NOVEL APPROACH

Miles Redd and David Kaihoi channel Gothic fiction and Gilded Age decadence in a historic New York state home.

- CAMILLE OKHIO

Great works of fiction-like well-appointed homes tend to have an exciting twist or two, with characters and subplots to shock and awe. Designers Miles Redd and David Kaihoi of Redd Kaihoi know how to spin a good yarn. In a Shingle Style "cottage" north of New York City that they recently completed, the pair imagined an interior story that's a must-read. There are glamorous, double-height rooms fit for Jay Gatsby, tucked-away corners perfectly suited for a midnight tryst, and regal bedrooms that pull you right back into the ancien régime. "The feeling of the house is dreamy and rambling," Redd says. "There are grand rooms, but also all of these nooks and crannies, turrets, and moments."

When the duo started work on the project in 2019, they received little in the way of a brief. "The clients just wanted to lighten up the house, Kaihoi says. The homeowners, whom Redd Kaihoi had previously collaborated with on a Manhattan apartment, were hoping for an aesthetic that didn't quite exist-something fresh and exciting, with a nod to the 19thcentury robber baron style. "The wife is an artist and has an amazing eye and collection," Redd says. "She lets us be artists as well."