Country house of Parfenov and Chekalova. Country house of Leonid Parfyonov Country house of Leonid Parfenov

Russian journalist and TV presenter Leonid Parfyonov is the author of the popular TV projects Namedni and Russian Empire, the first laureate of the Vladislav Listyev Prize, and a four-time winner of the TEFI Prize. His country house, located in a real forest, among hundreds of tall firs, strikes with the same lightness, relaxedness and popular merriment as the unconventional literary style of a journalist. This is a real museum of Vologda folk art: most of the furniture was brought from the homeland of the TV presenter.

Living room

The living room in red-brown tones creates a strong element of the Soil - a warm atmosphere conducive to family reunification, the manifestation of love and care of loved ones. Color solution living room dictated patchwork carpet on the wall, which has its own history. Once Elena liked a similar, patchwork style (sewn from multi-colored patches) produced by a well-known Italian company. But the price was sky-high, and the TV presenter did not dare to part with the required amount. Soon, at a flea market in Paris, she came across a similar product that cost a penny. It turned out to be an old carpet made in Tibet. The TV presenter stretched it on curtain rods and hung it on the wall.

The sofa group around the antique inlaid table is well organized but placed in the wrong place. The sofa is located with its back to the window and has no support. The chair, standing like this, when the door is opened, is under pressure of energy. In this case, the door cannot be fully opened. This position of the seat is unfavorable.

Kitchen

The kitchen is spacious and its workspace is well organized. The large window between the kitchen and dining area is functional. But the kitchen should not be dark - at least one window should face the street.

Bedroom

The bedroom is located in an unfortunate room: three windows are too many for a room of this size. The bed is also poorly located: it stands on the flow of energy, the space of the bed is under pressure. ceiling beams, the protruding corner of the wall is directed towards the person sleeping on the bed. Next to the protruding corners, the energy of Qi * begins to swirl, having a negative effect on a person during sleep. A metal headboard is undesirable. The ideal material for a bed is wood, which does not disturb the Earth's magnetic field, unlike metal. Feng Shui recommends choosing a bed with a one-piece headboard, as the headboard symbolizes support and protection, and protection must be strong and reliable. A mirror and shelves above the head of the bed are a feng shui taboo.

Elegant locker

The furniture in the house has been redone - in the door modern cabinets Leonid and his wife, the famous TV presenter Elena Chekalova, installed fragments of the old Vologda facades with their own hands. For the sake of this, the spouses specially traveled to the villages and bought unnecessary furniture from the villagers. Things made by craftsmen carry favorable energy.

CI*- according to Chinese philosophy, this energy breathes life into everything that exists. Qi should flow calmly and harmoniously, nothing should interfere with it.

From a white house with dark beams, standing in the depths of a large area with pine trees, two dogs run towards us, the French bulldog Bonya and the pug Motya. The owners are next. Today is Sunday, Leonid and Elena are at the dacha, like almost every weekend since they finished the house.

Owner's office. Leonid Parfyonov: “A lot of things come from trips that need to be somehow organized in one space.”

The story is old, but I ask you to remember how it all began. “We wanted to buy an empty wooded area with fir trees and pine trees, because I am so used to it in my homeland in the Vologda region,” says Leonid. They searched for a long time: either there was not enough forest, or the house was already standing - and in the end they bought a plot in an old cottage village with an unfinished wooden box. They did not break it, but only slightly altered it, adding, in particular, the front part with an acute-angled roof.

Leonid Parfenov, his wife Elena Chekalova and their dogs Bonya and Motya.

Architects Sergei Zaitsev and Sergeeva Marina (Axis workshop) were involved in the construction. Fachwerk, or rather its imitation, seemed to the owners the most logical style of facade design. “What will happen if you take a pine forest, remove the undergrowth, pour alpine slides and sow a lawn? asks Leonid. Of course, Switzerland! A half-timbered house is better than dressing up in a hut on chicken legs.” Elena adds: “We hesitated between a half-timbered house and a Finnish house, this style seemed to us more joyful and elegant.”

In the same way, naturally and without disputes, the idea of a collection of Vologda furniture and utensils of the late 19th - early 20th century arose. “It seemed to me the most adequate way to furnish the house,” explains Leonid. “Before, there was no place, and it doesn’t suit an apartment.”

Owner's office. Leonid Parfyonov: “Colonial-style furniture is a gift from Lena. It seems to me that this dark heavy furniture is consonant with the style of the office.”

I suppose that, probably, some things went to Parfyonov by inheritance. “If not for the Soviet regime, it would have been so. But my ancestors were dispossessed, and we had nothing left: neither a huge house in the village of Yurga, nor a hotel in Cherepovets, nor things. I had to put everything back together. So it’s native, but not our own.”

The collection was assembled in about a year, not without the help of a well-known Vologda collector, the late Mikhail Vasilyevich Surov. Parfyonov knew exactly what he wanted, and from a huge offer of painted chests, sideboards, supplies, cabinets and other utensils, he chose the rarest and most interesting ones.

