THEWALL STREET JOURNAL. * * * * SATURDAY/SUNDAY, JUNE 16 - 17, 2018 | D1

NO SPAIN, NO GAINHow to spend an indulgent day in Madrid,

even if your budget is weak D9

A SHAGGY RUG STORYThe signature carpet of the ’70s is back—trimmer, denser and easier to clean D10

REMOTELY INTERESTINGThanks to voice-command tech, the reign

of TV clickers is falling apart D6

MAJOR-LEAGUE LOOKSAs theWorld Cup unfolds, a guide tosoccer-influenced men’s style D3

Inside

Hot SeatsHeirs apparentto the classicPeacock chair

D10

Day One: Friday5 p.m. Arrive by car in Livingston Manor (pop: 1,200), astraight shot from New York City up Route 17, the drab-but-efficient highway bisecting Sullivan County (from thispoint on, back roads only for you). Stylish accommoda-tions are still sparse in these parts but exceptions includethe four small inns opened since 2014 by fifth-generationLivingston Manorite Sims Foster and his wife, Kirsten.Their latest project is the DeBruce, a 19th-century board-inghouse recently refurbished into an elegant 14-roomcountry inn. You might be tempted to collapse for the eve-ning in front of one of the property’s original fieldstonefireplaces. For now, though, drop your bags. It’s time to geta beer. From $469 per night on weekends, thedebruce.com

6 p.m. Head down Debruce Road for about five minutesuntil it tees into Old Route 17. Hang a right, and soon acherry-red barn with solar panels on the roof will appearon your right-hand side. Outside, there’s a grain silopainted with an angry raccoon. This is Catskill Brewery,where you’ll find locals meeting up for a post-work sharp-ener at a small bar nestled amid pipes and fermentationtanks on the brewery’s production floor. If you’re in an ex-perimental mood, opt for a 5-beer tasting flight to try thelikes of Freak Tractor (a wild ale) and Eye of Newt (a Flan-ders-style red ale). 672 Old Rte. 17, catskillbrewery.com

PleaseturntopageD8

IF YOU’VE HEARD of Sullivan County, it’s probably for its “BorschtBelt” days: the post-World War II decades immortalized in the film“Dirty Dancing,” when sprawling, country club-style resorts car-peted the lonely western foothills of New York’s Catskill mountainrange. In the 1960s, the region was said to have more hotel roomsthan any other county in America, but by the time Baby andJohnny mamboed into theaters in 1987, the resorts had all gone—doomed, in large part, by air travel’s growing viability as an afford-able middle-class luxury. With them went the region’s cachet as avacation spot.

Recently, however, after a long hibernation, the western Catskillshas come alive again as a weekend retreat for New Yorkers with ayen for the great outdoors. While Sullivan County lacks the moneyedpolish of other destinations within an easy drive of New York City—like Columbia County across the Hudson River, or Massachusetts’sBerkshire Mountains—its new boutique hotels, shops and restaurantsintriguingly share the landscape with ancient tackle shops, tractor-re-

pair businesses and abandoned farmhouses. To the creative types beginning to flock here,that unvarnished local character is part of the appeal. Another serious draw: the shallow,sandy-bottom streams that allowed the area to give birth to American dry fly fishing in the19th century, and still produce world-class trout fishing today.

Sullivan County, a roughly two-hour drive from New York City, encompasses almost1,000 square miles, too much to cover in a single weekend (even a long one), so our itiner-ary focuses on the lush Delaware Valley, which forms the county’s western edge, and theborder of the protected land up north that comprises the Catskill Forest Preserve, whereoutdoor pursuits meet small-town charm.

BY ELIZABETH DUNN

OFF DUTYFASHION | FOOD | DESIGN | TRAVEL | GEAR

Italian JobThe hardworking,if extravagant,

Lamborghini SUVD7

TAKE MONDAY OFF

Are You aCatskillsPerson?

Fora longweekendof rustic charms,great foodandnosnootiness,

whiskyourself away toNewYork’sSullivanCounty

ARCADIAN RHYTHMS Clockwise from top left: Sunny’s Pop, a seasonal pop-up shop selling curiosities in Narrowsburg, N.Y.; Laundrette, a former Narrowsburg laundromat on the DelawareRiver, now an artisanal pizza joint; a trio from Buck Brook Alpacas, a family-owned farm in Roscoe; Phil Eggleton, owner of Trout Town Adventures, fly fishing on the Beaver Kill..

PAOL

A+MUR

RAYFO

RTH

EWAL

LST

REET

JOUR

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THEWALL STREET JOURNAL. * * * * Saturday/Sunday, June 16 - 17, 2018 | D11

DESIGN & DECORATING

HOUSE TOUR

One Sharp FlatIn a 900-square-foot London apartment, an interior architect indulges his penchant for layering, details,

art and objets but avoids visual cacophony by following a few organizing principles

JAMES

MCD

ONAL

D

WHEN I DESIGN a place, I thinkabout the emotion that will beprovoked when you walk in,”said interior architect MartinBrudnizki. In the case of his

own apartment in London, Mr. Brudnizkiwanted to convey comfort and escape “but notnecessarily visual quiet,” he said. “I wanted anenormous number of layers, textures, art, ob-jects, plants. So much of my work is about theclient, but this was all about me.”

