A Grand Colonial Home Comes Down to Earth

The living room, anchored by a rug from Steven King Decorative Carpets, is open to the dining room, a sunroom, and a bar (not pictured). Lee Industries armchairs in Pavoni suede and a Bright Group sofa provide seating next to a Paris Ceramics fireplace; the chandelier is from Visual Comfort.

Sudbury Design Group landscaped the motor court, preserving a spectacular thirty-year-old magnolia at its center.

An Urban Electric Co. pendant in the foyer hangs over a Verellen table.

To prevent fading, the Lee Industries chairs in the sunroom—enclosed by Tischler und Sohn steel-framed windows—were upholstered in indoor-outdoor Cowtan & Tout fabric.

Some cabinetry and the kitchen’s central island showcase blue, the wife’s favored color, which designer Lisa Duffy also picked up in the Perennials fabric on the RH stools. Massive wood beams and white-oak floors add rustic charm to industrial touches like iron-and-glass cabinetry, steel-framed windows, and House of Rohl fixtures.

A custom island, open shelving, and cabinetry in various finishes give the kitchen a collected look.

In the breakfast nook, a custom table and Lee Industries chairs with hair-on-hide backs sit under a Visual Comfort chandelier.

The art deco-inspired bar features a white-oak ceiling and custom cabinetry with Buster + Punch hardware.

Mohair stools and a Verellen high-top table complement a Schumacher suede wallpaper.

Her office centers around a Made Goods faux horn desk. Duffy matched the millwork color to the niche’s Phillip Jeffries wallpaper. The gold ceiling paper is also Phillip Jeffries.

In his office, a Ralph Lauren light illuminates the dark bay window area, while a Visual Comfort ring pendant showers a conversation area with light. The rug is from Landry & Arcari Rugs and Carpeting.

Duffy enveloped the powder room in a Harlequin wallpaper and outfitted it with a WS Bath Collections sink, Brizo faucet, and Arteriors mirror.

Leather Made Goods chests flank the custom Verellen bed in the primary bedroom. The machine-embroidered wallcovering is by Schumacher.

The primary bath boasts a BainUltra tub with a House of Rohl filler, Carrara marble tile, and another Paris Ceramics fireplace.

The stately 1928 colonial, situated on almost five acres in Andover, Massachusetts, exudes formality. Its L-shape embraces a capacious circular motor court where guests arrive after passing, first, through majestic gates at the road, then a low stone wall. Looming out of the wooded lot, the home’s facade of white-washed brick is capped by a pediment showcasing an oxeye window. The front door is protected from inclement weather by a gracefully longitudinal portico.

But inside is another matter entirely—a thoroughly comfortable, livable home built for the contemporary lifestyle of its owners, a fifty-something couple with grown children and an extended family. It’s the first of many contrasts one encounters. “She doesn’t like anything expected,” says interior designer Lisa Duffy of the wife. And that’s what Duffy, who’s worked on two other projects with these clients, delivered.

It’s a far cry from what they found after purchasing the 10,000-square-foot residence. “They liked the exterior but wanted it more open, with modern living spaces,” recalls architect Rob Bramhall, who led the renovation. The main structure’s perpendicular wing was the wrong elevation, he says. “You stepped down into it. It was more like a back of house for servants.” Among changes the clients requested were his-and-her offices, a gym, and a bigger kitchen.

After gutting the interior, Bramhall repositioned the sagging main staircase and reconfigured the rooms “to adapt to the fluid way we live today. Visually you now have a connection to other rooms by creating view corridors, and we placed large windows to intentionally connect to the outside.”

These alterations, explains builder Brian Vona, “utilized all our expertise—demolition, renovation, new building, and restoration.” Planning, for instance, had to be strategic to account for the original chimneys and materials that had been there for almost a hundred years such as exterior brick and slate, old beams and flooring, and fireplaces. The perpendicular wing was taken apart, brick by brick, and rebuilt. The desired openness also had to be meticulously engineered. “There’s a ton of steel in that house to carry the large spans of the room openings and windows,” Vona says.

Aside from emphasizing comfort and easy flow, Duffy’s interior scheme had two principal components: contrasting textural mixes and a palette that wove blue—the wife’s favorite color—subtly throughout. Arguably, no room expresses these more legibly than the kitchen, which Duffy designed with Joan Davis of Joan Davis Kitchen Design. “We mixed iron, translucent glass, brass, quartz, and different woods to create a pull and tug between textures,” she explains. “And we struck a balance between rustic and contemporary.”

The space is quite roomy, but the wife, Duffy observes, “likes to feel comfy and cozy, to be tighter in spaces.” To mitigate potential cavernousness, the designer created intimate moments including comfy chairs by a fireplace for enjoying morning coffee, a window seat, a “mess center” for keys and mail, and a secondary narrow metal-and-marble island by the refrigerators. Phalanxes of boxy cabinetry would have emphasized the expansiveness of the kitchen, so Duffy deployed a mix of wood and glass-and-iron cabinetry, as well as brass open shelving suspended from the ceiling.

The contrasts, though, end with the structure. The entire team was on the same page—including the homeowners. “The clients were great mentors and leaders, very calm,” says Vona. “They set the tone for the whole job.” They appreciated, agrees Duffy, “all the elements required to create a home of this stature.”

Project Team
Architecture: Rob Bramhall Architects
Interior design: Savoir Faire Home
Builder: KVC Builders
Landscape design: Sudbury Design Group