With home ownership out of reach to most New Yorkers and urban life more strained, this book offers a collection of twelve aspirational--and achievable--spaces upstate, from bucolic weekend retreats to the small-town residences of Brooklyn expats. Among them are a farmhouse of food photographers whose kitchen is stocked with handmade ceramics and jars of dried flowers; a rustic Victorian filled with period-perfect flea-market curios; an idyllic minimalist cottage with great nineteenth-century bones; a ramshackle Georgian whose peeling walls offset furniture built by the owner; and the country-house-on-acid of an artist and art director, complete with giant mushroom side tables and permanently installed party streamers. Shared by these distinctive spaces is a common ethos- a slow and creative approach to decoration that centers on collections gradually accumulated, embraces imperfection, and values comfort and character above all. These spaces will have city- and country-dwellers alike dreaming of carving out a personal haven far from the five boroughs.
