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Outgrowing a house can be painful—unless you’re designer Kate Jamieson. When the former Vogue editor and her husband welcomed their third child and it became clear they needed more space, they didn’t have to cast a wide net in search of a new roost: They simply moved a few streets away to a 1931 Dutch Colonial in Riverside, Connecticut. Located on a Long Island Sound inlet, the house had views of the water from two bedrooms and access to a private beach where the children could go fishing with their dog, Penny. It also had a Dutch door that let in snow and rain, an ungracious front entry blocked off by a closet, and a pass-through guest room that felt more like a hallway.
Nothing feels overdone in Jamieson’s dining room, where she matched the color of the trim (Gray Wisp by Benjamin Moore), the wallpaper (Iksel’s Dutch Tree of Life, available through Schumacher), and the chairs (vintage Paul McCobb stripped and painted black) to the shades of her antique Jasperware collection. Table, De La Espada; chandelier, Remains Lighting.
Max Kim-BeeWith characteristic aplomb, Jamieson embarked on a gut renovation, already picturing the completed dining room with its original corner cupboards that would house her collection of Wedgwood Jasperware. Choosing a wallpaper, Iksel’s Dutch Tree of Life, proved remarkably easy. “It just hit all the right notes, from the name to the way the colors complemented the pottery perfectly to the fowl all over the walls,” says the self-described “bird nerd.” Rather than fuss things up, she left the hardwood floors elegantly bare: “We eat in our dining room regularly, and sweeping up the remnants of dinner is faster than daily vacuuming.”
“We wanted to respect the home’s past while layering in our own history,” says Jamieson, pictured.
Max Kim-Bee
The reconfigured entry hall features newly added decorative molding and a hand-painted floor by Lisa and Stephen Longworth; art, David L. Hutchinson.
Max Kim-BeeA similarly considered ease defines the breakfast room, where a sweet floral trellis motif serves as the backdrop for pizza parties, crafts, and board games. “We host half the neighborhood in that corner,” says Jamieson, who had no hesitations over stealing space from the adjacent powder room to make the niche more accommodating—or upholstering the banquette she so carefully designed in wipeable vinyl. (The material’s leatherlike finish keeps it from looking like a diner booth, she points out.)
In the breakfast room, a custom vinyl-upholstered banquette wraps around a table and chairs by Børge Mogensen for Fredericia Furniture; Jamieson commissioned the playful drawing of dahlias (her favorite flower) from Rosie Harbottle.
Max Kim-BeeWith its creamy, hand-plastered walls, the monochromatic living room functions as a soothing, very adult space, yet it’s still welcoming to Jamieson’s crew of kids, who pile onto the sofa on chilly winter nights when there’s a warm fire going. When she describes the perfect mix of Scandinavian wood and rich textural upholstery as something that came together naturally, it feels like a magic trick. And the foyer’s decorative molding (to “give the hallway some substance”) and classically New England hand-stenciled floors, both new additions that seem like they’ve been there forever? That too feels like wizardry. But that’s the true talent of this designer: She makes it all—the three kids, the dog, the move, the gut renovation—look perfectly easy.
A custom bed in an aubergine George Spencer velvet anchors the primary bedroom; a Claremont fabric pillow and sconce shades in a Fleurons d’Hélène print pick up the hue.
Max Kim-Bee
Sandberg wallpaper in a symphony of blues creates the backdrop for daughter Frances’s bedroom; “it’s a pattern I’d always been obsessed with, and I felt she could grow up with that palette,” says Jamieson.
Max Kim-BeeTHIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN VOLUME 20 OF FREDERIC MAGAZINE. CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE!
