Linda Ruderman Updates a Greenwich Colonial

The formal dining room can only be described as tactile, from the upholstered walls and embroidered window coverings to the silk-and-wool rug and polished mahogany table, which seats twelve.

In the back foyer, a Chameleon Lighting chandelier illuminates a custom table with a burnished-brass base that echoes the gold hues in the carpet.

Interior designer Linda Ruderman loves the living room’s Lorin Marsh lamps, which feature white linen shades with sheer outer shells. The homeowners’ Petra Cortright painting adds a pop of color.

“I knew this was our house as soon as I saw the listing,” says the homeowner. “It was on flat land and a quiet street, and I was obsessed with the functionality of the layout. It checked every box.”

The millworkers at Connolly & Kyne Interiors added paneling to the walls in the front and back foyers to give the spec home more of a custom feel. Sconces from Pagani Studio flank mixed-media artwork from Ran Hwang.

The homeowners purchased one of Roberto Dutesco’s horse photographs when they were living near his SoHo studio. Indoor/outdoor fabrics and a rug from L&M Custom Carpets stand up to an active family with three young boys.

Visual Comfort pendants hang from a beadboard ceiling and provide plenty of light for the kitchen’s dual islands.

Ruderman custom designed the family room’s coffee table, which features leather-wrapped corners. Ottomans can be stored underneath when they aren’t in use.

Shades of emerald green transition to hues of soft blue in the primary bedroom with its leather-covered headboard.

Rather than hang artwork in front of the primary bedroom’s desk, Ruderman opted to make a sculptural statement with an oval-backed Christopher Guy chair

Artwork from Rachel Lee Hovnanian is the focal point in the room’s cozy seating area.

A niche in the primary bath cocoons a soaking tub.

Senior Landscape Designer Matthew Willinger of James Doyle Design Associates imagined the colonial home’s backyard to include a swimming pool, spa, outdoor kitchen, fireplace, putting green, and garden.

Then one soon-to-be-former New Yorker walked into her friend’s redesigned Tribeca apartment, it made an impact she wouldn’t soon forget. “It was a wow moment,” she recalls. “The design was unique but not over the top.” When it came time to furnish the Greenwich home the woman and her husband purchased for their family of five, she knew exactly who to call. “I told my husband, as soon as we move to Greenwich, we have to call this Linda Ruderman,” she says.

The house, a center-hall colonial constructed in 2016, was essentially a blank slate: the family was its first occupants. Before move-in day, millworkers from Connolly & Kyne Interiors gave the home some bespoke touches by adding paneling to the foyer and built-ins to the family room, modifying the family room’s ceiling beams, and sprucing up the kids’ rooms.

When Linda Ruderman entered the picture, she suggested a rich shade of emerald green, which makes its first appearance in custom Rug Art carpets in the back foyer, main staircase, living room, and dining room. In the intricately textured rugs, the green hue seeps through shades of gold and cream for one of those wow moments that drew the clients to Ruderman in the first place. “When you walk in the front door, you see all of the carpets together, and it’s quite beautiful,” says Ruderman.

The green shows up again on chairs and pillows in the living room and in the form of Swarovski crystals on the formal dining room’s chandelier, which, at night, throws sparkles against the lacquered ceiling. The design becomes more casual in the family room, which Ruderman outfitted with durable fabrics that will stand up to the antics of three young boys. “Having three boys speaks for itself,” says the homeowner, laughing. “I wanted something as nice as possible while still being livable. Linda has three sons, so she’s kind of an expert on designing a house for boys.”

Speaking of those boys, they got in on the design process, too. The homeowners asked Ruderman to complete most of the heavy lifting, including the boys’ rooms, in the six months before they had to move in. “We were together a lot,” says Ruderman. “In fact, when I would ring the doorbell, the boys would greet me with ‘What did you bring today?’ ”

The homeowner, who grows all of her own vegetables in the backyard garden—“I don’t have to buy any produce during the summer”—loves to cook and says the home has become a gathering spot for extended family up and down the eastern seaboard. As a result, the kitchen boasts two Carrara marble-topped islands and a cozy breakfast nook complete with its own fireplace.

It all adds up to a property that’s equally adept at hosting football practices in the fall and visiting cousins in the summer while still showcasing a growing fine art collection. “It was hard to envision what I wanted because I like so many different styles,” says the homeowner, “but I wanted a specific feeling—something comfortable but not too casual, not rustic, not beachy. This is just right for us.”

Project Team
Interior design: Linda Ruderman Interiors
Builder: Fieber Group
Landscape design: James Doyle Design Associates