Peek Inside This Grand New Tuxedo Park Residence Overlooking a Historic Estate Garden

Traditional plantings by landscape architect John Howard frame the entryway. An arched opening in the stair wall houses an antique garden finial salvaged from the existing garden designed by Philip Trammell Shutze.

A bench sits pretty among the stately boxwoods.

A birdbath preserved from the Shutze garden finds new life in an east-facing garden.

With its soft curves, the back hall’s stair design mimics the grandeur of the home’s main stair.

The office features French oak paneled walls and Phillip Jeffries grasscloth on the ceiling. Blues take their cues from the Albert Einstein painting by Steve Penley above the Grange Furniture credenza.

A round dining table from Emanuel Morez, a curved console from Century, and a Formations chandelier create movement in the formal dining room. An encaustic by Dusty Griffith through Pryor Fine Art adds artful flair.

“I never use a mirror unless it has a purpose,” says designer Tish Mills of the convex silvered mirror above the limestone fireplace. “This one brings more light into the room, and it also reflects the art on the opposite wall.”

A pair of Ferrell Mittman sofas settle in the center of the main living room, accompanied by four Scalamandré armchairs.

Lofty ceilings, iron windows and doors, split-face Indiana limestone, and oak timbers add to the industrial feel of the wing. The barn painting is by Susie Pryor through Pryor Fine Art.

The limestone-and-iron breakfast table from Robert James Collection centers the open floor plan in the home’s breakfast area.

The kitchen is both classic and modern thanks to old-world materials used in a fresh way.

A marsh landscape with full moon adds a dreamy vision above the iron bed, one of the few pieces that the owners reused from their former home. A pair of new oak chests from Julian Chichester interpret early Italian designs.

The spacious primary bath accommodates two custom vanities from Karpaty separated by a freestanding soaking tub from Renaissance Tile & Bath.

Half walls on each vanity offer separation and privacy.

Each of the young adult children met with Mills to select finishes for their rooms. In this daughter’s room, a four-poster bed from Tritter Feefer grounds the space.

Howard bridged the area between the new house and the old garden with an expanse of a zoysia lawn and a pool that recalls the shape of a former koi pond.

The outdoor kitchen is a grill master’s dream thanks to the stainless steel gas grill and Big Green Egg. 

A new parterre garden of winter gem boxwood mimics the design in the upper garden. “It also provides visual balance to the rear of the house,” says Howard. “Instead of an additional wing, the garden takes the weight of the architecture.”

Serendipity—that’s the only way to describe the evolution of this verdant property and the stately home that sits on it. That’s not to say it came without challenges, though, and thanks to a like-minded group of talents that included residential designer Rick Hatch of Harrison Design, interior designer Tish Mills, landscape architect John Howard, and residential builders McGarrity-Garcia, the new home blends seamlessly with the grandeur and grace of its Tuxedo Park neighbors. “This project was so incredibly collaborative,” says Mills. “We all knew that the new exterior of house had to look like it had always been there, but inside, the owners asked for more of an up-to-date look.”

Two items that would remain top of mind throughout the project: applying tried-and-true materials to an interior design that lived for today, and preserving and enhancing the long-neglected garden designed by 20th-century classicist architect Philip Trammell Shutze.

From the approach, the house is European in style. Thanks to its limestone exterior, slate roof, stalwart chimneys, and bifurcated stair, the facade relates well to its Georgian, Tudor, and Italian and Greek Revival neighbors. An additional wing keeps the front scale intact, but it allowed freedom to vary the architectural vocabulary. “The wing appears newer than the main part of the house,” says Hatch. “This gives it the look of a generational home that has been added to over time.”

Hatch designed the main house with traditional rooms including the double-height foyer with floating staircase. “The stairs and custom railing were shaped from the bottom up so it would curve as one contiguous piece,” says Hatch of the stair’s sculptural effect. Just beyond through a cased opening, the living room ushers the homeowners into views of the resurrected garden framed by floor-to-ceiling iron windows inset with French doors. A French chandelier with plentiful flourishes contrasts the streamlined furnishings and accessories to create a finely balanced tension. “There are not many antiques in this house,” says Mills. “It’s much more transitional. New furnishings and contemporary art allow it to be elegant, but grounded.”

 Behind the fireplace wall, the design takes a turn as it moves into the wine room, a niche that offers a pause before segueing into the kitchen. Here, an inset framed in glass looks into the back side of the living room fireplace. The minimalist look foreshadows the modification in architecture, where the kitchen serves as an L-bracket connecting a wing of living spaces to the back of the house. In this wing, the look is more agrarian than manor house. Open spaces unite beneath vaulted, beamed ceilings. Floor-to-ceiling iron windows maintain the line of vision to the gardens and covered outdoor porch. “It was important to the owners that we maintain visual and physical flow to the outside, so we designed interiors that segued well with an indoor-outdoor lifestyle,” says Mills.

In addition to a consistent use of materials and texture-heavy neutrals in both the main house and the wing, the home’s other great unifier is the garden—a view enjoyed by nearly every room. “Siting the new house to relate to the garden was the trick,” says Howard. “We lowered the grade of the lot to minimize the slope. That allowed us to connect a new pool and terraced garden to the existing garden.”

INTERIOR DESIGN Tish Mills, Tish Mills Interiors, (404) 814-3838; harmoniousliving.net RESIDENTIAL DESIGNER Rick Hatch, Harrison Design, (404) 365-7760; harrisondesign.com BUILDER McGarrity-Garcia Residential, LLC LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT John Howard, Howard Design Studio, LLC, (404) 876-7051; howarddesignstudio.com