One could argue that the commercial spacesfor which Mr. Brudnizki’s eponymous New Yorkand London firm are known—Manhattan’sBeekman hotel, the newly opened London socialclub Annabel’s, among others—achieve a hom-eyness through similarly rich eclecticism. Withhis own flat, however, he faced a constraintthat hoteliers and restaurateurs rarely battlethe way urban dwellers do. He had to pack thepractical and aesthetic needs of himself and hisboyfriend, Jonathan Brook, into 900 squarefeet. This required a two-prong attack.

First, every inch of the apartment needed toserve a function, if not two. A round tableplaced behind the sofa not only accommodatesfamily photos, a lamp and plants, it createsbreathing room, opening the flow from the liv-ing room into the kitchen. The little kitchen is-land openly displays candles and rattan bas-kets, providing storage with visual interest aswell as a place to take breakfast.

Second, the décor follows structural and or-ganizational precepts. Art is typically hung inneat vertical rows (“Salon style would becomemessy quickly”). The palette includes onlygreen, blue, pink and brown, and all architec-tural woodwork is painted off-white. “I couldstand in the hallway and see everything,” saidMr. Brudnizki. “It had to harmonize.”

THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE CHUNNELIn the London flat of interior architect Martin Brudnizki, the kitchen acts as a palate cleanser to the otherwise densely decorated apartment.The white of the kitchen’s hi-gloss cabinets and the calacatta oro marble introduces an element of freshness and reflects the ample light pro-vided by a large window overlooking the city’s rooftops. When you first enter the apartment, said Mr. Brudnizki, a section of the living roomwall “blocks the stove and oven and guides the eye to the plants and window.” He painted the kitchen walls a lighter green than that of theliving room’s sea-grass wallpaper, which produces the optical illusion of depth, making the kitchen appear longer and bigger.

PLANTS THAT CLIMB THE WALLIn the kitchen, three identical cupboards cam-ouflage (from left): a washer-dryer; a refrigera-tor and freezer; and a utility closet and me-chanicals. Mr. Brudnizki highlighted the detailsof the cabinet faces by painting them white,then hung botanical prints on them in verticalrows, a technique that helps combat any senseof clutter. “I found a book of prints called‘Flora of the British Isles’ that was literally fall-ing apart, so I framed some of them,” he said.“I thought they went well with the plants atthe window, and of course, the apartment is inLondon. It was perfect.” The red leather stoolsare extras left over from another project,which saved Mr. Brudnizki a bit of money.“We’re all on a budget,” he said.

MARBLE GAME“I warned mymother when shevisited that thebathroom wastiny, and she said,‘It’s not small, it’sperfect!’” said Mr.Brudnizki, whowas born inStockholm.Among the trickshe employed tofake spacious-ness: installing avanity without

cabinets “so you see the corners through itand the room reads bigger,” he said. He alsoadded a massive mirror. And though the met-als are a mix of chrome and brass, all of thetiles are white marble, from the subway pat-tern on the walls to the small hexagons on thefloor, as is the vanity. “You want the bathroomto be white so in the mirror you get a rela-tively realistic reflection of yourself,” he said.

SOFA SO GOODIf two more chairs replacedthe banquette, the whole din-ing set would need to bemoved away from the wall soyou could walk around it prop-erly, explained Mr. Brudnizki.The banquette, so easilypushed up against the wall,saves space. The upholsteredbanquette also adds softness,he said, and additional pillowsinvite people to linger after ameal: “It’s a bit more casual.”The largest painting here is anabstraction of a table withglasses on it, suitable subjectmatter given its placement.The television can be pulledout and angled toward thedining table, when desired. Mr.Brudnizki pointed out that theTV and the large kitchen win-dow form an axis. “They aretwo viewing points, one real-ity and one a different type ofreality, which is interesting.”

BLUE MEDLEYWith the master bedroom dé-cor, Mr. Brudnizki wanted toachieve two goals: to hangthe large painting by U.K. art-ist Andrew Norrey over thebed; and to make sense oftwo niches flanking whatmight have been a fireplace inthe original Victorian mansionof which the apartment is thetop floor. So that he didn’t ob-scure the painting, Mr. Brud-nizki designed a low, ArtDeco-esque sleigh bed withno headboard. He also createdhighboys to fit in the alcovesand fashioned decorative val-ances to hide lights aboveeach highboy. A visual themeof curves—seen in the val-ances, the Fornasetti urn, thegiant-tassel lamp from Arteri-ors and the brass and marbletable—ties the room together.More soothing cohesioncomes from the blues andgreens that recur in the navy-lacquered bed, the marble ta-ble top, the pale, silk-coveredwalls and the pigments in thepainting. The coral lamp shadepicks up the cerise and pink inthe art work.

BY CATHERINE ROMANO

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