“I might have had a PowerPoint with screenshots from Pinterest and Instagram when we met with the designers,” says Meredith Sweet in a tone that implies she most certainly did.
After all, she had been collecting inspiration for two-and-a-half years while she and her husband, Craig, searched for a home. When the couple, who have a seven-year-old daughter and five-year-old son, landed on this 1980s-era Colonial in Beverly, they were ready to make it their own.
Step one was to de-Colonialize the interior. Having grown up in Andover, Meredith was aware of the pitfalls of center-entrance Colonials. “The house was very segmented with a separate dining room and kitchen,” she says. “We are big cooks and bakers who like to spend time doing those things together.”
The team at OUR HOUSE design+build—Amy Tangorra, Paige Lewin, and Alex Scovell—worked to reimagine the layout. The result is an open, L-shaped plan with new dining room, kitchen, and family room. The renovation generated a proper mudroom as well, not to mention copious sunlight. “Without those interior walls, the light beams in,” Meredith says. “You feel like you’re in a greenhouse or snow globe, depending on the season.”
While the kitchen remained in the same place, the designers reworked its layout to increase the footprint and utility. Before, the cooking area was hemmed in by a pesky peninsula, with a breakfast area on the other side. Doing away with these features allowed for a center island that seats five.
Pushing the back slider into the adjacent dining room opened a much-needed slot for the refrigerator. The sink stayed under the window, which was enlarged.
The team also created a walk-in pantry—a must-have on Meredith’s list—by closing the opening between the formal entry hall and kitchen. “Everyone uses the mudroom entrance,” admits the homeowner. “The flow from the mudroom into the dining room and kitchen works really well for us.”
Now, back to that PowerPoint presentation. “Meredith said that she would live in an Anthropologie store if she could,” shares Lewin. “We thought a lot about how to translate those kinds of surprises into a home.”
An alcove for the range provides wow factor in the kitchen. “I had quite a few range alcoves in my PowerPoint,” shares Meredith. “Amy and Paige also noticed that I loved the little nooks with shelves carved into the sides.”
The alcove started as an arched opening but evolved into a crisp, peaked silhouette. “The shape mimics the peaked ceiling in the dining room and provides a subtle connection between the spaces,” says Tangorra. A walnut insert hides the hood and patterned marble tile with Moroccan flavor by Stone Impressions completes the look.
For cabinetry, Meredith wanted natural wood. “She was an early adopter of dark wood for us,” Lewin recalls. Landing on the warm cocoa color took a few tries with the cabinet company, but once the final iteration was approved, the designers and homeowners were so smitten that they decided to use it in the dining room, too.
Here, a sideboard with soapstone-like countertops, storage cabinets, and floating shelves pops against a textural, khaki-colored backdrop. “The Phillip Jeffries grass cloth wallcovering allows the focal point chandelier to draw the eye,” Lewin says. Chairs upholstered in deep green performance bouclé line a dining table with clean lines. “When I brought my husband to Arhaus to see the chairs, the floor models were on clearance, all six for the price of one,” reveals Meredith. “They were meant to be.”