Cape Cod’s Old Silver Shed Decorates for The Holidays

A custom-built “swing bed” by Classic Woodworks appears to be hanging in this guest room, however, the headboard is secured to the wall under the windows. Layered linens from Pom Pom at Home and sheepskins on the floor pile on the coziness.

In the library, leather Scout & Nimble chairs pull up to a cocktail table with a custom base from Ferrous Hardware, while a black-and-white photograph of Sandra Cavallo’s twins when they were young provides an elegant, nostalgic backdrop.

In the family room, a mix of sheepskins and reindeer skins cover the window seat and B&B Italia sofa; they also act as a skirt for a Christmas tree decorated in heart ornaments collected from Switzerland, Germany, and Austria.

Cavallo at home on the porch of her Old Silver Shed.

In renovating the previous non-functioning fireplace, Cavallo worked with European Home to create a modern, exposed, linear flame at eye level (when seated) for a firepit feel, especially since the square dining table from Antoine Proulx lends a communal feel with no head of the table.

Cavallo designed the transom into the kitchen using vintage glass panes she found online at Delphi Glass for five dollars each.

Aged French oak floorboards wrap the kitchen island and repeat on the dining room fireplace. The linear pattern echoes on the ceiling’s shiplap and on the sailor-striped floor rug.

Designer Sandra Cavallo is good at dosing out daily magic. She has photographed hundreds of dreamy snapshots of her home for Instagram, mesmerizing nearly 300,000 followers of @oldsilvershed. That shed is a 1905 Folk Victorian that was completely run-down when the Cavallos found it twenty years ago on a spit of land in West Falmouth, Massachusetts. Cavallo renovated every inch and built an addition, nearly quadrupling the house’s size and transforming it into a classic, turn-of-the-century, New England Shingle-style home. At Christmastime, she dials up the décor even more—not just for social media but for her grown kids, who’ve witnessed this elflike magic their whole life. And 2020 will be no exception.

“This holiday we’re all looking for escapism,” she says. “We’re stuck at home, and we want it to be festive.” The Old Silver Shed is undeniably festive no matter the season, with its silver-gray weathered shingles, glowing lanterns, and rustic beams. Vignette-like spaces include a campy, porch-style guest room with a bed that appears to swing from the ceiling, and a kitchen nook with double Dutch barn doors that fling open to the deck. At 6,000 square feet, it’s not much of a shed anymore, but Cavallo’s dedication to detail meant she kept original ceiling heights, opting for intimate spaces over modern great rooms. “I wanted the coziness of a cottage with [similar] proportions, not soaring high ceilings,” she says. Fortunately, that cottage style lends itself perfectly to capturing the holiday spirit.

Over the years, Cavallo would send her twins off to school, and when they’d return home, the tree would be fully decorated with twinkling lights and glass ornaments. Sparkle dust would be sprinkled throughout the house. The elves had come. Now, nearly two decades later, she’s still making it shimmer when her kids come home from college, layering in lots of greenery, candlelight, and cozy fireside places to catch up. “I go hard,” she says. “I make it magical.”

Frequently embracing a woodland holiday theme, Cavallo fills her already-neutral home with lots of texture and natural objects with minimal color. Soft, “snowy-like” sheepskins are layered everywhere. Woodland animals rest under glass cloches, while an owl sits on a vintage console, surrounded by branches. Woodsy accent chairs pull up to the kitchen table. The dining room is adorned with winter-white candles and a centerpiece wreath
of cut greens.

Project Team 
Interior design: Sandra Cavallo, Old Silver Shed
Architectural design: Sandra Cavallo, Kim McMakin
Builder: Tom Sederman, Sederman Builders
Landscape design: Suzanne Apellaniz, Artistic Garden Design

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