Ease, elegance, and serenity are the overwhelming feelings in the North of Boston home where a retired couple with an extensive collection of art and antiques wanted to age in place while surrounded by beauty. “They were looking for a place to invite their family in to visit and to have a really nice, relaxing space,” says Kathleen O’Connor, associate principal of Beverly-based SV Design. The home’s style and vibe were very different when the couple first purchased it. While its high ceilings were lovely in theory, they made the space feel overwhelming and impersonal. The interior colors, materials, and fixtures were dark and heavy, with lots of yellow tones, dark wood, and dated, ornate features.
“The house has a lot of natural light, but it still felt very dark despite that,” O’Connor says. Still, the bones of a beautiful and relaxing home were there, and the natural light, high ceilings, and elegant touches like arched doorways and floor-to-ceiling windows gave the SV Design team a broad canvas on which to work. The team painted much of the woodwork and walls white to brighten up the space, while layers of texture, like soft carpeting and fabric drapery, offset the high ceiling to add coziness and comfort. They also seamlessly incorporated pieces from the couple’s existing art and antique collection.
“They wanted soft, muted tones that would go really nicely with some of the wood tones of their antique collection,” O’Connor says. The home is also surrounded by beautiful gardens, which the couple loves. “Some of the spaces were designed to be able to fit and enjoy that view,” O’Connor says. One lovely example of this is in the sunroom, where different patterns and textures blend to create an inviting, relaxing space. The wall-to-wall Plaid Perfection carpet from Landry & Arcari provides a soft and sophisticated, yet subtle, anchor, while the sisal wallpaper in Arbour by Colefax and Fowler echoes the garden views outside the tall windows. The pale, muted green hanging Caddo Lantern in celadon by Visual Comfort adds to the garden feeling, as does the framed artwork featuring colorful parasols sourced from the homeowners’ collection. Soft furniture, including reclining chairs and an ottoman, invite long, lingering afternoons with a book.
The team also brightened and cozied up other spaces, too, including the living room, where they layered soft, light-colored carpeting and a rug over the dark wood floor, painted the walls and some woodwork white, and retrofitted a heavy, bulky stone veneer around the fireplace to match the surrounding walls. A dining nook got a European flair, thanks to French doors opening to a garden overlook, a Serapi Handwoven Tribal Area Rug from Landry & Arcari, and Atwood fabric drapery from Colefax and Fowler, paired with a table, chairs, and a sideboard from the owners’ collection.
The team also used light fixtures to add a touch of whimsy and surprise throughout the house, such as a delicate, beaded light fixture over the dining table and a glass bubble Talia chandelier from Visual Comfort over the vanity in the primary bathroom. “A lot of the light fixtures were a bit more whimsical and broke up the seriousness of some of the space,” O’Connor says. “They blend really nicely with some of the stately antiques and grandiose gestures of some of those pieces that were in the home.”
Whereas the design team sought to lighten and brighten most spaces in the house, the office retained a darker, more masculine feeling, with deep, rich tones of brown and blue. The office also embraces texture with a sofa covered in Patterson Flynn velvet fabric by Kravet, Heriz handwoven area rug by Landry & Arcari, and a custom swivel armchair with Ralph Lauren herringbone fabric by Ben Soleimani. “We chose to keep the wood paneling, to keep it that color, and lean into those tones for his office space,” O’Connor says. “We kind of celebrated that dark wood.”
In addition to wanting a home that felt calming, welcoming, and serene, the homeowners also wanted to live somewhere they could age in place. To achieve this, the SV Design team added thoughtful, yet unobtrusive, features, including a grab bar and seat in the shower, zero-entry thresholds, and plenty of space in rooms and bathrooms to allow for potential assistance in the future. The result is a home where ease and elegance live side by side. “It’s very sophisticated and very simple and muted and calming,” O’Connor says.