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Honored Contributor
Posts: 18,226
Registered: ‎11-08-2014

"CUTHBERT", GOTHIC REVIVAL COTTAGE IN GEORGIA

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What an amazing person Furlow Gatewood must be.  The designer and antiques dealer's house, "Cuthbert", was widely featured after he turned 90, sometime in the 2010's.  I apologize for not knowing what his current status is, but here is the Southern Gothic cottage he salvaged and moved to Americus, Georgia a few years ago.  He had to add a kitchen and bathroom onto it.

 

This incredible entrance hall sets the tone.  I think those salvaged dark pillars are a genius touch.

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His sculpture of the huntress "Diana" had been moldering away in a basement or somewhere, just because her deer or hound's head had broken off!  How dramatically perfect she is for that stately hallway. 

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Those arches.  Wow, it just struck me how hard it must have been to move this house, even in sections.  Love his blue and white porcelain everywhere--  it lends itself so well to the airy, 'storybook', ethereal feeling you get from the dwelling....

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His blue and white mixed with the muted engravings on wall--  love that.

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I like how the warm, russet tones of that beautiful floor offset the "light and bright" of the rest of the room...

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Here's one vignette where I humbly think 'less would be more':  the lamp, the ginger jar, and that wonderful water fowl (swan?) would do it for me.  But I get it--  he loves his rare objects and curiosities!  The colors, including the painting-- fabulous.

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This painted floor is so subtle and beautiful, it reminds me of the painted effects you see in old Gustavian houses in Sweden:

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Sweet doggie, and doggie portrait.

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I adore this charmer of a little bedroom.

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Sorry to gush, but this trellised porch could not be more perfect:

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The gentleman in question, Furlow Gatewood. (I like saying that name...)  Long a business associate of John Rosselli, (and of course, his legendary designer wife Bunny Williams), the two have scoured Europe and elsewhere for venerable antiques.

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Apparently the late Julia Reed, whose houses we've dissected here before, wrote a book on Gatewood.  I love his sweet pups!

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One of his other hobbies?   Peacocks!  There are a whole passel (flock, pride, herd?) of them on the property.  What a dreamy driveway:

 

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As usual, I feel these reduced-size photos can't give the true scope.  If interested, both "Veranda" and laurelberninteriors.com show the property in all its glory.

 

What I like is, true, there's formality, (more than I would personally live with) and incredible antiques, etc., but also amid all the beauty, a breezy tranquility that hits me in a very nice way.  I'd love to take tea there, and explore.    

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 7,247
Registered: ‎09-24-2011

Re: "CUTHBERT", GOTHIC REVIVAL COTTAGE IN GEORGIA

Though a formal home, it seems quite comfy and welcoming to live in to me.

 

He was/is a magnificent designer.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 8,478
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: "CUTHBERT", GOTHIC REVIVAL COTTAGE IN GEORGIA

Gorgeous home...I like most of the rooms but not all of the furniture and decor.

The trellised porch and breakfast nook are my favorite rooms in the home.

I LOVE the trellised porch..it is so inviting.

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 5,057
Registered: ‎05-24-2010

Re: "CUTHBERT", GOTHIC REVIVAL COTTAGE IN GEORGIA

The home is magnificent. It is not my personal style, as I like less clutter, and clean modern lines.

 

I have to say that I am always impressed when someone has such a sense of style, and displays it in such a bold statement.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 9,745
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: "CUTHBERT", GOTHIC REVIVAL COTTAGE IN GEORGIA

@Oznell 

 

Thank you, Oznell.  What a lovely home!!!!  I do own "One Man's Folly", and loved Julia Reed, always thought it would be interesting to be this woman who wrote of and entertained so many notables (but who could hold her own with Buckley).  This home just screams Southern.  I do know where Americus is, not far down the road from us.  

 

This house has so many, just gorgeous, notable and unusual and collectors' items.  It just keeps the eye busy, from one point to the other.  I love those columns.  I love the gothic windows.  Yes, moving this house must have been such a tedium, hard to imagine how much work and patience went into its relocation.  It keeps its southern flavor but has almost a museum quality to the objects d'art. But well worth all the work.  It has to be the heart and soul of Americus.  I do know that is very, very near Jimmy Carter's home.  

 

I would expect Gatewood spent many hours just musing his collections before and aft finding and purchasing, owning them, being able to touch and treasure them.  Just pure eye candy for those who love the refined decor of his eye.  

