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She agreed to buy the house sight unseen—a radical move for a homeowner who admits that she usually hates taking risks. “We were moving to Connecticut from Wyoming,” she says. “It was 1999, and the real estate market here was crazy, with all these bidding wars. My husband bought it before I could arrive.”
The renovation that ensued was far more in character—tasteful and low-key, if a bit cautious. The couple updated the white storybook home, which dates from 1860 and sits on two acres in Fairfield County, uncovering the original chestnut beams on the living room ceiling. An avid gardener, the wife created an English cutting garden with a disciplined palette of purple and white, filling it with hydrangeas, roses, clematis, phlox, and herbs.
Inside, the rooms were subtly furnished in an array of neutrals. And so they remained until recently, when she “realized it was time to press the refresh button.” She reached out to New York designer Timothy Whealon to create a new scheme that would quietly sneak pattern and color into the house without detracting from its sense of calm. “I liked his sensibility: timeless, classic, edited,” she says. “Just beautiful.”
But for the designer, pushing his client in new directions was a process of baby steps. “She is very artistic, has refined taste, and wanted to be challenged,” says Whealon, who specializes in high-end residential projects and has a line of rugs with Patterson Flynn. “But at the same time, she was hesitant. She would constantly say, ‘Well, I don’t know if that’s too much for me.’ And you know me, I’m not exactly a fuchsia-in-your-face kind of guy.”
Whealon aimed for a “modern farmhouse feel—elegant but not too fussy.” He banished precious elements, removing the skirt from the couple’s existing sofa and re-covering it in a sand-colored fabric—neutral, yes, but made quietly exquisite with a band of blue-green trim and nailheads along the bottom edge. He searched for patterned fabrics that were as serene as they were unexpected, settling on a soft blue paisley for the living room’s Billy Baldwin–style slipper chairs and large gray block-printed flowers on white cotton for the master bedroom’s bed and seating.
Still, each decision was painstaking and deliberate. “It was hard,” the wife admits. “I was stepping out of my comfort zone.” And then came the standoff over the wallpaper: Whealon produced a swatch of a Persian-leaf pattern for the entry hall in a pale blue-gray on cream. It was anything but brash, but the client panicked. “Can I live with this?” she wondered. “She was terrified,” the designer says.
He explained how the soft hue would relate to the dove gray and pewter accents in the adjacent living room. “He showed me how it could work, and I decided I could live with it,” she says. “And now I think it’s perfect.”
Living Room
Parsons table, Matthews & Parker; 18th-century chair (left), Demiurge; antique chair (right) in a Claremont velvet; artwork, Sarah Peters.
Kitchen
The kitchen’s range is by Thermador, and the refrigerator is by Sub-Zero. Faucet, Rohl. Stools, Fair. White bowl, Astier de Villatte. Roman shade in a Kravet fabric with Claremont trim. Flooring, reclaimed antique chestnut. Ceiling paint, Farrow & Ball’s Wimborne White.
Butler’s Pantry
In the butler’s pantry, the matchstick blinds are from Maison de France, and the Roman shades are in a Kravet fabric with Claremont trim.
Back Exterior
A potting bench behind the house. Planters, Campo de’ Fiori.
Featured in our May/June 2018 issue. Interior design by Timothy Whealon; garden design by Wilber & King Nurseries; photography by William Waldron; produced by Carolyn Englefield; written by Ingrid Abramovitch.
