Size matters: How to Live Large

In an enormous Georgian townhouse, a family infuses warmth amid 14-foot ceilings and 18th-century antiques, with a little dose of neon and foosball

Naturally, Tucket the dog is leading the way into the cellar, wagging madly, and as you see him leap happily among the hundreds of bottles of wines, it’s clear that integrating the sublime and the ridiculous is essential to making any house a livable family space. Here, the kids (and Tucket) have plenty of cozy spaces to call their own — and have learned to live among treasured antiques with ease.

Backstory
Behind the scenes at the Ballous’ Society Hill townhouse
1. The marriage armoire.
In a house as large as Roger and Georgeann Ballou’s, an enormous piece of furniture like the nine-foot-tall French country “marriage armoire” in the library actually brings the room down to scale. The Ballous found this 18th-­century cabinet, with its intricate iron hardware and carvings of flowers, grapes and garlands portending love and great abundance, on King’s Road in London. They use it to hide clutter such as candles and silver — and a nest of robin’s-egg-blue Tiffany gift boxes.

2. The photo album. In her living room, Georgeann Ballou keeps an album of old photos of the house before its restoration in the 1960s. “It was a tenement,” she explains, leafing through bleak black-and-white shots showing the living and dining rooms with bathrooms and kitchenettes built into corners, their ceilings stained and cracked by water damage. The house’s former tenant, interior designer John Roland, restored it, Ballou says, praising his work: “We came in and really only painted and redid the kitchen and bathrooms.” Luckily, 90 percent of the gorgeous original moldings were still in place, even after the house had served as a many-partitioned apartment building.

3. Carmana Designs. The South Philly artisans who built the Ballou kitchen, ­master-suite dressing room, wine cellar and new bathrooms in stages over 18 months are self-confessed perfectionists who customize every job in their 23,000-square-foot shop near the Melrose Diner. Carmen Vona has eight staffers working alongside him, fashioning cabinetry such as the beaded inset doors, modeled after a Clive Christian kitchen (the British custom designers), that he made for the Ballous. (“Mrs. Ballou is one of the few clients we have who actually cooks!” says Carmen’s wife Anna Maria, who runs the business end of the company.) Carmen carefully inventoried the Ballous’ pots and kitchen utensils prior to drawing and building, and even counted Georgeann’s shoes before beginning work on her closets. “When we get clients, we’re in bed with them for a long time,” says Anna Maria.

4. The paintings. Many of the Ballous’ oil paintings were bought at auction or at galleries in Europe, such as the living room’s Impressionist view of a South of France harbor, purchased at Doyle auction house in New York. But the Ballous’ favorite artist is Stephen Hannock, who’s still alive and working, painting beautifully moody landscapes and city scenes. Hannock’s paintings in the Ballous’ library include a nighttime vista of Central Park South and a view of Florence commissioned by the couple.