4 Bloomfield admitted that his favorite rooms are the library and his office. The former owner of Gall’s Inc. in the 1980s and ‘90s when the company was a supplier of police and fire equipment, Bloomfield is now retired. He calls the office his man cave; it has a separate entrance and is connected to the house by a breezeway. Irene Bloomfield passed away in the spring of 2011 and Alan Bloomfield has since remarried. Nancy Bloomfield has not made any changes to the house other than finishing out a porch into a sunroom. Interior designer Lannie Cornett worked with Alan and Irene Bloomfield in the late 1990s as the home was being built. “They were surrogate parents to me,” he said of the couple. Cornett helped Irene Bloomfield pick out particular details for the manor, such as the hinges and door knobs from P.E. Guerin, a world-renowned hardware company in New York. The crystal door knobs throughout the house were originally antique hardware, salvaged from a hotel in England. “It’s classical,” Cornett said, describing the interior design of the home. “It’s grand.” With its breathtaking storybook view from the gated entrance and acres of bucolic Kentucky countryside, Bloomfield Manor is truly an English masterpiece right here in the heart of the Bluegrass.
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4 The custom walnut cabinetry in the kitchen reaches to the ceiling as storage for serving dishes not used on a regular basis. The cabinetry came from Chicago and was distressed to give it an aged look befitting an old English manor, but the other details in the kitchen are modern, with all of the qualities of a commercial kitchen. There are stainless appliances, three dishwashers, multiple Sub-Zero refrigeration and freezers, an eightburner range, and quartz counters with a built-in farmer’s sink.
left. A mahogany Norman arch leads to the grand foyer, and just ahead is an inglenook holding a pair of royal-looking chairs from North Carolina. The glass top table in front of the wood-burning fireplace came from England.
5 The great room has a coffered ceiling with recessed lights inside the antique medallion inserts, a treatment Bloomfield called his late wife’s answer to the Sistine Chapel. In the back of the room is a restored antique piano from Louisville.
8 “Every house ought to have two dining rooms,” the homeowner said. While the formal dining room is used for big family gatherings and holiday entertaining, smaller dinner parties are held in this breakfast room at the glass top table. The hand-painted wallpaper is from Gracie, a company based in New York. What was once an original gas light fixture is now a chandelier operated with electricity.
6 The front door opens into a vestibule, with a powder room on the right and a coat closet on the
7 A simple, yet tasteful, glass tabletop goes from the everyday to the holiday with the addition of a brass berry holder and candelabra, befitting the homeowner’s enjoyment of the holidays as a valued time to spend with family.