Collection by RaeAnn Rowlin
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Brooklyn-born painter Christopher Florentino sought a residence to house his collection of midcentury modern furniture that he’d started to amass as a teen. When he saw a Gene Leedy–designed 1963 ranch house on Instagram, he knew he’d found the perfect place. Nestled in Winter Haven, Florida, the Ellison Residence was teeming with all the elements of Florentino’s modern design fantasy including courtyards, local sandstone, glass walls, and a sense of indoor/outdoor living. He bought the house without even stepping inside. Now, it’s filled with the quintessential accents of the era including a George Nelson’s Saucer Bubble pendant, Eames furnishings including a LCW chair, Molded Fiberglass armchair, and Molded Plywood coffee table. He also maintained all original facets of the home from cabinets to door hardware down to the cork flooring; and even the palette plays to the era with primary colors and color blocking dominating the abode.
Maison Gauthier was intended to serve as a permanent family home rather than as a simple summer residence, and it adopts a more substantial sense of scale and materiality. The residence was designed for Jean Prouvé’s own daughter, Françoise—who was married to a doctor—and her young family. The site near Saint-Dié is to the southeast of the city of Nancy, where Prouvé had built his own family home some years earlier. The single-level home perches on the side of a hill, looking towards the town. It features walls made of insulated aluminum panels sitting on concrete foundations, along with horizontal strip windows around the bedrooms at one end of the building and more extensive glazing around the living area at the other.