The Collected Cottage | Kathryn Crisp Greeley
Intro: Welcome to the one and only interior design book podcast, Decorating by the Book, hosted by Suzy Chase from her dining room table in New York City. Join Suzy for conversations about the latest and greatest interior design books with the authors who wrote them.
Kathryn Crisp Greeley: I am Kathryn Crisp Greeley and my latest book, the Collected Cottage, is about gardening, gatherings, and collecting at Chestnut Cottage, which is my home.
Suzy Chase: As you just mentioned, chestnut Cottage in Waynesville, North Carolina is your curated home, built in the mid 1920s. Take us back to the first time you saw chestnut Cottage. What drew you in and how did this empty canvas inspire you?
Kathryn Crisp Greeley: Well, as I drove up to the cottage, at the time I purchased the cottage, I was single. And as I drove up the street in the snow, I saw this little emerald green cottage that had an emerald green roof. And as I crossed the threshold, I knew that this would be home. The cottage was all wormy chestnut wood, and wormy chestnut is now a very sought after wood. At the time the cottage was built, it was really junk wood because the chestnut trees all up and down the east coast had been infected with a worm blot and considered junk wood. And the gentleman who built chestnut cottage was a forester, so he had access to this quote, junk wood. And every room in the house was chestnut, with the exception of the kitchen, which was pine. So as I crossed the threshold, I thought, this is just so cozy. Immediately I said to myself, the pine kitchen will have to be painted white. But I left the rest of the house chestnut. It took months to wash all of the walls, the ceiling, the doors, because sadly, the owners of the cottage smoked and the wormy chestnut was almost black. So I just had to get about getting my cottage into shape. And I think the thing that inspired me about it was it reminded me of cottages that I had seen in England and Ireland and Scotland. So I knew it was an empty canvas for my antiques.
Suzy Chase: This book is about the cottage. How is it divided up?
Kathryn Crisp Greeley: The book is divided by seasons. We start with the spring season, and each season has a section on gardening, how we garden, what we have in the garden at Chestnut Cottage. It has a couple of gatherings or entertaining events, and then I feature in each season. Some of my collections at the cottage.
Suzy Chase: Talk a little bit about how using antiques is the ultimate green design.
Kathryn Crisp Greeley: Sadly, I feel like that we have become sort of a throwaway society, and I see so many people purchasing new, low quality furnishings. When the legs fall off or whatever, they are just tossed to the street as rubbish. And I think the recycling of beautiful, good quality antiques is the ultimate way to quote, go green.
Suzy Chase: Your mother often referred to your collecting as an addiction, but you prefer to call it a passion. I'm curious to hear about how your blue and white collection was a starting point for a color scheme.
Kathryn Crisp Greeley: Well, I started collecting blue and white porcelains when I was in college, so I had acquired quite a bit of blue and white. And when I bought the cottage, as I said earlier, I knew that the kitchen had to be white. I'm a big fan of classic white kitchens, but I knew that if I painted the cottage kitchen white that it would be a perfect backdrop for my blue and white collection. So from the kitchen I started, I established color schemes for the remainder of the 935 square foot cottage to use blues in combination with greens, some yellows, and golds. So the blue and white just established the overall color scheme for the little cottage in its original state, as well as when we have added on to the cottage.
Suzy Chase: I mean, nothing's more classic than blue and white.
Kathryn Crisp Greeley: I quite agree, Suzy.
Suzy Chase: What is the difference between collected and decorated?
Kathryn Crisp Greeley: Well, over my 40 some year career in interior design, I have always wanted the interiors I design to look collected, not like I had pulled up in a truck with all of the furnishings from a furniture store. I wanted my clients interiors to reflect their personalities, their passions, their travels, their lifestyles. So I see a collected interior as a reflection of the inhabitants life, not of a furniture store or a trendy design theme.
Suzy Chase: It makes it so much more personal and interesting,
Kathryn Crisp Greeley: I think indeed it does. And I think the clients are much happier with it because it's about them, not about a designer.
Suzy Chase: What is your favorite collection in the cottage?
Kathryn Crisp Greeley: Oh, that would have to be the blue and white. Back to the blue and white, always. I've collected it for years. I was in an antique shop as recently as yesterday, and the first thing I head to are the blue and white pieces. So it has just been my favorite for many years, and I have never grown tired of any of my blue and white.
Suzy Chase: In the book, you share menus, personal recipes, and tips to enjoy each season. Could you talk a little bit about this?
