Every other year, the area’s top interior and landscape designers are presented with a challenge: to take a space at an esteemed historic estate in the Morris or Somerset area and create magic.
Mansion in May, the preeminent designer showhouse in the New Jersey–New York area presented by the Women’s Association for Morristown Medical Center, celebrated its 20th installment this year. Proceeds benefitted the expansion and modernization of the Institute of Bioskills Training and Innovation at Morristown Medical Center, which allows health and medical providers to practice clinical skills through simulation.
This year’s selected grand estate was Three Fields in Menham, a 9,000-square-foot stone, brick and tile-roofed French manor–style home, designed by New York architect Greville Rickard and situated on almost 36 acres of pastoral, rolling fields.
After visitors tour the grounds, they cast a vote for their favorite interior and landscape design. The winners in each category receive the Tulip Award, the event’s highest honor. “Moor and Mountain,” designed by Sam Ciardi of Samuel Robert Signature Spaces, won for interior design. Ciardi says the design for the rustic but regal retreat was inspired by a desire to create a space in which people could come in from the cold, curl up by the fireplace and enjoy the holiday in a majestic, yet cozy, cabin.
The Tulip Award for landscape design went to “Petite Parterre,” by Erika Mantz and Anthony Sblendorio of Back to Nature Home & Garden who transformed the area in front of the pool house. It was inspired by the iconic parterregardens of the French countryside. A modern twist on the classic garden layout delivered an explosion of blooms in a gradient of colors, framed by a compact hedge. An antique olive jar planted with cascading annuals acted as a centerpiece, using viewpoints from the pool house and adjacent landscape spaces.
Learn more about Mansion in May and donate to the Institute of Bioskills Training and Innovation at Morristown Medical Center at MansionInMay.org.
This year’s selected grand estate was Three Fields in Menham, a 9,000-square-foot stone, brick and tile-roofed French manor–style home.