With a Little Help from Artist Friends, Dorian Grinspan Designs Maison Monna

After a casual Zillow browse during a pandemic getaway in Columbia County, New York, film producer Dorian Grinspan fell in love with a farmhouse built in 1796 in the hamlet of Old Chatham. The New York City-based Parisian multihyphenate began to envision a country life not just for himself, but for other creatives and guests who would also appreciate its historic charm. Now, with design assistance from some of his artistic friends, the home and its nearly 70-acre grounds have been reborn as Maison Monna, a three-room bed and breakfast with an artist-in-residency program, where Grinspan is also currently spending most of his time.

“The house is 20 years younger than the signing of the Declaration of Independence,” Grinspan tells Surface. Despite its age, the residence was in “great shape” with many of its original Shaker and Greek Revival details intact, having formerly been under the patronage of a pair of Shaker furniture dealers as well as a creative director for Ralph Lauren. Therefore, Grinspan’s renovation aimed for a light touch while also adding contemporary features like air conditioning, an updated kitchen and bathrooms, and more windows to bring sunlight deeper into the interior. To enhance the farmhouse’s living spaces, he invited a few friends over.

Inside Monna Maison, Louie Isaaman-Jones designed sconces and light fixtures while Talia Nidam Warshawsky created table lamps for the guest rooms. Yudai Kanayama and Ray Suzuki of New York City-based creative studio Chowa transformed the attic into one serene, minimalist (and practical) Japanese-meets-Shaker stay. Meanwhile, Roman Spataro created a custom outdoor dining table and seat for the house’s entry; Dohm and Troy Town ceramics decorate throughout. “I think the most successful architecture is when it doesn’t scream at you,” opines Grinspan. “You walk into a space and it just feels right.” These collaborating talents, “saw the space and understood it,” he adds. To fill in any furnishing blanks, Grinspan collected antiques from Europe and Japan.

The result is a sort of wabi-sabi country house mix, where furnishings are intentional and artworks are plentiful. This past February and March, London-based artist Tom Bull was the first talent in residence at Monna Maison, in collaboration with Max Radford Gallery. While there, Bull created a Shaker-inspired sculptural birdhouse, which will be on display at Times Square Space in collaboration with Tiffany Zabludowicz and Max Radford during Frieze New York this May, alongside other painting, site-specific installation, sculpture, and video works, before it is installed permanently at the house. Currently, Monna Maison hosts one resident artist per year, but an expansion to the property is in the works to grow that capacity. Grinspan has already acquired a neighboring home and is renovating it as The Inn at Monna, which will offer an additional eleven guest rooms and one suite.

As for the design, Grinspan envisions Monna Maison as a perpetual work-in-progress. When other creatives come and stay (as bed-and-breakfast guests or residents), he hopes they might be inspired to collaborate. It’s an environment he has found particularly thrilling for his own films, a few of which he will shoot upstate alongside other projects with friends. “I see this as an extension of what I’ve done with the magazine Out of Order,” says Grinspan, who founded the now defunct fashion magazine while in college. “Both are platforms for artists.”