The biggest kitchen trend isn’t sage green cupboards or two-tone subway tile backsplashes—it’s making the room look nothing like a kitchen. One way everyone has been achieving a seamless aesthetic is with panel-ready refrigerators, meaning fridges for which the facades are customized to match the rest of the room’s built-in cabinetry. Celebrities like Jenna Lyons and Hilary Duff and designers such as Martyn Lawrence Bullard support the sneaky camouflage. But covering up the bulky stainless steel appliance with colored laminate or white oak isn’t your only option. Consider hiding your walk-in pantry, too.

A sliding barn door or a plain white hinged one with a single round knob is a dead giveaway that this is a pantry. But make the entrance nearly indistinguishable from the rest of the cabinets around it, and the closet will blur into the background. Here are six benefits to hiding your pantry in plain sight. 

It Keeps the Visual Clutter to a Minimum

When you’ve splurged on custom cabinets, it can be painful to chop up that nice flow you’ve created with a pantry entrance. Some extra hardware and a little trim offer cohesion. Liz Hoekzema of KLH Custom Homes went so far as to mimic the look of the adjacent drawers and uppers in this all-white kitchen—and the optical illusion totally works. 

You Won’t Constantly Hear About Snack Time

An unexpected pro of a secret pantry? “My child couldn’t beg for snacks every three minutes,” shares designer Whittney Parkinson. Out of sight, out of mind, right? It might not be ideal for first-time guests who are trying to figure out where you keep the cashews, but for everyday family life, it means fewer distractions. 

It Streamlines a Tiny City Apartment

This works magic for reach-in pantries in tiny galley kitchens, too. Brooklyn-based designer Delia Kenza pulled the trick off in this space by continuing the classic subway tile backsplash onto the wall and over the push-to-open doors. It’s a sweet surprise, especially if it ends with you snagging a cookie.

It Can Also Store Appliances

A hidden pantry isn’t just for snacks. Designer Brittany Swigart of Maeve Design Collective used the one in this Scottsdale, Arizona, kitchen to store additional appliances such as the microwave. The swing door, along with all the cabinets, got covered in Benjamin Moore’s Accessible Beige, an all-too-appropriate name. “We loved how the hidden door was a cohesive extension of the appliance wall and created an uninterrupted visual,” Swigart says.

It Can Introduce New Colors

You’re basically creating a whole new room, so why not have fun with it? Although the cabinets and door of this Shea McGee–designed ranch may be swathed in Sherwin-Williams’s Gray’s Harbor, there’s another secret behind the pantry door: a room that’s all white, a fun bright contrast to the kitchen’s moodier shade.

It Doesn’t Have to Be Huge

You don’t need a ton of extra room to add a hidden pantry to your home. Even though the secret space in this New England house, designed by Twelve Chairs Interiors, is just 14 square feet, it adds a whopping 40 linear feet of storage.

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Large-scale art is a coveted solution for anchoring a big blank wall, but spaces with XL canvases are more commonly found on inspiration boards than in real-life homes. Why? Large art is expensive. Even at a big-box store like West Elm, you’ll be pressed to find an oversize piece that’s less than $200—and that’s for something mass produced. Forget it if you want a work that’s totally original, right?

Wrong. You’ll simply need to play the role of artist instead. I had a boring white wall above the sofa in my living room and spent months sifting through potential options online, but nothing seemed to fit my style or budget parameters. I wanted to spend about $100 if I could help it, and I envisioned something patterned but still minimalist. Then I got an idea. 

I used painter’s tape to map out the exact size I wanted on the wall (40-by-45 inches) and took those measurements to Home Depot, where I asked a pro to custom-cut a panel of plywood accordingly. Later that day, I picked out a sky blue fabric accented with trios of navy stripes (it just so happened to be on sale at Joann Fabrics) and found a thin batting to go between the textile and the plywood. With help from my mom and dad, we laid out the batting, then the fabric, so it was even on all sides of the board, and dusted off a well-worn staple gun to hold everything in place. Within a day, I had personalized, oversize art for just $60. 

In case you need more ideas to mull over, here are five other DIYs to consider if you’re determined to have large-scale art in your home for less. 

