Coastal Color

Entry to the home is via the living room, where an oak coffee table, natural-wood end table, and stone fireplace add a touch of rustic charm.

Green custom tile work in the kitchen is eye-catching but not excessive thanks to the otherwise neutral palette of the light-colored cabinetry, wood floors, and hemlock ceiling.

Spacious shelves provide plenty of storage.

Leather-backed McGuire chairs surround a Dos Gallos dining table with black iron accents that nod to the homeowners’ appreciation for all things equine.

This hangout room has no TV but plenty of comfy places to read and play games. The durable Palecek tables resemble fossilized logs, and the chandelier with its hand-picked crystals reflects light throughout the room.

The clients’ daughter worked closely with SLC Interiors to create a bedroom that reflects her individual style while still integrating seamlessly with the overall vision for the home.

Mirrors cleverly expand the sense of space in this skinny Jack-and-Jill bathroom and reflect—literally—the bold choices in color and pattern.

A selection of the clients’ prized artwork hangs over a study desk with a wood top that matches the floors.

The husband’s study is an exception to the color rule in the home but retains a playful touch with wallpaper awash in swimming fish.

A single accent pillow picks up the bold pink wallpaper in the primary bedroom, which is soothed by neutral linens and upholstery, a light-filled gabled ceiling, and interesting textures like the handmade tile surrounding the fireplace opening.

Pastel colors evoke positive emotions—calm, peace, balance, to name a few—but the invigorating palette is usually associated with a summer home rather than a four-season residence. So what does an interior designer do when her clients, whose favorite color is spring green, want a design that works year-round in a house built as a summer retreat but destined to be a retirement place?

That color-loving couple, on the cusp of a new phase of life now that their children are in college, commissioned Susanne Lichten Csongor and Natalie Lebeau of SLC Interiors to design the interior of their new home on the South Coast of Massachusetts. The project started pre-construction and in collaboration with the builder, architect, and clients, who were highly involved in choosing colors and fabrics and siting artwork from their personal collection. “They were one of those awesome clients who told us what they liked and let us do what we do,” says Csongor.

Set on an expansive riverfront property, the house, with an open floor plan and tall gabled ceilings, receives ample natural light for a bright and cheerful design concept with an easy, natural flow. The clients’ beloved pastel green is the dominant shade in the living room and kitchen—rooms that receive plenty of light from a curved bank of windows overlooking the river—showing up in carpets, a custom tile backsplash, chairs, cabinetry, and window treatments. Other rooms tend toward soft shades of blue, pink, and orange sherbet.

A green rolling chair is paired with turquoise beadboard in the wife’s study. In the kitchen, powder-blue stools provide seating at the off-white island. Interesting textures show up in unexpected places, too, like raffia wraps on wall sconces in the hangout room.

Unifying elements are more subtle. Drawing inspiration from the clients’ passion for equestrian sports, Csongor and Lebeau incorporated leather and iron into custom furnishings like the gray cerused-oak dining room table and cane chairs. A pair of window-front architectural chairs have back ties made from horses’ snaffle bits. Barn-door panels on the kitchen island also play to the equine theme while adding a touch of country style to an out-of-town home.

“When we create a concept, it’s really holistic; it’s not one room at a time,” says Lebeau. “We like to take a few elements and repeat them from room to room.”

Builder George Howland carefully matched neutral wide-plank floors with the home’s magnificent hemlock ceilings, which tend to balance out the pastels. But it’s the absence of color that really makes this design work year-round: black doors, window trim, drawer pulls, fireplace grates, and light fixtures, which otherwise might seem somber instead offer seasonal balance.

“People who love color as much as they do want that energy all day long,” says Lebeau. “There really was a commitment to having this excitement year-round.” She adds with a laugh: “Once you put cotton-candy wallpaper in your bedroom, there’s really no going back.”

Project Team
Interior design: Susanne Lichten Csongor, Natalie Lebeau, SLC Interiors
Architecture: John Dvorsack, John Dvorsack Architect
Builder: George Howland, Howland Company