Architectural Digest
January, 2020
“Some places draw you for a time, and this village drew us in,” says set designer and sculptor Molly Findlay, referring to Nyack, New York, where she and her husband Everard live with their two daughters. “We have extended their childhood years a bit, subjected them to boredom, to trees and wandering, and the elements. We have dance parties in the kitchen, set tables extravagantly for dinner, have house concerts, drawing night, films projected on a sheet at the bonfire.”
Everard and Molly’s 100-year-old house is technically an inner suburb of New York City—a shorter commute than many Brooklyn-dwellers—but still a world away. They were attracted to the trees, the river, the diversity, and the special energy of the place. “There are amazing people here, and Nyack has a mysterious draw. We both loved the house the minute we walked in,” says Molly. “There is something special about the site.”
“I made little models for the tree chairs out of Sculpey and gave them to my friend who is versed in the chainsaw arts, Gilberto,” says Molly. “We had taken down a couple of dead locust trees and used the wood to make these. Apparently locust is so strong you can bury it for 50 years and it won’t rot.”
Still, the house, which was built in 1918 in the Italian Revival style, took a little work. “It was very beautiful, but the house had a pall over it,” says Molly. “Broken windows, lots of dirt, peeling paint, overgrown grounds, a sad, despairing pool. It was a little Grey Gardens-ish, I guess.” Now she says it still has that same spirit, but feels cared for and revitalized.
“Marie Kondo has popularized the idea that our houses hold spirits, but this has always been apparent to us,” says Molly. “Over time, the spirits of the house have calmed down, and the energy now is bright and beautiful and peaceful.”
Molly describes the objects throughout the house as a story of people. “I don’t really enjoy shopping, but we like to support other artists—most things are made by friends, artists, and designers,” she says.
“My favorite thing is the meandering looping rooms, the quiet, and the light,” says Molly, referring to the design of the space. “The house is configured in a giant spiral, which is good for pacing. I love to move around, so it works well.” She also loves the way they use the space depending on the season. “In winter, we hang near the fires, and in summer, mostly outdoors or in the plant room.”
Everard and Molly’s home is a place for healing, working and carving out new ideas. It’s also a place that transforms throughout the year. “In wintertime, around the fires we gather, the cold drawing us together. We linger, make soups and breads, unravel our histories, dream our futures,” says Molly. “In summer, we sprawl out, outrageously inviting throngs to enter this magic land of fairies and tree spirits and spend a few hours in another dimension where unlikely bonds are formed. Spring! We wait all year for this glorious time of gentle floating floral baths all around. Then fall, the brazen rush of reds and yellows, later and later each year—now November, now December. The indoors watches the outdoors, and the animals watch us all the time.”
Molly spends plenty of time watching the river and trees. Children and friends clamor in and out, upstairs and downstairs. She and Everard dream about the future of the planet and lounge on the noodles. “We have perched here to learn to live with difference, and have built an environment with light and joy and fun,” she says. “For this moment, it’s a bit of heaven on earth.”
