A Picnic in the Country

The Parlor: The 1910 house overlooks the Catskill Mountains. Elliott, left, and Daisy are on the sofa. The papier-mâché desk and chairs were made by Phoebe Sung and painted by daughters Freya and Coco. The zebra painting is by McGregor, and the flower painting is by Kayo Lennar. Cold Picnic’s Sweetie rug is on the floor. Photo: Annie Schlechter

A farmhouse was always Phoebe Sung and Peter Buer’s dream. But more than that: “We wanted land and space that our children could continue to return to for the rest of their lives,” Sung says. That got harder, but also felt more necessary, when the pandemic hit and they were holed up at home in Ridgewood, Queens, with a young child, dogs, and an ongoing plague of roaches.

Sung and Buer are designers of whimsical home goods, including textiles, rugs, and wallpaper. The ­couple met in Boston while studying art in 2006. They worked together in fashion there, Sung as an apparel designer and Buer as a print designer, and made ­jewelry on the side. Then they moved to New York and learned how to macramé and hook rugs to make wall hangings, which led to the creation of their company, Cold Picnic, in 2010. Their Private Parts collection of Boob bath mats became a cult hit. “It was just, like, boobs were weirdly showing up in our designs,” Buer explains. “We were ­doing a lot of circles, and we’d say, ‘Oh, we can’t do that; it just looks like a boob,’ and then there was a point where we just owned it. Who knew so many people wanted it?” He laughs.

In the summer of 2021, with their second child on the way, they were lucky enough to have a relative who owned a place in Sullivan County — it happened to be on the 50-acre grounds of a ­former Girl Scout camp — and they could house-hunt from there. Many people had the same idea that summer, of course. Finally, the day before returning to the city, Sung and Buer spied a house in the area that had just come on the market. They did a drive-by before they could schedule a ­viewing; it was a 1910 farmhouse on a hill with a pond and 17 acres across the line in Delaware County. It was just what they were looking for. They bought it in the fall of 2021.

The place didn’t need much work to move into. Downstairs is bright and open; upstairs is more dense with pattern; every room is wall-to-wall Cold Picnic rugs, wallpaper, and fabrics from collections over the years. Its four bedrooms, pond, and forest are more than enough space for their daughters, Freya, 5, and Coco, 3, and their dogs to roam.

The Study: The lollipop lamp is vintage, and the room is covered in Cold Picnic’s Holy Smoke rug, wallpaper, and upholstery. Photo: Annie Schlechter

The Main Bedroom: Cold Picnic’s Disappearing Daffodil wallpaper and upholstery are in play. The painting is by Gloria Roberts. Photo: Annie Schlechter

The Guest Bedroom: The chair is Milo Baughman, and the nightstand is vintage Donald Deskey, also with a lollipop lamp. The rug, wallpaper, curtains, and upholstery are Cold Picnic’s Freckle Flower. Photo: Annie Schlechter

The Children’s Bedroom: The girls have matching vintage caned beds. The Eyelash Flower rug, curtains, and wallpaper are by Cold Picnic. The dresser and bedside table are vintage, as are the bedside lamps. Photo: Annie Schlechter

The Playroom: Buer and Sung with Freya (standing) and Coco (seated.) The cabinets are Ikea with antique flamingo-head knobs. The sofa was painted by Buer. The rug is Cold ­Picnic’s Battenberg Matcha pattern. The framed artwork was made by the children. Photo: Annie Schlechter

The Dining Room: The slate-top dining table is vintage, the chairs are by Gio Ponti, and the lamp is Noguchi. The children’s table and chairs are also vintage. The blue painting is by Alexis Serio. The Embrace rug in roasted tomato is Cold Picnic. Photo: Annie Schlechter