If you currently live an elegant country lifestyle or if you aspire to, and if you believe (like I do) that elegant country style is not only a way of life, but also a mindset, then I welcome you to my site!

With each post I’ll be exploring what elegant country style means to me and how many have achieved it (all over the world) through architecture, interior design, gardening, and even sartorial choices.

Here, is a Bunny Mellon vignette to start us off. Who better (in my opinion) to show us one way to achieve elegant country style than the woman who said to her interior decorators (Bruce Budd, John Fowler, and Billy Baldwin no less): “Make it look like we just brought it down from the attic.” She was the queen of understated and knew how to blend the rustic with the refined.

Here is a photograph of her desk in her home called Oak Spring in Virginia. Her signature elements were her topiaries (which she grew herself), handwoven baskets, rooms in shades of white, blue, cream, and yellow, Impressionist landscape paintings, and painted hardwood floors.  Notice the antique boxes and Staffordshire porcelain tulips alongside her garden shears and a simple terra cotta pot. Quite lovely!