PROJECT REVEAL
How to Modernize a Historic Home Without Losing Its Soul
This was a really special project for us, truly encompassing everything I love about design. Rich history, attention to detail, and bringing family together.
Our client's home is a 1920s Colonial Revival that had been sitting on the market for a long time. It had been remodeled many times over the years. And we were brought in to help bring the interiors back to something that would honor the home's history while also fitting our clients' personality. In the end, there wasn’t a single inch of this house that we didn’t touch. Not a single inch!
A full gut renovation often feels like major surgery. And with historic homes, it’s always a puzzle. I love the challenge and don’t feel the least bit intimidated with such an undertaking. The joy is in figuring out how to put the puzzle back together. The key to my process is knowing how to toggle between large-scale and small-scale, continuously thinking about the whole project while taking off small chunks one by one.
But here’s the thing; there are always two clients in projects like this, the homeowner and the house. The house has a voice. It has architecture. It has a language that already exists. Arched openings. Dentil molding. Original trim. Brick that’s been aging quietly behind layers of bad decisions. For example, when we removed a faux marble tile from the living room fireplace, we discovered the original brick. It wasn’t perfect. It was a little aged. A little scuffed. But that imperfection added to the character. It was honest. So we kept it!
And then there was the original front door, solid but severely neglected. We restored and finished it in high-gloss Fine Paints of Europe, and now, when you enter the home, you are walking through a door that has stood the test of time for 100-plus years.
In another act of listening to the architecture, we raised the stair railing to meet code, but we used the original blueprints to recreate the balusters so it would look as if it had always been that way. That’s the balance. You don’t freeze a home in time. And you don’t erase it either. You listen.
Color was another act of listening. My client loves blue! Whenever there was a question, the answer was blue. So instead of sprinkling it in timidly, we leaned into it. A moody navy dining room. A bold floral Schumacher in the powder room. Blue is woven subtly through other spaces. When you go bold in a historic home, the key is that it has to feel like it belongs. It has to feel like it’s speaking the same language as the architecture.
The same goes for furnishings and antiques; they also support the design story and must marry well with the client’s taste and the home's architecture. I start with the major pieces in each room, then layer in handpicked treasures from my travels to Europe. Layering a room can’t feel forced. In the living room, we layered antique wood boxes among books and personal memorabilia on the original arched shelves. In the little girls’ room, antique quilts and vintage lighting added a softness that made the space feels timeless, not themed.
It’s about making a home feel collected, curated, and authentic. The goal was never to chase a trend. It was to ask: how do we take this house into the next 100 years? How does it serve this family — their book club nights, their grandchildren, their daily routines — while still honoring the people who lived here before?
When a historic renovation is done thoughtfully, it’s not just a gift to the homeowners. It’s a gift to the neighborhood. To the future. To the next caretakers. That’s what this project was about—not just making something beautiful, but doing it right and doing it once. And making sure the soul of the house is still there when the lights are on, and the family is gathered inside.
Every house has its own voice, its own architecture, its own story waiting to be heard. If you’re considering a renovation and want to approach it in a way that honors the home's history while shaping it for how you live today, I’d love to hear about your project.
Thinking about restoring or renovating a historic home?
FURTHER READING
