Now this is how you renovate while keeping original features intact.
With a period home like this New England gem, decorated by Boston-based designer Nina Farmer, you want to highlight its best attributes, not overshadow them. Brick mantel, wood trim, white wainscoting — they're just made better thanks to these simple updates.
The staircase, built-in bench and boiserie look fresh with a new coat of paint.
Boston designer Nina Farmer knew better than to fiddle with the architectural integrity of a classic New England grand dame.
"I had fun putting together colors that were appropriate to the house," says Farmer. In the living room, she took her cues from original features, like the brick mantel and wood trim. A pair of Duane Modern chairs is covered in a Rogers & Goffigon fabric. The brass-and-alabaster pendant is by Urban Archaeology. Two Vaughan lamps flank a custom sofa upholstered in a Rose Tarlow Melrose House fabric.
The dining room was largely left intact. With high beams and floor-to-ceiling windows, it had a good foundation.
Farmer updated the space with a Phillip Jeffries horsehair wall covering on the walls and a metallic paper on the ceiling, in between the beams. Around a Keith Fritz table, dining chairs are covered in a textured linen jute from Holland & Sherry.
Farmer kept the cabinetry, Viking range and soapstone countertops.
Farmer repainted the cabinets in Farrow & Ball's cool-gray Dimpse and added an Urban Electric Co. pendant, which she had redone in Farrow & Ball's Stony Ground.
In the family room, which also serves as an office, Holland & Sherry grass cloth covers the walls; the trim, painted in Farrow & Ball's Hague Blue, complements a vintage sofa upholstered in an indigo Lee Jofa fabric.
The powder room retained its vintage corner sink but got a new look with Robert Crowder & Co. marbleized wallpaper and a vintage Egon Hillebrand mirror. The original wainscoting was repainted in Farrow & Ball's Plummet.
The red walls weren't made to last, but Farmer would decide to keep the wainscoting underneath.
Farmer layered shades of gray with autumnal colors in the master bedroom. The walls are now sheathed in Phillip Jeffries's soothing silk-and-abaca wallpaper. The custom Roman shades are in a Holland & Sherry print. A Circa Lighting ceiling fixture casts a warm glow reminiscent of the golden leaves on the river birch trees that line the property.
Read more about Nina Farmer's inspiration for this home here.
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This story originally appeared in the February 2017 issue of House Beautiful.
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