A Modern Family Farmhouse in New York State
Dana McClure and her husband Chris Lanier split their time between two places – a loft in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and a small farm in Olivebridge, New York. Today, we’re peeking into their home in Olivebridge. Like many creative couples, Dana and Chris wear many hats. Dana is a visual artist with a focus on printmaking, collage and textiles. She freelances for a range of clients as a graphic designer and Chris is a chef, grower and food stylist. With the birth of their son just seven months ago, the couple decided to try to simplify their life and leave more room for doing the things they love the most. To that end, Dana just ended her 10-year stint teaching at Parsons so that the couple could embark on their first joint venture – Ravenwood. They’ve started by hosting a series of dinner parties in Brooklyn and in Upstate New York that showcase their homegrown and homemade products. Before settling into this Olivebridge farm, the couple had spent years renting cabins in the Woodstock/Phoenicia area. Their weekend visits turned into full season visits and soon they were looking at real estate “just for fun.” After a few years of leisurely looking, they honed in on what they were really after – something within two hours of the city and a house that didn’t need too much work. When they found a house on a 4-acre cow pasture down a windy road, they began turning their dream of having a small produce farm into a reality. Today, they grow food on about one acre of land and raise chickens and turkeys, and it’s just the beginning! -Amy
Photography by Bob Martus
Image above: “Our 10-year-old frenchie Mackenzie has claimed every couch we’ve ever had to be her own,” says Dana. “We were hoping once we moved upstate she’d be basking out in the sun and coming along on hikes in the woods. But a city dog at heart, this is where she prefers to be. Our living room is probably where we spend the most time as it’s attached to our open kitchen where we entertain often. The artwork on the walls is a mixture of my own monoprints and collages with some beautiful work by my friend and colleague Simona Prives. Until we can get a fancy couch one day, I try to dress up our nondescript one with a rotation of textiles and my own hand-printed pillows to keep the room changing from season to season. This space gets a ton of light with south-facing windows that stretch from floor to ceiling, so it’s the room most filled with plants – a fiddle leaf fig, a ‘white Christmas’ hosta and a ficus tree. Art, design and cookbooks are usually piled high on our coffee table and end table (both street salvaged in Brooklyn). The Eames lounge chair was a much anticipated gift to my husband for his 40th.”
Image above: “The open shelving system in our dining space is something I sketched out for Chris and he figured out how to build it. This process is sort of how most projects get done in our space. I’m a strategic thinker who likes to pre-visualize everything to a fault and Chris is more of a ‘let’s get to work and start making’ kind of person. After many years in restaurants and collecting props for photo shoots, we’ve gathered a lot of ‘stuff’ that gets used pretty regularly so we thought it best to keep everything accessible. (Now that we have a little one, we may need to rethink those bottom two shelves). Our dining table was bought as a discounted display table in a Cobble Hill boutique years ago. We custom-made the benches to fit.”
This post is brought to you by Giftry – the best way to to find the perfect gift for that special occasion! Join Giftry and fill your giftries with things you’d like to give and receive while they’re top of mind. Invite others to collaborate with you and you’re all set to present the best collection of gifts ever. See our picks and suggestions here and learn more about Giftry in this
