For the interior, Fox first built a framework of collaboration with the couple. “Judy was always available for detailed discussions and always had well thought-out suggestions,” Adams says. “Having always lived in an East Coast environment before Scottsdale, the elements of design here were new to us, requiring some adjustment to our thinking. And, just for the record, we soon learned that Judy is always right.”
Throughout, Fox combined comfort with scale to complement the home’s large windows and 18-foot ceilings. This includes large but inviting sofas and chairs in areas like the living room and, the family favorite, the sitting room. Here, “light flowing through the glass wall floods the room and creates oneness with the trees, mountains and rolling golf greens outside,” Fox explains. The palette is earthy to blend and enlarge the space, and the coffee table with a glass center reflects the sky, keeping the room light. “Textures of distressed wood, chenille and light-reflective silk add to the richness and comfort,” she adds.
Known for her signature textured interiors, Fox repeated these rich materials and colors throughout the home. Floors are hand-scraped Brazilian cherry, and hand-woven rugs sit on these in the living, dining, family rooms, the master bedroom and bath, the guest bath and the hallway. In the master bath, countertops are marble and the furniture-grade Rutt cabinets, cherry. “This furniture feeling makes the area special,” Fox says. Similarly, the living room centers on a fiddle-back mahogany-paneled fireplace, and the custom coffee table is olive ash burl. Adams’s kitchen has mahogany cabinets with custom iron pulls created by Bill Smith, The Blacksmith from his shop in Scottsdale’s historic Cattle Track neighborhood.
Amidst all of the craftsmanship and detail is memory and personality, too. The expansive and windowed laundry room/butler’s pantry celebrates Barbara’s many collections. Placed throughout are her cobalt glass, plates, silver serving pieces, and antique children’s toys. Centering the room is a time-weathered blue-gray piece Barbara called her “folding table.” The interior of the collectibles cabinet above, designed by Fox, has the same finish. A farm sink adds to the unfussy, homespun character of the room—another suggestion from Fox.
Adams’s favorite place, and moment, is in Barbara’s Secret Garden, adjacent to the game/media room. Here, against the silence of the desert, a pond, appearing spring-fed, burbles over native rocks and stones, hummingbirds swirl and the bobcat prowls. When the grandchildren are visiting, they “fish” for magnetic trout, and always come up with a catch, Adams says, with a laugh. “I love to sit out in this covered patio area early in the morning with a cup of coffee,” he adds. “It is very Zen and always rewarding.”