 

I love the stories Bunny tells about their European trips and scouring the antique places.  Would that not be the trip of a lifetime to be a fly on the wall, or better yet, one of her entourage, when she and John go on a European shopping trip.

 

Bunny Williams (John and Gatewood) are and have always been among my favorite decorators.  But first comes Charles Faudree.  After Williams, Inc comes Charlotte Moss.  But what I love about Bunny is that she is such an unassuming Southern lady, but same with Julia Reed.  They retained their Southerness.  

 

I love this house.  My grandmother had a lot of blue & white. The Southern country flavor and openness of any very white house reminds me of her with open windows, a breeze and smell of Champney's pink cluster.  She loved Noisette and China roses.  She had Blue Onion (Oh, dear, how I wish I had gotten that instead of Aunt Margaret).  She had some blue & white dishes from occupied Japan later on which she placed on her Army-Navy tablecloth. Her home was nothing in comparison to this with his architectural finds, details and designs but the white ship-lap, painted floors, and just deep in the heart of the south reminds me so much of her, the beautiful Sunday dinner tables, fresh flowers from the garden and fluffy feather mattresses with lovely homemade quilts and rushing around for the preacher who was coming to eat.

 

Yes, I am still a big blue & white fan. I own Blue Danube, a display piece of Blue Onion, and a lot of blue & white that I find at the marketplace, antique & consignment stores.  I have kept all that and prefer it to the big clay and wooden pots preferred by today's designers.  I am old school.

 

 

Honored Contributor
Posts: 8,788
Registered: ‎06-10-2010

Re: "CUTHBERT", GOTHIC REVIVAL COTTAGE IN GEORGIA

This is a lovely home.  It gives off great vibes and you just kind of know it is filled with what the owner likes and loves. That, in itself, gives a warm and inviting feeling.  This has all that and more. 

Honored Contributor
Posts: 9,054
Registered: ‎06-14-2010

Re: "CUTHBERT", GOTHIC REVIVAL COTTAGE IN GEORGIA

There is so much about this home I love and relate to in taste and design.  It is stunning and the appeal throughout appreciated by one who loves this type of warmth and comfort of an elegant formal home.  There are so many aspects to point out but suffice it to say I would be very content in this home!!!  As soon as I would walk in, I would fall in love!!!!  Beautiful!!

Honored Contributor
Posts: 65,680
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: "CUTHBERT", GOTHIC REVIVAL COTTAGE IN GEORGIA

[ Edited ]

I believe I've read articles about Cuthbert and surely about Mr. Gatewood before. This cottage had me at that amazing front door. I very much appreciate his aesthetic, adore the exterior of that cottage and find almost all of the elements chosen for the interiors to be appealing. While I don't always appreciate the way elements have been combined, more times than not, I find these rooms very much to my liking. I'll be investigating the book mentioned. Thanks for posting this @Oznell...


In my pantry with my cupcakes...
Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 5,669
Registered: ‎06-07-2010

Re: "CUTHBERT", GOTHIC REVIVAL COTTAGE IN GEORGIA

Love the outside and some of the rooms, but not all.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 18,226
Registered: ‎11-08-2014

Re: "CUTHBERT", GOTHIC REVIVAL COTTAGE IN GEORGIA

What enjoyable responses to the thread...

 

@Nonametoday,  I love hearing your priceless reminiscences of your grandmother and her preferences and way of life!  Can just picture it from your description,  rushing to have things just so for the preacher, etc!

 

Agree the feeling here is so agreeably, deeply Southern in its feel for exquisite traditions,  beautiful objets, and the merging with nature, the ferns, wicker, etc.   The intimations of a boundless hospitality.

 

I love "Blue Onion" also.   And like Charles Faudree very much--  if I'm not mistaken, I think he's a favorite of @stevieb 's as well.  (Please correct me if I'm wrong, @stevieb ).

 

My all-time favorite designer is Albert Hadley.  Another brilliant traditionalist, but I tend to think of him as slightly more "austere" or "spare" than some others of his ilk...

 

Join you in loving blue-and-white!   I think just a piece or two of chinoiserie can be transforming to a room.  I have just two or 3 major pieces, that I love to strew around in different configurations--  an old, extremely fat pumpkin-like ginger jar,  his brother, a newer, quite tall one, and then I have a sort of "ersatz" chinoiserie blue and white rooster pitcher that I often group with them.... 

 

I no longer add to collections, (mostly) and continue to thin out things down to what I just 'have' to have, but if I yielded to temptation, blue-and-white, esp. ginger jars, would be a danger area for me!