Shop Your Linen Closet

Designer Natalie Tredgett’s London home is full of colorful and clever details, but her choice to hang a quilt behind her daughter Zoe’s bed is especially original. “The color combination is very her; she even dresses like that!” says Tredgett. Given that this is a spot that’s often reserved for a headboard-and-artwork combination, choosing a quilt to act as both creates a cozy yet unexpected alternative. If you’d like to emulate the look in your own bedroom, it could be as easy as sifting through your linen closet for contenders. 

Go Your Own Way on Canvas

Even if you only took one drawing class in your life, there’s a good chance you could do something interesting on a large blank canvas if you so please. “What is that phrase? If you can’t make a good painting, make a big painting,” says creative director Jonathon Burford, who uses they/them pronouns. Burford and their husband, Jesse Rudolph, of Ome Dezin showcase their creative eye throughout their L.A. home, but the art in the kitchen is pretty yet comical: It’s a still life of the exact objects found on a shelf directly below it. Do the same with your own collection and see if guests notice. 

Hang a Small Rug or Other Eye-Catching Textile

Nisha Mirani and Brendan Kramer live in a New York City home with quite a few not-so-subtle hints that they own textile brand Sunday/Monday. They have a number of rugs on the floor, of course, but they’ve gone the extra step of hanging them on the walls, too. It’s an ideal solution if you want to enliven a vertical spot with color and texture, or you fell in love with a mat that isn’t the right size for your living space. “If you have a large collection of textiles, you probably can’t put them all out on your floor or your bed, but the wall is a great place to display them,” Mirani says. “The fabric gets to breathe there, too.”

Do a Digital Download

This is another route I’ve taken in my own home to save a few bucks: I buy a digital download in the scale I need and then frame it using a budget-friendly find from the likes of Target, IKEA, or thrift stores. There are countless options available on Etsy, but I also have Jenny Komenda’s Juniper Print Shop bookmarked. 

Frame Whimsical Wallpaper

When interior designer Judith Achumba-Wöllenstein moved from London to a larger home in Brighton with her family, they set about furnishing their dining room with a mix of DIYs, eBay steals, and a singular vintage splurge. When it came to art that could complement her Brutalist table and architectural chairs, she turned to Belarte, a Swedish company offering mural wallpaper. The designer adhered the print to a pair of MDF panels framed with precut moldings. 

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By far the most impressive room on any episode of MTV’s Cribs was the home movie theater. Sure, we’re all familiar with the concept of a TV area, but these spaces—complete with rows of recliners, in-wall stereo systems, and (on occasion) popcorn machines—hit differently. The thing is, from a style perspective, they all tend to look the same: The steps are swathed in slate gray carpeting; the boxy seating is made of squeaky leather. Marie Cloud, the Charlotte, North Carolina–based interior designer behind Indigo Pruitt, knew this when she was tasked with creating a theater for last year’s Southeastern Designer Showhouse in Atlanta. Having never tackled one before, she welcomed the challenge. “You don’t typically see this space decked out, but for me, it was an opportunity to throw my sauce on it,” says Cloud. 

The designer wanted it to be welcoming, cozy, and functional, even when there was nothing actually playing on the screen. “It can be a space where you can throw a girls’ night or your family can gather and just catch up,” she says. “The TV doesn’t have to be on for that.”

Re-create Those Old Theater Bones

The curved ceiling and flexible molding that Benecki Homes and Source in Atlanta introduced immediately made the ground-level room feel like an Art Deco theater. The difference is that these walls are high-tech: The speakers are built within them, so you can actually feel the vibrations of your favorite action movie. But Cloud knows that color is a big part of any sensory experience, too. The designer landed on Farrow & Ball’s Brinjal, a paint that reads as either eggplant purple or Merlot red, depending on the lighting. “When you use jewel tones, it adds a sense of ease to your body,” she says.

Pick Your Lighting Mood, Then Find Your Seat

The key to any movie-watching space is being able to take the room from light to dark so you don’t have to worry about harsh glare interrupting the show. That’s why everything in this space is “dimmable by the dial,” notes Cloud. And when the overhead bulbs and brass sconces are turned off, lit-up onyx pedestals and under-stair strips will help you find your way.

