Victorian houses owe much of their charm to their steeply pitched roofs with features like multiple gables, dormers, unique windows, and charming porches. They’re wonderful to admire from the street, but they can be a challenge for homeowners—and not just when it comes time to replace the roof or windows. All those angles make designing functional interior rooms tricky. That’s partly why a circa 1900 beauty in Avalon, New Jersey, had only one bedroom and bathroom on its third floor—no one had been brave enough to try to fit more. But when the seaside home’s new owners needed extra space for their family, they asked designer Lucy O’Brien of Tartan & Toile to help them reconfigure it.
“It required a lot of massaging to make sure you could actually stand up in the space,” says O’Brien, whose firm is based in Philadelphia. “The new space is light, bright, and incredibly functional for a family to spend time at a shore house.”
After a full gut renovation, working with contractor Joe Gereaghty, the floor that had previously slept two people now can sleep six comfortably in a primary bedroom and twin nook bedroom. The one bathroom is divided into a water closet and a shower/dressing area, which allows more people to get ready at the same time. O’Brien’s brilliant plan also found room to spare for a seating area and a closet.
Downstairs, the family had O’Brien gut renovate the kitchen, which oddly had only undercabinet lighting. “You couldn’t use it after dark!” O’Brien says. It got completely new cabinetry in a bold yet period appropriate blue, along with black-and-white marble floors that look as if they have always been there. While she was at it, she freshened up the adjacent sunroom with new furniture and window treatments.
Throughout the 2,943-square-foot, six-bedroom, four-and-a-half bathroom home, her design scheme hews to colors, patterns, and motifs of the Victorian era on the East Coast, particularly those characteristic of contemporary homes set slightly farther north, on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. O’Brien drew inspiration from 18th century military captain’s quarters in particular. She kept the original molding, wood flooring, and windows throughout the home, bringing in darker wood furniture to complement it. She had custom furnishings made with a high-gloss shellac, yacht-type feel and intentionally chose the highest-quality brass or copper lighting throughout. Chintz, ticking stripe, and toile were used for bed canopies, window treatments, and upholstery in every space, including the kitchen.
“We want this home to remain intact and [used] elements that’ll patina over time beautifully, just like the old fixtures you see all over New England,” O’Brien says.
Exterior
Built in 1900, the home is set a block from the beach in Avalon, New Jersey. It has all the hallmarks of a classic Victorian, from the Queen Anne and half round windows to the stone foundation, gingerbread trim, charming balconies on the second and third floors, and steeply pitched, multi-gabled roof with many dormer windows.
Sunroom
O’Brien used boat cleats to hold up all the window treatments in the sunroom. “It’s a different technique than you often see for hanging window treatments,” she says, “and adding the boat cleats is a fun nod to the location as well as thinking outside of the box!” The custom reading sofa/cocktail lounge features three patterns, including a ticking stripe—a combination that O’Brien intended to draw you in. “Ticking stripe is our neutral,” she adds.
The game table “is a nod to the high, high gloss and warm orange you would see on a yacht or in an old captain’s quarters,” she says.
Wall paint: Cooking Apple Green, Farrow & Ball. Upholstery and window treatments: custom, by Main Line Window Decor, in Jean Monro and Rose Cumming fabric. Carpet: Patterson Flynn. Bar cart: vintage. Game table and chairs: Mainly Baskets Home.
Kitchen
“We wanted to create a modern kitchen that looks like it has always been in the home,” O’Brien says. “One of those pieces that we added was the black-and-white check marble that would have actually been a plausible floor during that time [when the home was built]. I think a lot of people would shy away from such products at a beach, claiming they were not beachy, but in reality it is a hardy stone that will patina beautifully.”
Cabinetry: custom, Salvage Works Co., painted in New Providence Navy, Benjamin Moore. Floor tile: Fireclay Tile.
“Windows like these beautiful stained original windows are becoming a scarcity, especially down the shore,” says O’Brien. “We did everything possible to show that you can have a bright and cherry ‘modern’ space while maintaining the beautiful integrity and bones of the home. We do not want anyone gutting it in the future!”
Breakfast Nook
O’Brien salvaged old pews from a church down the street to preserve the seating area that was already in the kitchen. The custom table swivels to allow easy access.
