Page 15 - The Hunt - Spring/Summer 2023

By Eileen Smith Dallabrida | Photos by Laurey Glenn
HOME & GARDEN
Here’s Mud in Your Eye
An informal entry that’s practical—and pretty.
In resuscitating the mudroom, the designer brought in lively Pierre Frey wallpaper,
a mélange of zebras, flamingos, butterflies, foxes and dinosaurs inspired by the gardens of Paris.
Consider the humble mudroom, the informal entry that serves as a conduit between the grit, grime and inclement weather of the outdoors and the comfort of the home’s primary living spaces. For one Chester County couple, the mudroom was a purely utilitarian space between the garage and the kitchen, a dreary place to shed boots, dry the dogs’ muddy paws, and quickly move on.
They’d lived in their 4,000-square-foot,
circa-1940 house for 30 years, updating and refreshing all the other rooms. When they decided to make over the mudroom, they turned to Lucy O’Brien, founder of Tartan & Toile, a boutique design firm in Swarthmore. “Our goal was to make it whimsical, with a French-English vibe,” the designer says.
“We wanted an Old World feel to it.”
The starting point was a small, nondescript
room, roughly 10 feet by six feet, with a washer,
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