When you've followed a career arc from fashion model to creative director to interior designer, living in Paris, London and Manhattan is just part of the deal. Williams Township, Pennsylvania, is usually not. But that's just where Bibi Monnahan, whose work in all of the above fields has taken her to high-fashion cities around the world, chose to put down roots.
By 2001, Monnahan had a résumé most people would envy, with stints as editor of a fashion photography magazine in Paris and creative director for Donna Karan's flagship Madison Avenue showroom. But there was one thing the burgeoning interior designer didn't have, a home of her own.
“I wanted land, and a garden,” Monnahan says. The fact that her TriBeCa loft had neither was in the back of her mind when she visited friends in the Lehigh Valley one August weekend. When she learned that they were putting their 1760 stone farmhouse up for sale, along with the seven-and-a-half acre property it sat on overlooking the Delaware River, she only half-joked about buying it. And then, one week later, she actually did.
“When I was living in France, I was looking to buy a stone farmhouse,” she says. “I've always loved stone houses. This way I don't have to be an expatriate.”
For its age, the house was in remarkably good condition. From the front, the stone façade seemed untouched by the years, save some painted trim around the three uniform rows of windows. Finding a stone house that hadn't been added onto was a rarity, Monnahan says, but this one didn't have so much as a patio added to its original footprint: “When I purchased it, the grass still came right up to the house,” she says.
Adding Attitude
Inside, however, it's another story. The rolling property had long ago swallowed up the ground level of the house, so from the front it appears to be only three floors, with the main entry on what is in reality the second floor. One of the home's previous owners decided to open up that level to the floor below by partially ripping out the first floor ceiling, creating a balcony just beyond the entryway with a view into the two-story great room and kitchen and dining area below. It's as modern a look as you'll find anywhere—and that suits Monnahan just fine. “Cutting off half of the second floor gave this little house some attitude and glam and took it into the 21st century,” she says.
That was a huge selling point for the designer, whose style is anything but traditional. “I hated when people drove up and said, ‘Oh this is so cute.' ‘Cute' is not in my vocabulary,” she says. She knew instantly that the color scheme—historic-looking earth tones—would have to go, but resisted the urge to change anything right away. “I think it's a smart thing to live in a property for a year or two,” Monnahan says. “You really get to know yourself and how you function and how you use the square footage in the home. And there is so much to learn about how a stone house lives and breathes.” It surely didn't help that her daily commute from the Lehigh Valley to her job as creative director at Holly Hunt, an upscale interiors showroom in Manhattan, left her with little time for side projects.
“You really get to know yourself and how you function and how you use the square footage in the home.”
Still, by the time Monnahan launched her own interiors business in 2004, her house's transformation was well underway. She repainted the earthy red-, olive-, and gold-toned wood doors and trim with a uniform coat of a color from Benjamin Moore's Historical Colors line that she describes as “a pale, pale greige (interior slang for gray and beige) that works beautifully with the mortar and stone.” Monnahan, who was born in Seattle, is passionate about gray, any shade of gray. “Anthracite, coal black, anything in that spectrum I love,” she says. “It's distilled, it's calming, any wood furniture you have looks richer with gray around it or as a backdrop.”
Of course, being the professional and the perfectionist that she is, it took the designer an entire year to narrow down the perfect shade. “I set the bar high,” she admits. “I had 20 swatches of gray taped on one door. And every few days I'd take one down, until the last one was standing.” It was only later, when a visiting friend pointed it out, that she realized she had exactly matched the color of a spool of twine she'd bought at her favorite Paris flea market years before. Today, the well-traveled twine actually helps enhance the décor in her kitchen.
That flea market, the Marché aux Puces or “The Puces” as Monnahan calls it, in her usual style of applying shorthand to things that are near and dear to her (“Ben Moore” being another example), formed the basis for much of her redecorating. “I'm a real flea market person, personally and professionally,” she says. “I was spoiled after living in France.” Her vast collection of antiques, artisan-made pieces, and even eBay finds embodies the quirky yet classic look that is Monnahan's hallmark. “Many stone houses, when you see the interior, it's like ye olde stone house interior design, very traditional,” she says. “My style in general is more eclectic and mixed with a modern edge.”
Being her own client meant the opportunity to take that aesthetic to extremes. Monnahan simultaneously restored and updated the 250-year-old home, replacing existing hardware with period-style latches to add authenticity, but having no qualms about dropping in a modern-looking sculpture or Arts and Crafts furniture.
