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.