Kathryn Crisp Greeley: My first book, The Collected Tabletop, I found that the family and friend recipes that I included in that book people loved. I got calls weekly about one recipe in particular, which was my grandmother's caramel cake recipe. So I knew that in the second book, the Collected Cottage, I wanted to include some of my recipes that I love, that I cook all the time, and that are very approachable and that seems to have been popular in both of the books I have as you may have noticed in the book, a lot of original watercolors of the china patterns and where the menu pages are. And I just felt like these original watercolors added a softness to the book in addition to all the image photography.
Suzy Chase: You're the person I want to talk to when it comes to holiday entertaining, and Christmas is right around the corner. You are the best planner and I'd love for you to walk me through your holiday to do list.
Kathryn Crisp Greeley: Well, the holidays begin at Chestnut Cottage the day after Thanksgiving. I barely get the Thanksgiving china put away from our friends and family Thanksgiving lunch before the seven live Christmas trees are delivered. The day after Thanksgiving sadness seven. And it is indeed an obsession. And it is surprising that my husband has not divorced me over the live Christmas trees. So the day after Thanksgiving, the Christmas trees come. We start to get those decorated. I climb up in the little attic of chestnut cottage and get all the decorations for each of the trees, which I have segregated by each tree collection. And we get the trees decorated. And then last week, I did all the greens in the windows. I did chandeliers, I did the window boxes and planters outside. So that is all done. And now it's on to holiday cocktail parties and family dinners. We get all the linens out, silver out, get the linens iron washed and ironed and perfectly done up and all the silver polished that I'm going to use for different events. And then it's time to cook. I enjoy cooking. It is not a chore for me. It is not frightening to me. So the time is rolling around because this Friday evening, we're having a little small cocktail party. So tomorrow will be my cooking day.
Suzy Chase: Now, is this where you do your soup and cornbread dinner?
Kathryn Crisp Greeley: No, this party on Friday evening is. I am the chairman of the board of trustees where I went at the university where I attended and received two design degrees. So I'm having my board over for cocktails on Friday evening. But annually I usually have a soup and cornbread dinner party because through the years I've noticed that people get a bit over a fillet and shrimp or the different dinners that they get served and that they seem to welcome something casual like soup and cornbread. And I have a recipe for broccoli cornbread that was my mother-in-law's recipe and is in the first book. And I always do a selection of vegetable beef soup and then a clam chowder. And people just seem to like the casual nature of a soup and cornbread dinner during the holidays.
Suzy Chase: So I've heard you say that your Christmas Eve table design rarely changes. Could you just chat a little bit about that? And what is your strategy for setting the table?
Kathryn Crisp Greeley: Well, I have, through the years collected, I guess, three different patterns of Christmas china. So I like to mix the patterns, layer them, and I often throughout the year, if I'm having an entertaining event, I will set the table a couple of days prior to the party so I can enjoy gazing upon the china patterns. I have often said in jest that I'm a chinaholic, so being able to just savor and enjoy the different patterns is why I do that a couple of days in advance. But I don't leave a table set all during the holidays with Christmas china.
Suzy Chase: Speaking of doing things in advance, how far in advance do you make your Bûche de Noël ? And the recipe can be found on page 288 and 289.
Kathryn Crisp Greeley: I usually make that the day before Christmas Eve because we have our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. So I will usually make that the day before. I'll make my meringue mushrooms, keep them at room temperature, and then I will make the yule log the day before Christmas Eve.
Suzy Chase: Are you making any of your mother's recipes this Christmas?
Kathryn Crisp Greeley: Oh, of course. One of her recipes that's in the collected cottage is pecan snowballs. So I always make those. I'm making those for just a little something sweet for the cocktail party on Friday evening. So I always make that. And another recipe that I'm making of hers for Friday evening is an olive spread that is very popular among anyone who comes to Chestnut Cottage.
Suzy Chase: So can you describe that?
Kathryn Crisp Greeley: It is a mixture of cream cheese, chopped olives, olive juice and pecans. And you mix that up, stick it in the refrigerator, and then I serve it on little toast rounds.
Suzy Chase: That sounds great.
Kathryn Crisp Greeley: It's an easy, quick recipe that you can make up and it keeps in the refrigerator for at least a week. And if you have people dropping in during the holidays, it's just an easy recipe to make.
Suzy Chase: Considering the emphasis on collecting in your book, are there any particular holiday theme collectibles or ornaments that hold a special place in your heart?