Ceiling light: Visual Comfort & Co. Pillows: Ballard Designs. Window treatment: custom, in Bennison Fabrics fabric (at right).
Third Floor Water Closet
“This wash closet looks like it could have come right out of the 1900s but it has all the modern necessities and functions,” O’Brien says. “The pattern and scale of the Antoinette Poisson wallpaper hides the significant slanted ceiling and is created in the same technique as domino papers of the 1700s.” She salvaged the mirror and sconces from other parts of the house.
Vanity: custom, Salvage Works Co. Side cabinet: antique.
Third Floor Twin Bedroom
“I imagined creating a magical nook that I would’ve wanted as a child on a rainy day down the shore,” O’Brien says. “These bed nooks with nautical maps as wallpaper, a hanging lantern with its own switch, and personal curtain are my childhood dreams come to life.”
Paint: Narragansett Green, Benjamin Moore (walls); Hague Blue (trim) and School House White (floors), Farrow & Ball. Pendant: Hector Finch. Table: Chelsea Textiles. Chair: Mainly Baskets. Dresser: Kenian.
Wallpaper: Kravet. Lantern: Coleen & Company. Drapery fabric: Manuel Canovas. Bedding: Annie Selke.
Third Floor Sitting Room
“The lighting, including on the third floor, is one of my favorite features of this whole project,” O’Brien says. “It isn’t often you find a client just as passionate about details, history, and level of quality as we are. These are very specially crafted pieces made of brass or copper and just of absolutely the highest artisanal quality. They make the space shine, literally and figuratively.”
Paint: Rosedust, Sherwin-Williams (walls); School House White, Farrow & Ball (floors). Pendant: Hector Finch. Shell light: Soane Britain. Table: Chelsea Textiles. Sofa: vintage, in Sister Parish and Schumacher fabrics.
Third Floor Primary Bedroom
When you lie down on the bed in here, you can see straight to the ocean—a feat of space planning. “The star-shaped ceilings were unique, and instead of trying to get rid of them we embraced their uniqueness and put one of our favorite wallpapers all over to help soften the angles and accentuate out their beauty,” O’Brien says. “Using the toile throughout helps the small space actually feel larger and inviting. The warm pink red feels like a cozy hug.”
Wallpaper: Marvic. Bed: custom. Bedding: Annie Selke. Pendant: Soane Britain. Lamps: Bunny Williams Home. Window treatments: custom, in Wells Textiles fabric.
Dressing Room
“Layers of Sister Parish prints, brass, and bamboo is my absolute dream combination for anything inspired by New England,” O’Brien says.
Wallcoverings: Schumacher (walls); Scalamandré (ceiling), with Samuels & Sons trim. Art: Mary Maguire Art. Rope mirrors: Birch Lane. Sconces: Visual Comfort & Co. Chik blinds: Virginia Tupker. Floor paint: Charisma, Sherwin-Williams; New White, Farrow & Ball (border).
Q&A
House Beautiful: Did you encounter any memorable hiccups, challenges, or surprises during the project? How did you pivot?
Lucy O’Brien: This was our first extensive out-of-town project with a large construction component, which required a whole different level of organization because we couldn’t just pop over for a site visit whenever we wanted to. In many ways, that challenge was actually an incredible positive for the project and our firm as a whole. If you know you’re going to be on site only once a month, you really need to be prepared, focused, and organized to manage all the aspects of the project that need to be done before you are on site the next time.
The twin bed nooks [on the third floor] were also a challenge because they required so much collaboration between us, the contractor, the furniture maker, and the drapery fabricator. There were structural pieces that needed to be worked out because of the many different ceiling angles in that space. Also, it was essential to create a structure that would be able to hold a lot of weight from the fabric while also looking pretty. We all met on-site at the very start of the project in order to work out what was needed from whom and when in order to achieve the design. It was the true definition of team work.
HB: How did you save money or get crafty?
LB: In the third floor suite, we painted the wood floors in fun colors and border stripes throughout the whole space. By doing this, we eliminated the need for tile installation as well as the additional tile costs.
HB: Any other memorable details?
LB: One thing we needed to utilize on this project was a crane. With the house being so old, the stairways were narrow up to the third floor. We needed to use the crane to bring the larger pieces up to the third floor and in through the sliding glass door.
Styled by Stephanie Potts.
