Weekend Retreats by Susanna Salk
Published by Rizzoli, April 7, 2009
216 pages

Reviewed by Annie Kelly

A weekend retreat can be one of the joys that make life worth living; it becomes many things – a place to escape the stress of an urban work routine, an opportunity to introduce children to the magic of the country, and above all, a chance perhaps to live a more authentic life. As author Susanna Salk says in her inspirational new book Weekend Retreats “...weekends are when we should take out our hopes and dreams and allow them to dance around.”
She shows a terrific range of these houses, and here her experience as a magazine editor for the late, lamented House & Garden magazine really shows. Too often weekend houses seem like afterthoughts, decorated with left-over furniture – but not in this book. Weekend Retreats is full of many much-loved houses, often carefully restored, and decorated with personality and style.

Natural materials are used everywhere: old wooden beams are left stripped to show their glorious texture, we see bird nests, screened porches with comfortable wicker furniture, stone walls and floors, and flocks of antlers hung on whitewashed plaster walls. It is hard to pick a favorite house, as there is such a variety – maybe one by a lake, like Alexander Champalimaud's family compound in Kent, or perhaps a barn surrounded by woodland like the van der Geest’s in Stanfordville. I loved the eighteenth-century parsonage in New Preston for its historical charm, but perhaps the one I would most want to own would be the “Bewitching Boathouse” on the edge of Twin Lakes in Connecticut. A small stone structure, it none-the-less has high ceilings, a fanciful wooden exterior roof trim, and tons of charm. Discovered by Anne MacDonald while kayaking, today it is the guest house to her larger and more modern country house nearby. I completely understand her when she said “I knew some way, somehow, I was going to buy it, even if it meant jelly sandwiches for a year!”MacDonald added a bathroom and kitchen, and furnished it in a sophisticated mix of old and new with a heavy emphasis on natural materials and textures.

Salk, the author of the best-selling A Privileged Life: Celebrating Wasp Style, (Rizzoli,) knows her subject matter, especially as her own retreat is featured in the book. “Why on earth would a family of two hard-working adults and their two harder-playing boys purchase and entirely renovate a weekend cottage located just fifteen minutes from their full-time home?,” she asks. In these pages we see why; her home has a dream-like lake view, and its neutral shingled-cottage style gave the author freedom to experiment with a broader range of furniture than in her 1800’s Colonial home nearby.
Salk's family can relax, play, and splash around in the water without worrying about a stressful commute back home!

This is the time of the year to plan for summer and Weekend Retreats (italics) is an inspirational decorating book for everyone, whether you are lucky enough to own one yourself, or plan to own a bolt-hole of your own one day.