Treat the Lowest Level Like a Living Room

When you first walk in the space, you might think it’s just another living area. There’s a custom Brooke & Wilson sofa, a graphic Moattar rug, a round coffee table, and a long console topped with leaning art by David Coleman Jr. propped on top. For both tables, the designer partnered with Hartstone (the company that handled the hardscaping outside the house). “It added an organic element to the space that felt fresh and clean,” says Cloud. You could plop right down on the couch, have a chilled glass of wine, and never think about watching a movie—that’s the point.

As you make your way up the steps, you’ll find two rows of plush black recliners from RowOne that were designed specifically based off women’s input (both from an aesthetic and comfort point of view). “My goal for this room was for it to be an ode to sisterhood, a space for the woman of the house to bring her girlfriends,” says Cloud. “When they described the intentionality behind the research of this chair, I knew that’s what I wanted in my space.”

Carve Out a Hideout Within Your Escape

Did you spot the pocket door at the back of the theater? That’s for when you really want to feel unbothered. Cloud turned the tiny closet into a book nook–slash–general hideout. “We do too much for others, and sometimes we need a little corner to get away,” says Cloud. “Mine is my [clothes] closet, but it’s not as gorgeous as this.”

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In 2016, photographer Winnie Au and her husband exchanged vows in their Brooklyn backyard. With 60 guests filling the outdoor space, you couldn’t see the cracks in the concrete patio, and no one was paying attention to the spiderweb of old telephone cables near the neighbor’s fence. But as years went by and the couple welcomed their daughter into the fold, they made another commitment to each other: to fix up the backyard. 

They turned to landscape architect Lou Arencibia, whose team immediately tore out the old concrete pad, tediously carrying each scrap to the dumpster on the street. This alone was a huge relief for Au. “Just having our child, I wanted her to have a place where she could play where it didn’t feel dirty,” she shares. Still, the space had more issues that needed to be addressed: There was little sense of privacy and the planting areas around the perimeter had gotten out of control. Ahead, Au and Arencibia reflect on the transformation and share how they made it an oasis for her young family of three.

Break It Down Into “Rooms” 

Wanting to create a functional but still intimate-feeling space, Arencibia focused on segmenting the yard into a series of small “rooms.” This included a cozy seating corner, an herb-slash-veggie garden, a dining zone, and a tool storage area.

The plantings were selected to accentuate each of the zones (and hide the couple’s large black compost bin), as were the hardscaping materials. Arencibia designated sustainably sourced Black Locust wood to the lounge area and bluestone to the main dining space. Crushed gravel and evergreen shrubs like rhododendron springtime define the yard’s borders. 

Pick Plants That Thrive in All Kinds of Weather

The stars are the three multistem Amelanchier Grandiflora Autumn Brilliance trees, which boast foliage during three out of four seasons. “I didn’t want it to look barren and sad all winter,” says Au. 

In sunny areas of the garden, they incorporated low-maintenance flowering perennials and ornamental grasses such as fountain grass, Mexican feather grass, echinacea, and silver Russian sage. In shady spots, they went with autumn fern, anemone, and heuchera tapestry. Arencibia was also able to save an existing magnolia tree that Au had picked out with her parents at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden plant sale years ago. “It has always flourished and bloomed beautiful pink flowers every year,” she says. 

Ensure an Edible Garden for Everyone 

The raised herb and veggie garden—now typically filled with tomatoes, basil, thyme, lavender, and peppers—was a must-have for Au. Arencibia made sure the custom-built box was constructed with a deep ledge so anyone who wants to sit and help her tend to the produce (like her toddler!) can do so comfortably. 

Of course, Au and her family aren’t the only ones grabbing a snack out here. Sometimes their dog, Clementine, feels inclined to take a bite of a plant, so for that reason they avoided species that could potentially be toxic to dogs, specifically yew, lilies, crocus, and daffodils. 

Make the Party Invite Only

Before the new wood fence could go up, the yard had to be sealed from other types of neighbors, mainly rats and feral cats. An exterminator recommended running hardware cloth (or steel mesh) underneath the ground around the perimeter to prevent unwanted visitors from digging a personal entrance into the yard. 

Grab the Popcorn

It’s no accident that they didn’t continue the wood fence around the very back of the yard. Au and her family use the brick surface for outdoor movie nights. All they have to add is their portable projector and—voilà!—they’re watching Point Break (the original one with Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze) under the stars. “I feel like we’ll be watching something and all the neighbors start watching it, too,” says Au, laughing. 

