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"View Slideshow\n\nThe pivotal question facing New Yorkers Richard B. Stolley and Lise Hilboldt was whether a passion for damask and Regency rock-crystal chandeliers could thrive in the land of Navajo blankets and chile ristras.\n\nIt was not an act of rebellion exactly but rather one of \"creative exuberance\" that led the couple\u2014he the senior editorial adviser of Time Inc. and founding editor of People, she an actress and writer\u2014to reimagine a traditional walled adobe compound in Santa Fe, where the kiva-fireplace school of decorating is something of a religion.\n\nThey were drawn from the Upper West Side to Santa Fe for many reasons\u2014chief among them the luminous atmosphere and the world-renowned Santa Fe Opera. \"I think many people come to Santa Fe to get away from the stylistic constraints of life elsewhere, but that can prove to be a trap,\" the non-rustically inclined Hilboldt observes of her adopted home. \"I think you have to create a style in which you feel free, modifying it based on local beauty.\"\n\nQuietly tucked behind two sets of adobe walls on a historic street a short walk from the Plaza and a major nature preserve, the compound had a relatively intact guesthouse and a main residence that had undergone numerous reconstructions. \"There were many long, awkward hallways and small, dark rooms that left the house feeling jerry-built, without access to views,\" explains Hilboldt. The good news: thick pink plaster walls, aged vigas, stands of quaking aspens\u2014and killer views of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. She found herself becoming emotionally absorbed in the compound's essence. She regarded it as \"a backdrop for life, as a series of vignettes for conversation.\"\n\n\"I happen to love the Edwardian era, with its plush velvets, silks, gilt furniture, delicate antiques, crystal chandeliers, piles of books and romantic gardens,\" she continues. \"The challenge was to create a space that would celebrate d\u00E9cor normally seen in New York or London\u2014without feeling stuffy or too formal.\"\n\nThe couple enlisted New York designer Rose Aiello, with whom they had collaborated on their Central Park West apartment (see Architectural Digest, October 2000). They also followed the lead of Hilboldt's stylish Aunt Ellen in Racine, Wisconsin, who combined Danish heirlooms with purchases from Harrods and whose philosophy about selecting an antique or a piece of furniture was, \"Does it say hello to you?\"\n\nA family trip to Rome provided courage. \"All the artists and architects who created the city, with its baroque bravado, seemed to have no fear or hesitation in their work,\" Hilboldt recalls. Of the palette inspired by the Sistine Chapel, Stolley says waggishly: \"We tried to hire that painter. But we understand that he died.\"\n\nPerhaps their extensive experiences abroad enabled the couple to liberate the compound from past constrictions. \"Santa Fe skews Spanish; I skew Italian and French,\" Hilboldt says. \"I knew I would feel depressed with heavy traditional furniture. So I created a house where I could feel happy, whether I was flopped on the sofa reading with a cup of tea, cooking dinner or hosting an elegant dinner party.\"\n\nGone are \"ceilings so low you had to duck when you walked in,\" in Stolley's words; all were raised four to five feet, and the dark beams were lightened. Archways were added between rooms to improve flow; the interiors were further opened with generous bay windows. Luxurious mink-colored walnut floors replaced pine planks. The compound's formerly somber Spanish-style interiors now reflect the brightness and almost mystical quality of the landscape, with rooms gloriously accessible to the pi\u00F1on-scented air.\n\nStolley, who has returned to writing in addition to occupying his ber role at Time Inc., may be found most mornings doing his requisite 60 laps in the pool\u2014the romantic sound of a waterfall audible from the master bedroom.\n\nThe singular sense of place the couple have produced for themselves and their teenage son is reflected in the possibility of dining beneath a splendid crystal chandelier while listening to coyotes howl. \"When people first walk into the house, their eyes widen,\" Stolley says. \"They've gone from one world to another.\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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