In the Billiard Room

When I was growing up, I used to play the murder mystery board game Clue. My family had an old 1950s version of the game that looked like this copy I found on eBay.

The game is set in a large country home. Players must determine the room in which the murder was committed (library, kitchen, conservatory, etc.), the weapon that was used (rope, lead pipe, revolver, etc.), and the character (Miss Scarlet, Colonel Mustard, Professor Plum, Mrs. Peacock, etc.) who committed the crime. Clue is perfect for fans of Agatha Christie novels, which I read in abundance when I was younger.

One of the rooms in the Clue manor is the billiard room. I imagined this space to be dark with wood-paneled walls, leather furniture, the smell of a pipe. The perfect place for mystery. Like the billiard room in Wrotham Park, the English manor where some scenes from the movie Gosford Park were filmed. The billiard rooms I have seen recently in decorating magazines are not exactly like the one I envisioned long ago. Some are rather beachy and most are full of light. Take a look . . .  

A new house in Bedford, New York.
Interior design by Jeffrey Bilhuber.
Photography by Don Freeman.
House Beautiful.

Calabasas, California vacation home of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith.

"The pool room's alder-wood billiard table with nail-head detailing  was designed by Lance and fabricated by Blatt Billiards." 

Architect: Stephen Samuelson.

Photography by Roger Davies.

Architectural Digest (September 2011).

Custom made pool table in home of actress Courteney Cox.
Flagstone floor. Painting by Arsen Roje.
Chairs from Blackman Cruz.
Light fixture by Hivemindesign.

Elle Decor.

A restored circa-1915 pool table from Blatt Billiards.

Also, a pair of 1940s French chairs by Marc du Plantier, a black marble mantel by Axel Vervoordt and twin '50s floor lamps by Gino Sarfatti.

Interior design by Steven Volpe.

Renovations by architect Lewis Butler, Butler Armsden Architects.

Photography by Pieter Estersohn.

Architectural Digest (November 2011).

Hamptons home of architect Frank Greenwald.

Interior design by Mary Foley and Michael Cox

Photography by Scott Frances.

Architectural Digest (July 2012).

Pendant lights by Tom Dixon.

Hamptons home created by Leroy Street Studio.

Interior design by Kenneth Alpert of KA Design Group.

Photography by Adrian Wilson. 

Architectural Digest (June 2012).

 A custom-made light by Reborn Antiques hangs from a thatched ceiling in a Punta Mita, Mexico beach home.

Interior design by Martyn Lawrence Bullard.

Photography by Tim Street-Porter.

Architectural Digest (August 2011).

Marshcourt, a country house 75 miles southwest of London.

"The billiard room's Zaha Hadid sofa for Sawaya & Moroni and pair of vintage Italian armchairs complement a reproduction by Lutyens Furniture & Lighting of the original billiard-table light."

Architect: Edwin Lutyens.

Interior design by Robert Couturier.

"My natural tendency would be to look at Lutyens's books and think you have to have Elizabethan or neo-Gothic furniture here. But then it would become very boring. We soon realized that contemporary furniture would jolt the house to life."

Photography by Tim Beddow. 

Architectural Digest (September 2011).

External view of Marshcourt (pictured above).

Built in England in the early 1900s.

Architect: Edwin Lutyens.

"The classic burgundy of a pool table's felt is the inspiration for this billiard room. Fiery reds appear in the grasscloth wall covering, Kilim-covered George Smith club chairs, and the geometric folding screen. The round mirror above the mantel takes its 'cue' from the billiard balls." 

Traditional Home.

Bel Air, California home of actress Sela Ward.
The map behind the bar picks up the colors of the billiard balls.

Traditional Home.