Go With the (Furniture) Flow

Au’s rule with outdoor furniture is to keep things lightweight. “As a photographer, I’m always thinking about things being able to move around easily,” she says. One wish-list item she gave up on buying? Terrazzo side tables. They’re just too heavy. Instead, her teak and metal pieces can be easily moved out of the way when her daughter wants to run around and swim in their inflatable pool in the warmer months.

Set the Mood at the First Step

With the space coming together nicely, there was one small thing still irking Au: the sliver of concrete at the top of the steps. “I felt like it was a remnant of the old backyard,” she says. “I wanted to find a way to make it beautiful.” Arencibia’s team scooped up some tile from Fireclay, but the scale of the squares looked too big for the teeny patio. So they cut each one down by hand to make a little checkered layout. “On a beautiful day, we like to put floor cushions out on the newly tiled patio and do some seated yoga with my daughter, and we watch the birds together,” says Au. 

The post This Brownstone’s Backyard Welcomes Year-Round Foliage and Hides the Compost Bin appeared first on domino.

“As anyone with small kids already understands: Everything is everywhere,” says Robin Heller, one half of the Baltimore-based interiors firm Surrounded by Color. So when local clients Samantha Williamson and Robert Travieso came to Heller and her partner, Jen Levy, with an aim to overhaul their upstairs quarters and add a new room off the kitchen, the designers knew the brief included camouflaging the happy chaos of everyday family life, too.  

The couple, who has two young sons, wanted a zen feeling, explains Heller: “But they also love art and color, and they didn’t want anything boring.” So the SBC duo got to work on a plan to make over three bedrooms, update the primary bath, relocate the laundry room, and build a smallish but mighty addition from the ground up—all the while incorporating their signature use of saturated hues, inventive patterns, and textural touches. 

The final result? A layered home that balances vintage accents and contemporary comfort—and also gives the family of four plenty of room to grow. “Every time we go over there, there’s a new lizard,” says Levy, laughing. “They’re really living in all these rooms.” Here, the two designers share how they pulled it all together. 

Keep the Kiddos Happy—And Create Coziness

The concept for the children’s bedrooms was straightforward: Make them memorable and cozy. “We went hard in terms of patterns, fabrics, and wallpaper. At this age, kids are creating these visual memories that give a frame of reference for design, which is so cool,” says Heller. The boys, who shared a room during the months-long reno, chose the finishing touches for their bedrooms. They outfitted each one with a reading chair, storage shelves, and a plush rug on top of cream wall-to-wall carpeting. “Wrapping a room conveys this feeling of safety and coziness, like being in a little tent,” she adds.

Less (Square Footage) Is More

The couple wanted to keep their king-size Blu Dot bed—a challenge in a space with a modest footprint that was about to get slightly smaller. Levy and Heller commissioned utilitarian boxes from a local millworker to extend the depth and width of the headboard, fitting them with sleek reading lights and hidden outlets. 

Heller and Levy chose a deep jewel-toned blue paint to create a sense of serenity and separation from the rest of the house. “The ceilings, the walls, the doors—everything—there’s no touch of white or unpainted surface,” explains Levy. “[The monochrome look] makes everything feel softer.”

When the rooms were being reframed, the pair willingly relinquished a few square feet to the bathroom and laundry zone—which took a lounge chair option out of the bedroom layout. Heller insists this is for the best: “Everyone has their own way and style of using a lounge chair in a bedroom—but most people just throw clothes on it. We wanted to help them proactively not have that experience. There really is no room for clutter.”

Turn Utilitarian Spaces Into Design Moments

The closet and the bathroom were both gutted and reframed, allowing the addition of a dedicated laundry room upstairs. “We are both laundry shirkers,” says Williamson. Moving the machines and building out a folding area has already made a major difference, thanks both to the convenience factor and because the design of the space improves the overall experience. 

Sliding doors and a preexisting skylight (which extends into the bathroom) creates an airiness when you’re inside. “We can also close it off to hide big piles,” says Williamson. Levy and Heller took a very specific inspiration for the palette. “It felt very Barragán and Mexico City vibes, so we started with Backdrop’s Barragán Cito pink,” says Heller. The ceiling got a teal blue treatment, and Formica countertops in Earthenware complete the effect. 

