September is just around the corner, which means Architectural Digest’s highly-anticipated annual Style issue is hitting newsstands near you. In this year’s edition, Instagram’s beloved Eva Chen lets the magazine in behind closed doors, talking through the process of renovating her family’s new Connecticut country house.
Chen, a bona fide city girl, and her ad industry creative director husband Tom Bannister, have made the transition to a more quiet weekend lifestyle since discovering their dream second home in summer 2020, with Chen astutely documenting the renovating journey for her 1.7 million followers.
Naturally, Instagram’s director of fashion and shopping partnerships enlisted the design firm Hendricks Churchill via DM, aka the mom-of-three’s “primary form of communication.” The design duo, Heide Hendricks and Rafe Churchill, took on the project of updating the 2,800-square-foot home, including removing walls, converting a garage into a bedroom, and updating windows.
View this post on Instagram
The result is “warm and elegant, without being too precious,” in the words of children’s book author Chen. Hendricks and Churchill also helped the influential editor-turned-tech exec to furnish the rooms, including sweet play areas and nooks for her young children Ren and Tao (the New York City-native also recently welcomed a newborn named River! How does she do it all?!). Furniture finds came from the likes of Plain English, ABC Carpet & Home, and Apparatus, as well as antiques sourced from private collections, estate sales, Etsy, and 1stDibs. Swoon!
To see more, view the full story, and peek inside the homes of other style stars, on Architectural Digest now.
Subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date on all the latest fashion news and juicy industry gossip.