Most of them were concentrated in the living-dining room, which even had to be expanded (the original layout cut the house into small rooms). “I didn’t want it to look like a museum,” says Leonid, “although it turned out a little like that. But everything here is extremely functional. And we didn’t pursue historical accuracy, we hung old doors on a new cabinet or inserted painted panels into new doors.”

Elena shares her husband's love for things made by the peasants of the North: “They have a deeply positive aura. It happens that you come from the city, you are tired, your head hurts, and among them everything passes.

But she also has her own passion, known to everyone - to cook. “I really love kitchen gadgets, I always had a lot of them,” says the author of cookbooks and programs. - But in the apartment it was impossible to realize my old dream - to have a kitchen with a real wood-burning stove to bake pies on clay pans, put pots on the night for slow languishing.

Here I have two kitchens: one is ordinary, with a stove, oven and modern gadgets, and the second is traditional, with a stove, barbecue, tandoor, smokehouse. Such things cannot be done in the center of the house, they require special chimneys and hoods, so we built for her special room. It is very convenient to cook there and it is pleasant to be. I envy myself!” Leonid is also very pleased with the house: “I don’t want to do anything here anymore. History has come to an end."

Leonid Parfenov, his wife Elena Chekalova and their dogs Bonya and Motya.

Owner's office. Leonid Parfyonov: “A lot of things come from trips that need to be somehow organized in one space.”

The story is old, but I ask you to remember how it all began. “We wanted to buy an empty wooded area with fir trees and pine trees, because I am so used to it in my homeland in the Vologda region,” says Leonid. They searched for a long time: either there was not enough forest, or the house was already standing - and in the end they bought a plot in an old cottage village with an unfinished wooden box. They did not break it, but only slightly altered it, adding, in particular, the front part with an acute-angled roof.

Owner's office. Leonid Parfyonov: “Colonial-style furniture is a gift from Lena. It seems to me that this dark heavy furniture is consonant with the style of the office.”

I suppose that, probably, some things went to Parfyonov by inheritance. “If not for the Soviet regime, it would have been so. But my ancestors were dispossessed, and we had nothing left: neither a huge house in the village of Yurga, nor a hotel in Cherepovets, nor things. I had to put everything back together. So it’s native, but not our own.”

Fragment of the living-dining room. Leonid Parfyonov: “The best things in the collection are the partition with the inscription “Lion”, Byzantine lions and the tree of life, which once separated the part of the kitchen where they cook from the one where they eat, and a rare apocryphal painting “Forty Martyrs”.

The collection was assembled in about a year, not without the help of a well-known Vologda collector, the late Mikhail Vasilyevich Surov. Parfyonov knew exactly what he wanted, and from a huge offer of painted chests, sideboards, supplies, cabinets and other utensils, he chose the rarest and most interesting ones.

Fragment of the living-dining room. Leonid Parfyonov: “There is such painted furniture in Finland, in the Alps - wherever there is a long winter and you want colors in your houses. But in ours there is more innocence, it seems to me, less observation.

Most of them were concentrated in the living-dining room, which even had to be expanded (the original layout cut the house into small rooms). “I didn’t want it to look like a museum,” says Leonid, “although it turned out a little like that. But everything here is extremely functional. And we didn’t pursue historical accuracy, we hung old doors on a new cabinet or inserted painted panels into new doors.”

Fragment of the living-dining room. Leonid Parfyonov: “All this Vologda furniture is around food. The main genre is supplies, sideboards and sideboards, cupboards, chests. Almost the entire collection is in the dining room because these things work when they are together.”

Elena shares her husband's love for things made by the peasants of the North: “They have a deeply positive aura. It happens that you come from the city, you are tired, your head hurts, and among them everything passes.

Bedroom. Elena Chekalova: “An old Russian chest, wedding wooden figurines from the island of Zanzibar, panels of old cabinets inserted into furniture frames from IKEA, Etro bedspreads and pillows - putting together such a mosaic is not easy, but it is much more interesting than copying pictures from furniture catalogs.”

But she also has her own passion, known to everyone - to cook. “I really love kitchen gadgets, I always had a lot of them,” says the author of cookbooks and programs. - But in the apartment it was impossible to realize my old dream - to have a kitchen with a real wood-burning stove to bake pies on clay pans, put pots on the night for slow languishing.

Kitchen. Elena Chekalova: “I have always dreamed of having a kitchen with a stove. We placed it in the annex for security reasons. I chose the Mudéjar style, bright and joyful. Clay, tiles, glass - it's all natural, textured, nice to touch.

Here I have two kitchens: one is ordinary, with a stove, oven and modern gadgets, and the second is traditional, with a stove, barbecue, tandoor, smokehouse. Such things cannot be done in the center of the house, they require special chimneys and extractors, so we built a special room for her. It is very convenient to cook there and it is pleasant to be. I envy myself!” Leonid is also very pleased with the house: “I don’t want to do anything here anymore. History has come to an end."

