Feb. 05--Peering into a Belgian castle isn't just an exercise in "Game of Thrones" fantasy.
Carolyn Englefield, who spent 13 years as a European correspondent for the American luxury design magazine Veranda, extracts some pragmatic inspiration from that and other historic homes she features in the design compendium "Veranda: A Passion for Living" (Hearst, $60). The coffee-table book opens the doors to 30 sprawling estates and tiny pied-a-terre in Italy, Switzerland, Sweden and elsewhere in Europe, arriving at design credos anyone can live by.
"It begins with accepting the idea of the art of imperfection and knowing the magic is in the mix," Englefield said by phone. "Breaking conventional ideas can give us the freedom to create something."
The residences in the book belong to architects, interior designers and antiques dealers who are in a position to execute their vision without compromise.
"Their homes are a pure expression of their passion for living and what they love," Englefield said. "They're not filtered through the lens of clients' needs."
Not everyone has the resources of a designer at their disposal. But with a little introspection, anyone can translate their tastes and experiences to their interiors.
"My whole point is that that's what personal style is," Englefield said.
In a recent visit to the home of designer Alessandra Branca, Englefield noted the influence of Branca's childhood in Italy.
"Had she not grown up in Rome, her personal aesthetic would not be the same," Englefield said. "Every country sees pattern and color and light differently."
Budget limitations shouldn't quash personal expression.
"Everything doesn't have to be a fine priceless antique," she said. "The beauty is finding wonderful things, whether in flea markets or antique shows, auctions or estate sales, or online through 1st Dibs."
Thumbing through design books and catalogs from Restoration Hardware or Ikea can help you winnow your preferences and find attainable pieces that reflect them.
Looking at art also can be inspirational and instructive. The wife of Belgian designer Axel Vervoordt taught herself flower arranging by studying old Flemish still lifes.
The Vervoordts are masters of mixing high and low, Englefield said, even in the castle they own outside Antwerp. The kitchen's bold brass chandelier hangs over an unfinished wood table for informal meals.
"That juxtaposition makes it approachable," Englefield said. "We're not living in the '80s with everything overlayered and tasseled and trimmed; it's about the ease of living."
The houses she chose for the book illustrate comfort, style, personal taste and relevance to where they are, she said.
"They've all been sensitive to the colors in the environment, whether the northern lights in Sweden or the lavender fields in Provence or the clay in Tuscany."
In an American urban condo, that environmental sensitivity could take the form of, say, gray and black interiors and sheer curtains with a subtle grid pattern, to emulate the buildings outside, Englefield said.
But it's not impossible to import a Cotswoldy-cottage look to a loft in the city.
"It will translate in a different way, but it can have the same kind of charm and warmth depending on how you incorporate those elements," she said.
When Englefield moved back to New York from Paris, she wondered how her flea market finds would fit into a prewar building devoid of character.
"I looked at a hundred apartments before I found my idiosyncratic atelier-esque apartment," she said. "Because it wasn't typical, it all kind of worked."
Englefield subscribes to Diana Vreeland's mantra: "The eye must travel."
"I believe every dream can become a reality," Englefield said. "It was my dream to live in Paris five years before I was able to live there. While there, I was expanding my vision and knowledge of how different people live, which I ultimately brought back with me and put in my book. Hopefully by the time people have read it, they'll feel like they not only see the designer's point of view, but they'll also begin to see things differently themselves."
wdonahue@tribpub.com
