES
“Here comes the color lady!” That’s the welcome given to veteran designer Bobbi Stuart as she walks into the showrooms of Stark Carpet or Designers Guild, often with a client in tow. The sales associates greet her accordingly: The red-headed decorator has included colorful furnishings and accessories in her work so frequently that she’s developed a reputation in the trade for all things bright and happy. Bobbi even wears a beaded bracelet with letters that spell the moniker The Color Lady, hand-crafted by her granddaughter.
“She made it for me when she was about nine or ten, and I never take it off,” says the proud grandmother and design pro who has logged decades in the business. Though Bobbi always works to suit her clients’ tastes and can design in neutrals as well, she says, “It’s much more fun to do color.” Her connections with her clients have proven to be equally colorful, developing friendships that span generations and numerous projects. For the Markley family, she has designed five homes around the country—from Sea Island, Georgia, to Dallas, Texas—with two houses for the senior Markleys and three for Lynn, who owns this Greenwich townhouse.
“She’s been in my life for a long time, and this woman knows how to make everything she touches sparkle with style,” says Lynn, who hired the trusted decorator during a top-to-bottom renovation of her current home. Calling on Chip Dunn of New Ridge Builders, recommended by Bobbi, the team took the 40-year-old townhouse down to the studs for a complete overhaul. It was part of a unique estate that was the site of a late-1800s Victorian house, and the townhouse buildings were constructed to reflect that character. The renovation team worked to preserve the traditional nature of the property while Bobbi brought in bold yet comfortable furnishings to suit Lynn’s lifestyle.
BRIGHT AND EARLY DAYS
Tracing her connection to Bobbi, Lynn recalls that they first met when she was decorating her parents’ Colonial in New Canaan. Mutual friends had recommended Bobbi to the Markley family. Years later, Bobbi and Lynn’s mom would fly out to Texas together to assist Lynn in sprucing up her first place. They were a hands-on team, scouring small shops in the area. On another family project in Sea Island, the duo (Bobbi and Georgia Ann Markley) rented a flat-bed truck and moved some of the furnishings themselves.
Bobbi’s love of working with fabrics and creating decorative spaces began during a job as a young assistant editor at a magazine that was a rival to Seventeen called Ingenue. She assisted with photo shoots and put together a DIY sewing column, which exposed her to the range of materials out there.
“Decorating was not a thing where I grew up,” Bobbi says about her small hometown in Massachusetts. But in her editorial role, she says, “I would get to go to the fabric market, pick out fabrics and trimmings,” she says, working with the team on a wide range of stories that included a feature with a young Chrissie Evert modeling for a sew-your-own-tennis-dress story. Later Bobbi was recruited to help produce stories like Make Over Your Room, and she became the “accomplice” to stylist and editor Abbie Darer, whom she calls her mentor.
“We had such fun going to shoots. I’d go to New York every day and run around town, and we’d borrow stuff from places like Bloomingdale’s. It was like a scavenger hunt.” She would go on to work on many design features and create vignettes for catalogs at furniture brands such as Ethan Allen. Eventually, when friends asked Bobbi to turn her eye to their homes, she started offering design advice, and soon she had launched her career in interiors, opening her own firm. Since then, it’s Bobbi’s design work that has become the subject of the magazine features.
COOKING UP GOOD TIMES
When she was hired to work on Lynn’s townhouse, Bobbi already had a good sense about her lifestyle. Lynn loves to host and cook for people, whether it’s inviting a few neighbors over for dinner or hosting a group of 20 for Easter lunch complete with an egg hunt. A giant magnetic Scrabble board is installed on the walls of the basement rec room, the site of many game nights. Bobbi’s family has enjoyed gatherings at Chez Lynn; she has become “Auntie Lynn” to Bobbi’s grandkids, and they have become like family to her. “She welcomes everyone,” Bobbi says.
When thinking back on her goals for this project, Lynn says, “I need color. It boosts my spirits,” and Bobbi’s design with bursts of bold hues would come together “to create my ultimate happy place.” Bobbi adds, “She wanted it to be an entertaining space, because she’s an incredible cook. She’s writing a cookbook (self-published, for family and friends).” Naturally, a fabulous kitchen was a top requirement. Lynn shares her townhouse with her Border Collie mix Shakira Shakira, so the furnishings also needed to be durable enough for a furry companion.
Even though the designer and homeowner were already in synch on the direction for the home, Bobbi invited Lynn to get involved in the selection and sourcing process, bringing her along to browse the trade-only shops. “I welcome people into the showrooms with me early on, because some people have no idea what’s out there,” she says. At Stark Carpet in Stamford, Lynn fell in love with a gray and blue rug for her bedroom, which they wound up having made for her in a custom size. “When you go into a showroom, you see all these different kinds of fabrics, wallpapers or furniture, and it opens up your mind.”
Lynn kept an open mind with any suggestions Bobbi had, letting her guide her toward the vibrant greens that are a thread throughout the house. In several rooms, art served as the inspiration for the colors and the spring-like green was no exception. Bobbi frequently sources art and home furnishings from Found in New Canaan, and that’s where she discovered the multi-hued abstract painting that’s hung above the fireplace mantel. After choosing that, she says, “I came home with all these green velvets,” and Lynn gave the “green light” to the one that graces the couch in her living room. For two cream-colored club chairs in the room, Bobbi added oomph with a wide stripe of a botanical-patterned fabric down the center of each chair. A pair of metal-trimmed mirrors underscore the symmetry in the space.
With green and plant-like motifs emerging in the living room, the theme was continued in the dining room with the selection of Scalamandre Jardin de Chine wallpaper. Wing chairs in a green wicker sit at either end of the custom wood dining table, while the other chairs surrounding it feature seats covered in a green striped fabric. The verdant hue continues in the kitchen where the sconces above the sink and the backsplash are also green, reflecting nature and the pretty plants and hedge in the yard outside. “It’s such a happy color, and it brings the outside in, especially in the winter, when there is no outside green,” Bobbi says.
Other rooms in the house feature pinks and turquoise blue while a bar in the basement TV room is lacquered in a bold red. But the space that is both Lynn and Bobbi’s favorite, the den, is encased in blues and jewel tones. The idea for the rich-blue den with its custom sofas and silk-and-wool shag rug came about when Bobbi spotted a piece of art at Trovare Home, a large garden-scene in assorted blues that hangs on the wall. Lynn fell in love with the artwork, and it became the jumping off point for walls, which are lacquered in Benjamin Moore, Bellbottom Blues.
“It’s a small room, but it’s my favorite, because it’s such elegant decor, but it has a very cozy vibe in there, and I live in there,” says Lynn. “It’s where I watch The Pitt and where I drink my wine.” She also invites Bobbi over to enjoy the den from time to time. Bobbi notes that the lacquered walls “make the whole room feel like a big cozy tent.”
While Lynn often hosts Bobbi and her family, Bobbi is equally generous in her efforts to find the perfect, personal furnishings for Lynn, never settling for run-of-the-mill pieces. For her bedroom, she found a phenomenal, shapely headboard in France, covered in a bold blue fabric, and created a custom bed skirt out of fringe. For the powder room, Bobbi picked up an antique desk and had that converted into a vanity with sink, paired with a geometric mirror. Each detail is special and meaningful.
“She’s a lot of fun to be with, and she goes to the ends of the earth to find things, pouring her heart and soul into decorating my home,” Lynn says of her decorator and friend. “There’s art, there’s color, there are treasures. She can brilliantly mix it up and it all comes together. It’s like all her talents are sprinkled in every room.”