Kathryn Crisp Greeley: Well, when you have seven live Christmas trees. Suzy at Chestnut Cottage, each of the trees have a theme. For instance, I have an Irish tree. My grandfather was from Ireland. I have a pesty westy, as I mentioned earlier. So Duncan McDuff has his own westy tree. He includes ornaments of some of his other dog friends, including cats. And I have a tree in the master bedroom that has all buildings, everything from the Eiffel Tower to Tara, to dog houses, to just all kinds of buildings. My husband has a wine themed collection of ornaments in the wine cellar. I have a garden tree that has a collection of garden ornaments. So I won't bore you with all the details of all the trees, but to answer your question, yes, we have trees that have ornament collections, like the office that I am sitting in today has a collection of Waterford twelve days of Christmas ornaments. So each tree has somewhat of a theme. Our largest tree is a collection of just everything. Some ornaments from my childhood, some ornaments that belong to my grandmother's tree. So it's a collection of just a few of my favorite things, so to speak.
Suzy Chase: Oh my gosh. I love the idea of a themed Christmas tree.
Kathryn Crisp Greeley: Well, I have to be very judicious about packing them up and unpacking them and keeping each tree ornaments together.
Suzy Chase: Can we talk about those Waterford ornaments? I have some of those and they're so heavy and they weigh the branch down. I have to slide it almost all the way back into the tree.
Kathryn Crisp Greeley: As do I, and every year when I'm down under the tree and my husband is pouring the water through a little funnel and we're watering each tree every day, I think back on something my mother said later in her life. She said, “You'll go to the dark side, Kathy, you'll get an artificial tree eventually. You'll use artificial trees because the big heavy ornaments that you have won't weight those limbs down like they do a real tree.” But that is a real issue with the Waterford ornaments.
Suzy Chase: But never, never an artificial tree.
Kathryn Crisp Greeley: Never will I go to the dark side. I guess that's kind of dicey. Never say never. But it is not my plan to go to the dark side.
Suzy Chase: What do you do to celebrate New Year's Eve?
Kathryn Crisp Greeley: What we usually do is we go to our lake home, which is about an hour away. We go shortly after Christmas and stay through New Year's. We have a little small house party there for New Year's Eve and then we dread for most of the time we're there, coming back to Chestnut Cottage to take down all the Christmas trees.
Suzy Chase: How long does that take?
Kathryn Crisp Greeley: It takes me about a week to get them all up. They go down a lot quicker than they go up. And so I guess it'll take two or three days.
Suzy Chase: So now to my segment called Home, where I ask you to describe one memory of your childhood home. And please start by telling us where it was.
Kathryn Crisp Greeley: I grew up in a small town called Bryson City, which is about 45 minutes west of where I live now in Waynesville. I have so many wonderful memories of my childhood home and growing up in this small town. But one of my memories is the big white clawfoot tub in our bathroom. And of course, I grew up in the early fifties and we only had one bathroom in the house, of course. But I'm an only child so that seemed to work out fine. But the clawfoot tub, I still think of that and as a small child thinking, oh, I might even get sucked down this drain the way it sounds.
Suzy Chase: Have you ever been on the lookout for another clawfoot tub for the cottage?
Kathryn Crisp Greeley: Well, we recently redid our master bathroom and I'm a tub person. I don't take showers. I take a tub bath every night. But I have sourced several claw foot tubs for design projects for clients who wanted a real rustic cabin. But perhaps I got enough of the clawfoot tub growing up. Plus I wanted to have a surround where I could sit down and swing into the tub as opposed to climb over the side of a clawfoot tub. Yeah, they were for safety purposes.
Suzy Chase: They were really tall. You had to hike your leg all the way over.
Kathryn Crisp Greeley: Yes all the way over, and I'm 72 years old and I don't want to take any falls getting in or out of my tub.
Suzy Chase: Where can we find you on the web and social media?
Kathryn Crisp Greeley: Website is KathrynGreeleyDesigns with an S designs.com. I am on Instagram at Kathryn Greeley Designs as well as Facebook.
Suzy Chase: This magnificent book, which by the way is over 350 pages, is the perfect holiday gift for that special person in your life who likes gardening, gatherings and collecting. Thank you so much Kathryn for coming on decorating by the book podcast. And happy holidays to you and yours.
Kathryn Crisp Greeley: And happy holidays to you Suzy. And I hope they get your roof finished so Santa Claus can come and see you.
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