Text by Katie Wood
When you cross the threshold of Barbara and Robin Harbin’s elegant cottage, you may very well feel as though you’ve crossed the Atlantic. Dappled with an impressive collection of antiques and French market finds, the Harbin home is packed with treasures.
While the Harbin cottage is a new build, the interiors feel anything but new with the help of the cozy comforts of the couple’s well loved collections. Trying to recall when they developed an affinity for French influence and antiques, Barbara shares that it is something that continues to evolve. Robin’s mother collected and cherished antiques, which played a huge role in his personal style, but it was when the Harbins were first married and moved to Washington D.C. that they found a true appreciation and fondness for older things.
The home’s open floor plan welcomes guests from the outside into the dining room, where the walls are drenched in a beautiful, rich red. The dining room gracefully flows into the living room, which enjoys a palette of soft blue, and from there it leads into the cheerful, creamy white kitchen. So even if the tapestries, oil paintings, gilt candelabras, and fine furnishings didn’t lead you to think “French cottage,” the Harbins have subtly incorporated the colors of the French flag—visible from almost every room on the first floor. “You can’t help but be influenced by things that are so compelling and so different from what we grew up with,” Barbara says, reflecting on visits to France.
The first thing the Harbins purchased as a married couple was an Oriental rug. They continue to share a love of beautiful rugs and have chosen to hang multiple rugs throughout their home as works of art.
Interior designer Clarence Brooks is a close friend of the Harbins and has worked with them on multiple homes, so when they decided to move to a house that was in mid-construction, Clarence was already on board. “They wanted a comfortable and concise area for living and dining,” Clarence says. Moving mid-construction afforded them some liberties to make the necessary adjustments to the house plan, making the home perfectly suitable to their needs. “The living room, dining room, and kitchen all needed to flow together, and to get the correct flow we didn’t want a bar or anything separating the two, so we added the French table and chairs instead,” Clarence says. Simple cabinets with elegant arches tie the space together.
This house is “a representation of items that the Harbins have collected over the years, and their tastes tend to run to anything that has sort of a French flair,” Clarence says. “It doesn’t have to be from a certain period or style, just something that has a French flavor or influence.” Clarence notes that it is perfectly acceptable to mix elements from different periods or styles as long as you follow his personal design mantra: Line complements line, form complements form, and color will complement color. “If chosen correctly you’ll always find that line and form and color will complement each other. And that’s what you look for,” he says.
Interior designer Clarence Brooks says the best approach to decorating is to take whatever you have and ask, “Is this suitable and will this suitability enhance my family living, my entertaining living, or whatever you want to do?”
Upstairs Barbara enjoys a cozy work space that fosters her seemingly endless creativity. As a photographer for more than 30 years, Barbara’s walls are filled with black-and-white, sepia, and hand-tinted moments in time that now serve as special memories. And as a specialist in children and family portraits, it is no surprise that Barbara and Robin also created a beautiful place for their own grandchildren to sleep and play.
The red, white, and blue found throughout the home are simply colors that the Harbins enjoy and that play well with the items they already had. “It was an unconscious approach,” Clarence says of the French motifs throughout the cottage. “Nothing contrived or thought through, just something that happened—and that’s the way good design should be.”
French gardens typically engage a formal landscape design that roots itself in order. The symmetry and well-thought plan derive a space that is meant to be viewed and enjoyed from above as well as within the garden itself. While the Harbins’ backyard terrace may be limited in design space, it finds balance and is visible from most of the interior rooms. A soft mix of plants, planters, stonework, and a central water feature, create a space reminiscent of a French country garden that carries an effortless flow from the inside out.