Martha's Brown Room

When Martha purchased Cantitoe Corners in 2000, designing spaces for large-scale entertaining was top of mind. According to architect Allan Greenberg, who worked with Martha on the restoration of the property's houses and the design of the stables, the original plan was to build a 4,500 square-foot house in the center of the property where Martha would entertain. The design was to incorporate three large rooms for entertaining on the main floor - each room 30 by 50 feet - with guest rooms on the second level. The plans were drawn and the applications for building permits submitted but they were never brought to fruition. It was back to the drawing board.

The final plan for the property used the existing foundations of the buildings on the property: a 1770 Colonial house, a 1925 farm house and various adjacent outbuildings to create a complex of houses that would serve different functions. The original tractor garages, which were adjacent to the 1925 Winter House were converted into a large space for entertaining, connected to the main house by a kitchen that Martha designed with an apartment above.

The new entertaining room was eventually called "The Brown Room" due to Martha's chosen colour palette for the space: brown sycamore veneer paneling, brown putty walls, dark hardwood floors covered by sisal rugs in a soothing neutral and a mix of wooden dining furniture and luxuriously upholstered seating.

Connected directly to the kitchen by double doors, the long, rectilinear room lent itself perfectly to large-scale entertaining. It is just as large as the original entertaining rooms Martha had envisioned: 30 by 50 feet. Martha installed two enormous tables in the room: one was a table she designed that could be separated into two halves or pushed together to create one long table. With marble tops and wide, sturdy legs the look was sleek but traditional. The other table was a 15 foot-long wood table Martha purchased in Maine that once belonged to a convent. Between the two tables (three, if Martha's original table was separated into two) dozens of guests could be seated at once. 

At the north end of the room, which connects to the kitchen through double doors (shown above) Martha installed a wall of shelving and cabinetry to house her vast collection of glassware.

At the opposite end of the room, there is a marble fireplace with seating arrangements for gathering and conversation.

Tall, triple-hung windows on two sides of the room let in light from both east and west directions 

This photograph shows the south end of the room with the fireplace and reveals how Martha's table can be separated into two dining arrangements. 

This photograph shows the long convent table set beautifully for an Easter lunch.

Martha's tables are always spectacular. 

 

Several issues of the magazine have featured the Brown Room in various articles. It is also shown regularly on The Martha Blog and in some of Martha's more recent books, most notably "Martha's Entertaining."