STORIES TO TELL
Story by Renée Peck, Photos by Matt Rose

Mix-and-match carriage house matches the spirit of its occupants

   The lucite "ghost chairs" came from a yard sale -- OK, it was Anne Rice's yard sale.

   And the Confederate Christmas cactus atop the fridge dates back to a Civil War plant that belonged to a Cianfichi ancestor, who began passing down sprigs for regeneration each generation.

    It all makes for a whimsical sense of decorative drama, perhaps inevitable from two people who met 15 years ago as actors.

    "It's not done until its overdone," says Batt with a laugh. "We're pushing the limits -- but I'm a firm believer that if it looks good, it is good."

    Cianfichi long ago left the stage for other pursuits, including a stint as a private chef and a long run as manager of a Madison Avenue boutique.

    Batt found success on Broadway with starring roles in Beauty and the Beast, Saturday Night Fever, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Seussical the Musical, among others.

   He also has signed on as one of the designers for "Guess Who's Coming to Decorate," a makeover show on the Style network, with episodes featuring him beginning July 12.

    Now the two have pooled their decor interests in Hazelnut. New Orleans, like New York, is one of the few places left where small specialty stores can thrive. Owning a store meant finding digs in town, and the carriage house that belonged to a friend was "a lucky find." Its original brick floor was the selling point for Batt and Cianfichi, not only for its beauty, but because it bore the initials JAB -- the same as Batt's father.

  Living coast to coast -- the two have kept their Upper East Side apartment in Manhattan -- can be daunting, but it also allows for design cross-pollination. The carriage house, nestled in the back yard of a St. Charles Avenue manse, combines the cozy, rustic feel of tropical New Orleans with a more sophisticated, swanky city ambiance.

   "The juxtaposition is fun," says Batt.

    "In New York we have more of a New Orleans feel, with antique columns and all," adds Cianfichi. "Here we have New York touches. That's how we cope. We're trying to have the best of both worlds, both Big Apple and Big Easy."

   New Orleans has two major advantages over New York, say the two: a riotous celebration of color here, and lots more space.

    "Heaven is being able to spin around in the kitchen without touching the walls," says Batt. "Our kitchen in New York is the size of this powder room."

    "For us, this sprawls," agrees Cianfichi of the 2,000-square foot, two-story carriage house. "I get winded going for coffee in the morning."

    Still, the two learned the art of eclectic mix and match in their diminutive Manhattan apartment, and have employed the technique to great effect here. Frequent shopping trips to New York keep them current with trends and styles.

    "We try to mix the old and new," says Cianfichi. "It's what we've always loved to do. And you can have one gorgeous antique piece, when you can't afford other, similar pieces."

    Thus the living room has 18th-century painted Swedish chairs next to a 60's sofa next to a modern coffee table. A Crate and Barrel divan sits on a Flokati rug, with a turn-of-the-century wooden pulltoy dog nearby (the French bulldog, named Lulu, barks at the pull of a string). The dining room's 18th-century painted marble-top buffet from Worthmore Antiques contrasts with the highly contemporary, oversized polished-metal nested vases.

    Artwork also runs the gamut, from Susan Downing's moody landscapes, discovered at Cole Pratt Gallery, to a series of cemetery angels photographed by Batt. Outdoors, a small patio with a 19th-century English iron table and chairs from Marsh exudes a rustic, chabby chic, look.

    "You get ideas, then figure out ways to do it," says Batt. "We made up that sconce by putting a fragment in front of a mirror."

    "Every now and then you gotta pay -- to get that one gorgeous antique, that one piece of art. But everybody's on a budget."

    The two also have a flair for the unexpected. An orange beaded chandelier, unusual in its own right, hangs way low, at table-lamp height, between two Art Deco leather chairs, all from Catherine Cottrell, a favorite local haunt. Cianfichi recently painted one living room wall apple green, to enhance a previously overlooked fleur-de-lis stained-glass window. "Look what it did to that window -- now it pops," he points out.