BEAUTY: Interior--Ernest de la Torre

Interior designer Ernest de la Torre and his husband Kris Haberman turned a 1950s ranch house into a spectacular statement home that is eclectic, dramatic, and interesting while still being comfortable and approachable. Originally a split level home in Palisades (formerly Snedens Landing), New York, they removed the floor at the rear of the house creating a gorgeous double-height living room featuring remarkable furnishings and art. Throughout the rest of the house, delicious textures on walls, floors, ceilings, and furniture abound (petrified wood on the kitchen counter, recycled beams from a 19th-century Pennsylvania barn on the kitchen ceiling, Cuban cement tiles on the kitchen floor, straw marquetry on the walls in the family room, luminous waxed plaster on the living room walls, Burmese python on chairs in the living room, and Ralph Lauren wool suiting material on the walls and tea-leaf paper on the ceiling of the master bedroom). “It’s fun to have furnishings play off of each other,” says de la Torre, “like an interesting cocktail party.” And most unique is the delightful mural in the powder room created by artist Shantell Martin. The designer says, “She sat down with the two of us and said, ‘OK, tell me the story of your life.’” Then she disappeared into the bathroom. An hour later, it was done. “It has the places we grew up, the story of how we met."

Below, Ernest de la Torre, left, sits with husband Kris Haberman and their son Parker in their garden just off the kitchen seen through the double doors in the photo above.

Link to original article in Ell Decor
http://www.elledecor.com/design-decorate/house-interiors/a9915795/ranch-house-upstate-new-york/