Fragment of a corridor. Leonid Parfyonov: “The art object hung in Konstantin Ernst's waiting room for a long time, until I convinced him that I needed the painting more. At first, the missing comma before “what” annoyed me, but then I got used to it.”
Text: Julia Peshkova

Why does the TV presenter's wife Elena Chekalova prefer to grow her own chickens and rabbits rather than buy meat in stores. Woman's Day visited the TV presenter's dacha in the Pervomaisky village near Moscow.

About the interior

“We have been living in this house for 13 years already,” says Elena Chekalova, Parfenov's wife. - It was built and furnished gradually. And there are no expensive things here. Part of the furniture was purchased for little money in a shopping center. Then removed from the purchased cabinets standard doors and inserted those that were found in the villages. Sheathed armchairs and sofas with covers with patterns, even light bulbs were painted. All brought to mind with their own hands. I do not like rich houses, where everything is monotonous, according to the catalog. They have no individuality. And with us, every detail of the interior is a whole story. For example, in Lenin's study, the main decoration is a shield that he brought from Ethiopia when he was filming the film "Living Pushkin". It was a tough shoot. The husband was captured by bandits. Their group was robbed, and then they even wanted to shoot them. They somehow persuaded the attackers to let them go.

And behind every thing in our house lies a story. We have pictures of religious content, written by peasants 200-300 years ago. This is an apocryphal painting. So many old furniture, which Mikhail Surov, Leni's friend, took out of the villages. Well, how did you take it out? Bartered. People wanted to put some kind of terrible wall in the house, and the wonderful closet in which their ancestors kept things was carried to the trash. And this was typical for all Soviet citizens. My grandmother, who was born before the revolution in a noble family, had beautiful furniture. When she was a child, mom and dad took her to the market and bought a nightmare wall. I did not have the right to vote, I could not protest then. Therefore, now for my husband and me, each such thing is a relic. It is these antiques that create the very comfort, light, energy in our home.

About subsistence farming

At home, we have created the perfect atmosphere for relaxing from the bustle of the city

Photo by Dmitry Drozdov/"Antenna"

I first encountered subsistence farming in Sicily, on the estate of a local baron. His family has been the main producer of wine and olive oil on the island for many years. They have everything of their own: bread, cheese, butter, fruit, meat. And the food they eat is grown by them, not bought. 80 employees work on hundreds of hectares of land. And, most surprisingly, at dinner they all sit at the same table with the baron. They live like one big family. Therefore, when we also decided to grow vegetables and animals and invited an assistant, we did everything to make him feel at home here. After all main problem in the organization of subsistence farming for us there was a shortage of time. And without the help of a knowledgeable person simply can not do.

At the moment we have 30 rabbits, a dozen hens, guinea fowls. There were turkeys, but we ate them all safely. One of these days we will go for new ones. We usually buy them in June and feed them until the end of November. Grow up to 18 kilograms. This year we tried to grow broiler chickens, but nothing came of it. Recently they got caught in the rain and half died. It turned out that they do not tolerate dampness. We decided not to start them anymore, especially since these are artificially bred birds. We don't have big animals, cattle. I think that we should come to this. As long as we have enough of what we have now. The rabbit has simply amazing meat - dietary and tasty. We hardly drink milk. It has now been established by science that over the years it should be consumed as little as possible, it is useful only for children. But Lenya loves homemade yogurt very much, so I buy milk and make yogurt myself.

Photo by Dmitry Drozdov/"Antenna"

I try to shop as little as possible though. We started a household so that we don’t have to buy anything again. Too bad not everyone can afford this. This is luxury. All these modified products with labels, barcodes are ruining people. Obesity has become just some kind of epidemic. What is it connected with? With the fact that people eat wrong, live wrong. And then they pay crazy money for diets. They torture themselves, their bodies. And at the same time, everyone gets fatter and fatter. And if they just thought: why did our ancestors not sit on any diets and at the same time were absolutely normal physique? Because they used to eat whole, not processed foods, not refined. If you have grown something yourself, then you can no longer count proteins, carbohydrates and fats. Indeed, in organic food there is fiber, complex carbohydrates - what our body needs so much. Leni is constantly asked: “How is it that your wife cooks so much, and you are so thin?” This is because he eats normal food. Look how great he looks in his 50+ years. And this is largely due to the fact that we have our own products.

When I did not have a plot, I grew greens on the windowsill in the apartment. So did Leo's parents. Most of the year they lived in the village, but when they moved to Cherepovets for the winter, pots of parsley and dill appeared on the windowsill.

But now I have almost everything in the beds: tomatoes, radishes, Jerusalem artichoke, carrots. It is not known what pesticides may be in purchased vegetables. And we even made a compost pit on the site. Dung, grass, leaves - everything goes there. It closes well, no smell. But there are organic harmless fertilizers.

However, I had never done anything like this before. But all her life she was repelled by the experience of her parents. It was PUSHING OFF, trying to be further from it. I didn't want to be the same city person. My father was a journalist, my mother was a linguist. They are people who have devoted themselves entirely to intellectual work. They were absolutely indifferent to life. They could buy dumplings, sausages. It doesn't matter what it is. The main thing is theater, books. I really didn't like it. We never had cozy home. So now I'm trying to do everything to create the same warmth.