Tour a Historic Cape Cod Saltbox

ng room shows the original rafters and exposed timber framing.

After learning that the homeowner wanted to repurpose the old lath-and-plaster boards rescued from demolition, the design team used them throughout the entryway and open staircase to create a graphic “wallpaper.”

he first-floor sitting room shows the original rafters and exposed timber framing.

In the multipurpose breakfast/game room, the table, chair, and apothecary chest are from Mulligan’s.

The breakfast/game room is a favorite gathering place. New supports were created from antique heart-pine beams found in the cellar. Its many movable pieces include pedestal-style tables and painted case goods.

The overall feel of the kitchen remains true to its humble seventeenth-century origins, with distressed painted cabinets, open shelving, stools with rush seats, and a Shaker-inspired iron chandelier

A second-floor bedroom is furnished with a mix of Early American pieces, including a Sheraton-style bed from Leonards New England.

In the primary bath, the vanity backsplashes were designed to mimic the backboard of a Federal-style chest. The room features stoneware sinks and hand-forged lighting, while a hand-painted blanket chest serves as a period-appropriate accent.

The first time the interior design team saw Paddock House, it was hoisted several feet in the air to facilitate the pouring of a new foundation. “So much had been stripped from its shell that it barely resembled a house at all,” remembers Natalie Lebeau, principal designer for SLC Interiors. She was with the firm’s founder, Susanne Lichten Csongor, on that day in 2019, right after longtime clients commissioned the Boston-based designers to renovate the interiors of their recently purchased South Yarmouth home.

Dating to 1660, the house had a seafaring pedigree (an early owner, Ichabod Paddock, was a prominent figure in the whaling industry). And while the 2,675-square-foot structure was in a fragile state, to say the least, says Csongor, “the beauty of the original exposed timber ceiling shone through, and we instantly knew that we’d want to highlight that feature in our final design.”

With the house gutted, everything was slated for change—from floor plan to furnishings. The result: a saltbox reimagined for twenty-first-century living.

“It’s a fresh, livable take on classic Americana,” says Lebeau. The project, completed in 2022, was executed so beautifully and faithfully that it won the 2024 Bulfinch Award for Interior Design, a prestigious honor given by the New England chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art.

The designers worked closely with the homeowner, a longtime enthusiast of historic preservation.“It helped that he has fabulous taste and a deep love for home renovations,” says Csongor.

The heavy lifting was directed by Driftwood Cape Cod’s John Richards, renowned for his passion for historic homes. “We did everything we could to save everything possible, including all of the flooring,” says Richards.

Design direction started with a reimagined historic palette. “We took rustic browns and indigos, made some more muddied, others more colorful,” Lebeau says. “We used patterns to illustrate them—from block prints and wovens to embroidered fabrics.”

The designers opted for mostly custom furnishings for scale and durability. “They look old but are very comfortable,” says Lebeau. “Susanne found beautiful antiques to complement our choices, and we relied on Trefler’s [restoration services] to breathe new life into vintage pieces.”

In the end, it was the melding of old and new that proved most satisfying, says Lebeau: “There’s nothing like seeing bench-made furniture and modern fabrics live alongside lovingly restored antiques in perfect harmony.”

Project Team
Architecture: The Hopkins Company Architects
Interior design: SLC Interiors
Builder: Driftwood Cape Cod