A Newport Cottage Designed by J. Randall Powers

Terraced manicured gardens lead to Edgehill, one of Newport’s most notable summer cottages. The private estate was designed by McKim, Mead & White in the 1880s.

The home’s classic stone-and-shingle façade is a study in understated elegance.

The rock porch features 1920s Arts and Crafts rattan furniture with cushions upholstered in Stroheim’s Dauphine pattern. A Rose Cumming fabric was used for the curtains to frame the surrounding vistas.

A needlepoint rug by legendary twentieth-century designer William “Billy” Haines anchors the vast living room. A custom lantern was designed to harmonize with the original sconces. The sofa is covered in Brunschwig & Fils’s Bamboo Trellis, while the pair of club chairs features Le Lac glazed chintz by the same fabric house. The coffee table is by Billy Baldwin Studio.

The entry hall’s center table is English Regency, circa 1820.

The dining room’s walls are upholstered in a vibrant glazed linen by Pierre Frey, outlined in a chocolate double-welt trim by Samuel & Sons. The table and chairs are late eighteenth-century designs.

A mix of styles and eras come together in the breakfast room, where eighteenth-century Windsor chairs surround a more contemporary geometric table base, and a Paul Ferrante chandelier hovers above.

In the TV room, an original John James Audubon engraving hangs above a sofa upholstered in Brunschwig & Fils’s iconic La Portugaise fabric. The Missoni carpet is by Stark.

In the stairwell, most of the paintings are by artist Antonio Jacobsen, who worked in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. The unique chandelier, a family heirloom, originally came from Mallett in London.

An exquisite, stalwart eighteenth-century English burled-walnut highboy is the star of the main bedroom and is the perfect foil for the patterned upholstery and scenic wallpaper.

A blue-and-white-striped wallpaper by Hinson envelopes the main bathroom.

For the celebrated designer J. Randall Powers, the opportunity to decorate one of Newport’s iconic nineteenth-century summer cottages, lovingly referred to as Edgehill, was a thrill in itself. But the fact that the property came with such an architectural pedigree was the icing on the cake. After all, the notable residence was originally designed by the legendary McKim, Mead and White architectural firm (think Boston Public Library), and the park-like grounds were devised by Frederick Law Olmsted (of New York City’s Central Park fame). Decorative moldings and elaborate fireplaces, as well as perfectly placed windows to take in the surrounding vistas, afforded Powers a beautiful architectural envelope.

Working on the home’s interior was a years-long collaboration with his clients. The wife, with whom Powers has partnered time and again, wanted everything executed at a certain level, so there was no rush or cutting corners to meet a set deadline. As a result, no detail was overlooked.

“We took the time to think about what needed to be done, and made it right the first time,” says Powers, who collaborated on the project with his firm’s managing partner and senior designer, Christopher R. Alexander. A painstaking, albeit sensitive, renovation has updated the house for the twenty-first century, while retaining all the charm and character of its historic pedigree. While some designers are hired for a signature style, Powers is known for his deft hand in toggling between high-rise penthouses, fine city residences, and country estates. In this case, as with other projects, his longtime clients insisted on originality and something purely unique that would suit the home’s history and its location along the storied Rhode Island coast.

“This is a nineteenth-century house that has lived many lives,” says Powers. “When you walk into a house like this, there’s a romance already.”

Powers built upon that sense of romance with his timeless design scheme, mixing the best of old and new. He has known his clients to be kindred spirits in their shared passion for beautiful things. Both husband and wife come from families where connoisseurship is embedded in their DNA, so Powers had carte blanche in selecting key antiques and other furnishings from their expansive collection, including original designs by twentieth-century master decorator William “Billy” Haines. Mixing pieces from disparate eras and styles in a way that seems totally effortless was like putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle. A spirited palette of reds, yellows, and blues is the common thread that weaves everything together. It’s a contemporary take on an all-American color scheme: strong, but not overpowering; timeless, yet of the moment.

“My client has a keen eye for color,” says Powers of the wife and her penchant for particular hues. Here, it was the perfect shade of red. “She does not like blue-red or yellow-red or orange-red. It has to be that tomato-soup red.” The color is echoed throughout—sometimes in strong doses; other times, as a whisper. The riotous mix of geometric patterns with florals and stripes, along with animal prints, was also a departure for Powers, but he used them with aplomb, creating a strong color story without allowing it to overpower the space. As a result, the patchwork of rooms filled with luxurious wallpapers and iconic fabric prints feels new and fresh.

The interiors honor the home’s celebrated location in this historic seaside town but are not beholden to it. The timeless spaces are beautifully crafted, and appear to have evolved over the years, but aren’t, in Powers’s words, “too scrubbed up.”

“A true designer decorates for the client, and that’s one of the reasons my firm has had longevity over a twenty-plus-year career,” says Powers. “As designers, we don’t decorate for ourselves.”

Project Team
Interior design: J. Randall Powers, Christopher R. Alexander, J. Randall Powers Interior Decorators
Renovation: B.R. Arnold Construction
Landscape design: Brigid Finn Fine Gardening, DaPonte’s Landscaping Services, Tupelo Design Studios

[WPSM_COLORBOX id=73546]