An Antique-Filled Cottage in Nantucket’s Historic District

Wallpaper hand-stenciled by Kevin Paulsen takes its design and color inspiration from disparate elements in the dining room, like the stenciled hardwood floors, a landscape painting by local artist Illya Kagan, and the owners’ green Provençal pottery.

Located across the street from a historic candle factory, the circa-1809 home largely retains its original appearance, although the Greek Revival doorway was likely added several decades after construction.

In a home meant to be lived in rather than preserved, the Orkney chair and hooked rug are traditional yet sturdy. Behind the console is the owners’ collection of vintage automobile headlight lenses.

The combined impact of sun, kids, and dogs led designer Michelle Holland to reupholster this much-loved sofa in a Quadrille fabric. The side table on the left is made from an old wood shovel, while the lamp to the right echoes the blue-painted hardwood floors.

Spindle-back Windsor chairs with a black crackle finish surround a simple dining table, contrasting the busy wallpaper and draperies in this semiformal room.

The kitchen’s floors feature wood repurposed from the home’s original attic, and the yellow cabinetry dates back to a 2009 makeover by Sandi Holland, Michelle’s mother-in-law.

This step-back cabinet in the kitchen contains a substantial portion of the owners’ collection of redware.

Announced by a bell above the side door, Scottish terrier Oscar welcomes guests into the kitchen. Both light fixtures in the room are contemporary, but their handblown glass and iron construction make them fit seamlessly with the rustic surrounds.

Floral Colefax and Fowler wallpaper and upholstered headboards soften a guest bedroom.

This feminine bedroom reflects the style and interests of a daughter who has spent time in France.

Shipboard style prevails in this attic-turned-bedroom, which often finds the family’s son and his surfer friends gathered on the bunk beds.

Vintage French nautical posters add blocks of color to the monochromatic shiplap just outside the en suite bath.

The back of the house, set on a rare double lot, is graced with lush gardens. The outdoor shower is popular after summer days at the beach, on the boat, or surfing the local waves.

Nantucket was a hardworking coastal community long before it became a pricey summer playground, and a redesign of a historic early-nineteenth-century home deftly charts a course between the owners’ love of antiques and history and the practical needs of an active family of sailors and surfers.

Located in the island’s historic district, the circa-1809 house, its exterior clad in unpainted cedar shingles, looks largely unchanged from the year it was built. Unlike other island homes that have undergone contemporary makeovers, the interior, too, would still feel familiar to its original occupants, beginning with the center staircase’s newel post that features a hidden compartment where the home’s deed would have been stored.

It’s details like that that enticed Manhattanite Annabelle Fowlkes, president of the Nantucket Historical Association’s Board of Trustees. Fowlkes and her family purchased their summer home in 2007. She then hired designer Sandi Holland, founder of Nantucket House Antiques & Interior Design Studios, to reimagine the interiors. Over nearly twenty years, as the family has evolved, the house has evolved with them, thanks to the help of designer Michelle Holland, who now leads the firm launched by her mother-in-law.

Holland’s design makes extensive use of Fowlkes’ vast antiques collection, from patinated English and French furniture to the redware and lusterware dishes stored in curiosity cabinets; historic maps of the island line the hallways, while Nantucket baskets nest in the sitting room. “I love collecting things that are more utilitarian, that people would have worked with,” says Fowlkes.

In the dining room, the bold but period-appropriate muslin wallcovering, hand-stenciled by artist Kevin Paulsen, smartly adds color to a home where wood prevails from floor to ceiling. “Most of these homes were built of materials that could be carried here by boat,” notes Holland. Hardwood floors also feature stenciled patterns or splatter paint, old beautification tricks in a location where rugs and carpets were scarce.

The cumulative effect is a home that feels comfortably lived in instead of like a museum or showhouse—gathered, not curated, suggesting a whaling captain returning from sea with an odd table here, a bureau there.

“It’s a playful, living house—not at all precious,” says Holland. “There’s the perception that ‘Nantucket style’ is nautical blues and whites; this house is the real Nantucket style, with elements collected over hundreds of years.”

Project Team
Architecture: Nantucket Architecture Group
Interior design: Nantucket House Antiques & Interior Design Studios
Builder: Nantucket Building Company
Landscape design: The Garden Design Company