A Historic Reset

By Dylan Roche
Photography by Matt Dandy

“Do you think we’re crazy to consider this property?”

That’s what designer Melissa McLay recalls her clients asking when they sent her pictures of a historic 18th-century house they intended to buy. It wasn’t the type of home you’d expect to house the contemporary furnishings McLay had previously designed for these clients. But therein lay the opportunity. McLay assured her clients they could make it work. They would take this old home and freshen it up with touches of the 21st century.

That’s how she found herself blending old and new to create an interior for this historic home—one that preserved the character of the space she was furnishing while offering the livability that suited her clients’ style. The project required her to get creative, making some traditional elements feel more contemporary, and some contemporary elements feel more traditional.

As it was, the home felt dark and heavy. The clients wanted to keep the existing wood floors, so McLay knew it was important to give the entire home a fresher, airier open feel by lightening and brightening the walls. This meant a lot of white paint (Dove White by Benjamin Moore) and colorful wallpaper, which successfully introduced color and texture to replace the heavy draperies that had previously covered the windows.

One of the more striking examples of this traditional-contemporary balance is the dining room, which McLay designed around the angular-base table and metal frame chairs with cane matting that her clients brought from their previous home. Sage green paint (Soft Fern by Benjamin Moore) livened up the existing molding on the walls, windows, and fireplace, while grasscloth wallpaper with a floral pattern added plenty of color. The room’s metal light fixture with hanging crystals designed by Currey and Company embodies a transitional style that “straddles the traditional and contemporary elements in the space,” McLay says. A hutch with simple lines and hand-rubbed black finish stands flanked by sconces that are modern in style—but because they are made from mirrored mercury glass, they are in keeping with an older farmhouse.

In fact, choosing contrasting shapes and textures is an approach McLay plays with frequently throughout the design. In the intimate family room—where the homeowners like to hunker down and relax after a long day—she has given the thick-armed, tufted sofa a more natural look by covering it with a chunky woven linen upholstery manufactured by Lee Industries. “That was very purposeful, to make sure we took more of a traditional fabric and put it on a contemporary frame,” McLay explains. Similarly, the burled wood of the mid-century coffee table with straight edges by Kravet achieves a more rustic appearance and adds warmth to the space. In the family room, she focused on earthy tones, where the sage green walls and ceiling (Bed of Ferns by Benjamin Moore) and the natural stone fireplace are broken up by pops of bright turquoise blue.

In the kitchen, another green (Paris Rain by Benjamin Moore) freshens up the space. The perfect complement to the light, bright Carrera countertops, the combination juxtaposes nicely with the stonework and wooden beams that serve as a reminder of the home’s historic nature.

In the bedroom, painting the cannonball bed with a white that has a little bit of sheen provides an updated take on the farmhouse aesthetic. The lamps on the bedside tables and the custom window treatments give pops of green that stand out against the bright, airy whiteness of the room.

What’s most remarkable about McLay’s work in this historic home is the way she shows that design is about much more than aesthetics—it’s about storytelling. Describing the home as beautiful and charming, expanded by thoughtful renovations over the centuries, McLay considers the design choices she made as ways “to add a jolt of the unexpected but with still a nod to the home’s history.”

She has found a way to take a home with timeless beauty and a long history, bring it into the 21st century, and dress it up for modern homeowners where all the visual elements can work together in harmony.