November 2013

NOVEMBER 2013

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Knapp plays horse whisperer to Cocoa, one of the farm’s equine residents. Opposite: The lady of the house. a utumn in New England: a time of pumpkin-lined porches, wood smoke–scented air, and apple picking in idyllic orchards. For Samantha Knapp, however, these months signify a springlike sense of rebirth. “People view fall as a dying season but I see it as cleansing—like a snake shedding its skin,” she says. The idiosyncratic Knapp has always had a flair for the unexpected. A former TV news reporter turned selftaught decorator [CK], she is the youthful force behind Tiger Lily’s Greenwich, a design studio and workshop owned for more than 20 years by her parents, Betsy and Robert Knapp, in the heart of preppy Connecticut. Her projects are known for playfully tweaking tradition. With her frank, disarming manner and outsize personality—she’s as apt to quote Truman Capote as Mahatma Gandhi, or serve guests a homemade apple 118 Lonny pie while blasting Tupac Shakur—it’s no surprise that her interiors vibrate with joie de vivre. That certainly holds true for Knapp’s rural Connecticut cottage. Located on a 20-acre horse farm, the two-bedroom structure was a former residence for stable grooms, with decor that was utilitarian at best. “It had cheap finishes and track marks on the carpet from barn guys tromping through,” Knapp recalls. “And because of all the iron in the water, the bathtubs and toilets looked like something you’d see at a gas station!” Her transformation of the cabin from dingy dwelling to offbeat-chic retreat isn’t just a makeover; it’s a personal validation. “When your energy is in the right place, things just come together,” she says. Knapp’s path to her current profession was hardly direct. Hoping to become the next Katie Couric, she spent the better part of a decade pulling up stakes every few years for gigs at stations in Georgia, Florida, and Michigan before becoming a freelance reporter at New York City’s WCBS in 2008. Six months later, the economy went into free fall, Knapp was laid off, and she faced every millennial’s worst fear: having to move back in with her parents. “Everywhere I turned, old friends would say, ‘What happened? We used to watch you on TV,’” she says. “It was a tough transition.” With nothing else on the back burner, Knapp integrated herself into the daily rhythms of her family’s business—answering phones, consulting on projects, and making her mark in ways large and small. “They’re super talented, but I brought the first computer into the building!” she says with a laugh. Over time, she began to draw her own clients, a loyal following who loved her fresh perspective on color and pattern. Two years after Knapp began working at Tiger Lily’s, her sister purchased the horse farm and told her about the cottage that was available for rent [CK]. “The second I walked in, I knew it was a gem,” she recalls. With the Lonny 119