By Andrea F. Siegel , andrea.siegel@baltsun.com|August 30, 2008
In the dining room of Dulany and Jimmie Noble's farmhouse, traditional white damask table linens are the backdrop for hunter-green-rimmed china settings that depict fox-hunting scenes. Silver stirrup cups, the traditional vessels used for a toast before the hunt, are brimming with mixed zinnias from the garden.
Rings with figures of foxes hold the napkins, and by each setting stands whimsical stemware decorated with a sly fox's face. A silver salt-and-pepper set features foxes. A faux-fruit-filled rose medallion bowl adorns the table center.
The sky-blue walls lend an outdoorsy air to the room and are decorated with horse-themed artwork, from a small, gilt-framed painting by a local artist of Dulany Noble's horse, Custer Road, to an old hunt-scene print in a nondescript wood frame. On close inspection, the scarlet-on-ivory toile draperies show farm vignettes.
Equestrian-style decor, with a fox-hunting theme, permeates the couple's Upperco farm in Maryland's horse country. The look includes favorite family heirlooms punctuated by Dulany Noble's quirky collection of fox figurines and art focused on horses. Drawing everything together are the traditional colors of the equestrian landscape: woodsy greens, hunt reds, outdoor blues and dark woods - hues picked up in the Persian rug on the oak floor.
"The plates were my mother's, and I've added to the collection. Each plate is different," said Noble, who owns Gala Cloths by Dulany, a table-linen rental company.
A descendant of early Marylander Daniel Dulany and a joint master of the hounds and huntsman for the Carrollton Hounds, Noble can't remember a life without horses. A photo on the wall of the powder room by the kitchen shows her as an adolescent riding with her mother.
The look at Noble's Berry Patch Farm home is a mix of formal and informal, traditional yet relaxed, a blend of family heirlooms and more recent purchases, all of which are there to put a smile on one's face, especially in the dining room.
"It is very unpredictable, and it has whimsy in it," said Betsy Sheehan of Decor & More Ltd., who helped Noble pull together a look that she calls conservative but not stodgy. "You sit down and you look around - your eyes always land on something that is interesting. Even though it is an equestrian theme in there, it is not predictable."
The color palette holds for the living room, where low-key wallpaper and upholstery are backdrops for horse, hunting and hound prints.
