Staying Neutral

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

The ikat upholstery of the wingback chair provided inspiration for the entirety of Diane Hughes’ master bedroom. The gray and taupe hues seen in the highly textured fabric appear in other details throughout the room. Photo by Susan Laughlin.

The same ikat fabric is found in sofa pillows across the room, tying together the stately wingback and the more casual reading sofa, while the same grays are seen in the flowing drapery that puddle on the floor and adorn both of the room’s windows. Photo by Susan Laughlin.

Hughes used a custom appliqué to connect the colors of the elegant D.R. Dimes bed to the other details in the room. The cream color found in the bedspread is also found in the signature ikat that lent so much to the room. Photo by Susan Laughlin.

Cowenhoven started her kitchen makeover with a bold wallpaper and had Hopkinton-based faux painter Judy Dibble finish the remaining wall in a coordinated hatch pattern that looked like wallpaper. Photo by Susan Laughlin.

Dibble turned a marble fireplace into a fossil stone tile, lending the subtle texture and neutrality that Cowenhoven was looking for in the room. Cowenhoven also had the Thos. Moser chairs custom upholstered to ensure the asymmetrical pattern fell the same on each. Photo by Susan Laughlin.

Warm beiges and elegant handcrafted furniture from Thos. Moser fill the home’s breakfast room, where designer Anne Cowenhoven added a few Oriental details to set the room apart from other show house dining rooms. Photo by Susan Laughlin.

The master bathroom seemed incomplete until designer Diane Hughes found the perfect wallpaper. Hughes also painted the vintage tile floor, yielding an updated modern look. Photo by Susan Laughlin.

In designing the home’s master bathroom, Hughes chose neutral tones, primarily beiges and light grays that would allow it to connect seamlessly with the adjoining master bedroom. Small details like drapes and shower curtains tied the two rooms together. Photo by Susan Laughlin.

The ikat upholstery of the wingback chair provided inspiration for the entirety of Diane Hughes’ master bedroom. The gray and taupe hues seen in the highly textured fabric appear in other details throughout the room. Photo by Susan Laughlin.

More Info

Master Bedroom
Diane Hughes
Diane Hughes Interiors
Rye
(603) 964-9543

Kitchen
Anne Cowenhoven
Accent & Design
York, Maine
(207) 363-7949
www.accentdesignmaine.com

Judy Dibble
Brookwood Designs
Hopkinton
(603) 520-4844
www.brookwood-designs.com

Master Bathroom
Diane Hughes
Diane Hughes Interiors
Rye
(603) 964-9543

The Museums of Old York
www.oldyork.org

Thomas Moser Furniture
www.thomasmoser.com

Even expansive summer houses, it seems, deserve a conservative touch in times of fiscal frugality. At the Twin Cottage show house in York, Maine, 18 designers from Maine and New Hampshire were asked to rework the interior of a sleepy ocean-view estate, yielding a comfortable, elegant home. Yet even as '50s-era tile was repainted and the house brought back to life, the designers took care not to overstep the bounds of the home's original, muted color palette.

Noticeably absent were the bright greens and large murals that adorned last year's show house. Instead veteran designers Ann Cowenhoven of York and Diane Hughes of Rye based their respective designs on quietly textured grays and beiges, a theme found throughout the house. Hardly a cottage, with 27 rooms, the home was originally built for New York City businessman Henry Blanchard Dominic in 1904 and today serves as the 21st Annual Decorator's Show House, a yearly fundraiser for the Museums of Old York.

Master Bedroom

It's hard to imagine that a room as elegant as Diane Hughes' master bedroom could have been inspired by a single fabric swatch. According to Hughes, however, that's precisely how it happened. A wingback chair, upholstered in a carefully chosen gray ikat fabric by Kravet Couture, provides a rich texture to an otherwise sleek, smooth room. Even the bricks of the bedroom's understated fireplace have been smoothed with putty and painted a light gray, a color taken directly from the ikat's lightest hues. This reduction of other textures makes the stately armchair a prominent centerpiece in a collection of elegant furniture.

The tiger maple furniture by D.R. Dimes provides a lively touch of color to the room and includes an arched canopy Sheraton Field Bed and a beautifully carved Dunlap Chest on Frame, a careful reproduction of an 18th-century piece originally made in New Hampshire. The walls of the bedroom, best dubbed a "gray plum," are actually Benjamin Moore's "Winter Gates" and are also reflected in the weave of the ikat, as are the colors of Hughes' silk curtains. The layers of gray that adorn the room give it the kind of sleepy elegance best enjoyed with a book and a hot drink.

Kitchen

York-based designer Anne Cowenhoven used solid wood furniture from renowned Maine craftsman Thos. Moser to tie together her kitchen and breakfast room, which were separated by a half wall. While even the breakfast room's coastal painting reflects the home's neutral theme, Cowenhoven says she chose the distinctly Oriental place settings to set the room apart. "I wanted something that said 'different' from most show house dining rooms," she says. "I think Moser's furniture kind of evokes some of that Oriental austerity."

Also vaguely Oriental is the upholstery that adorns the two Moser armchairs that flank the fireplace. In covering the chairs, Cowenhoven took care to ensure that the material's asymmetrical pattern fell identically on both. Though small, the breakfast room fireplace provides a striking focal point in the room. Judy Dibble, a New Hamphire-based faux painter and longtime associate of Cowenhoven's, painted the fireplace's smooth marble surface with what appears to be a richly textured fossil stone that is tiled, complete with grout lines - but you wouldn't know it just by looking. The surface is actually perfectly smooth.

The kitchen's flower and banana pepper motif wallpaper provided inspiration for the entire space, Cowenhoven explains, as well as the nearby home office that she also designed. Cowenhoven feared that the bold pattern may overwhelm the modestly sized kitchen despite being comprised of neutral colors, and therefore again commissioned Judy Dibble to paint the remaining walls in a subtle "strie plaid" design, reminiscent of a well-tailored wool suit.

Master Bathroom

Despite the relative ease with which she designed the adjoining master bedroom, Diane Hughes admits she struggled at first to find a look that truly fit the narrow, hall-like master bath. The small, outdated space posed a serious problem - that is, until Hughes discovered the perfect wallpaper, a neutral beige striped pattern from Ralph Lauren Home. "It's soothing and soft and has all the right colors in it," Hughes says. While the wallpaper and countertops, both in shades of beige, diverge slightly from Hughes' bedroom scheme, it did little to disrupt the suite's neutral feel, and she designed the remaining elements in shades of gray, allowing one room to flow seamlessly to the next.

Rather than replacing the original tile, an outdated white-and-navy design, Hughes commissioned a local surface painter to repaint the floor. The result feels both fittingly classic and surprisingly modern, with many coats of base dark gray punctuated by a fanciful, curling faux grout lines.