For the bathroom, Heller and Levy drew inspiration from the rest of the house, the couple’s art collection, and their affinity for mid-century modern aesthetics. They developed the shower wall pattern with the grout in mind, and specified wider lines than typical tile jobs. It raised some eyebrows on-site—but, in the end, turned out exactly as they’d intended. 

“What makes something special is that it’s unexpected and different,” says Levy. “And in the end, everyone comes back and they’re like: ‘Oh, my God, you were right.’” And that wide picture window in the shower, looking out onto the woodsy backyard? It’s become a beloved part of the bathing experience. “It’s clear, which is potentially awkward,” says Travieso. “But it fogs up pretty fast.”

Neutralizing ‘New Build’ Vibes With Texture and Vintage

Local architecture studio Ziger/Snead stepped in to develop plans for the addition. “In that space specifically, we felt strongly that wood belonged in the mix, and we wanted different levels of texture in the room,” says Heller. “It has these beautiful faux plaster walls, big windows, the tile floor—if you took all the soft materials out of it, it could look very ’90s or very new and slick. So our furniture selections make it feel cozy and timeless.” 

Most of the larger pieces were made by local craftspeople, including the white oak round table, lounger, and built-in plywood sofa. Other pieces are vintage: a coffee table that dates to the ’70s; a pair of orange Charlotte Perriand wall lights; and the Bruno Rey chairs, an iconic 1971 Swiss design currently being sold at DWR. Then there is the white electric Malm fireplace, requested by the client. (“It’s basically just a beautiful space heater,” says Heller.) 

The homeowners refer to the new room as a refuge for everyone—overall, it’s Travieso’s favorite aspect of the renovation. “It’s a place where the kids can get some space from us or lay on the couch and read together while we do dishes or whatever,” he says, “But it’s also a place where we can get some space from them or hang out with other people we’ve invited over.” In other words, everyone wins.

The post This Family Traded a Clutter-Catching Bedroom Corner for a Hidden Laundry Room appeared first on domino.

When Jonny, a music producer, and Krystal, a floral designer, took a trip to Inness, a hotel in upstate New York, they took note of the ladder-back chairs surrounding the long communal dining table and the larder pantry painted a rich coat of ochre. This was the vibe they wanted to create in the 1860s cottage they recently purchased in nearby Rhinecliff. They tracked down Post Company, the design agency behind Innes, and asked if they would take on their historic property: It’s one of the oldest preserved houses in the area and measures a mere 1,250 square feet. Post Company accepted the challenge. 

“[Innes] has a lot of restraint and a minimalist sensibility, but through a lens of warmth and intimacy. I think that’s what resonated with them,” says Leigh Salem, one of the partners at the design firm. The couple’s home was the definition of small but mighty. The expansive windows automatically made the interior feel bigger than it is, and there were nooks and crannies aplenty (read: storage opportunities). Krystal and Jonny never expressed interest in tacking on an addition, not even when it came to their primary bedroom in the attic. The bones of the house were perfect as is. It simply needed a luxury resort–inspired twist.

Build a Tempo With Color

There is a rhythm that pulls you through the house the moment you walk through the mudroom door and it goes: dark, light, dark, light. “There’s often an inclination with smaller houses that a lighter palette will be perceived as larger, but we were more interested in creating a language of thresholds between light and dark,” explains Salem.  

The tricky part wasn’t choosing what paint colors to use, it was the fact that Jonny and Krystal were living in London while the renovation was going on. “Committing to an exterior house color without seeing it in person was daunting,” says Jonny. Fortunately, they had friends in the area who kindly visited at various times of the day and in different weather conditions to take pictures and videos.

The mudroom, now lined with closet doors that hide everything from overflow cookware to the washer and dryer, made the couple a little nervous the first time they saw photos of it. “It appeared more orange than anticipated, almost pumpkin orange,” recalls Jonny.

Post Company urged them to stick with the rusty red color (Benjamin Moore’s Tawny Rose), at least until they saw it in person. They agreed and eventually found the photos really didn’t do it justice. “Now it’s everyone’s favorite room because it provides a wonderful contrast,” adds Jonny. As you reach the end of the 4-foot-long hallway, you are introduced to the kitchen, swathed in Soapstone by Portola Paints. When you round the corner up the narrow staircase to the main bedroom, you’re greeted by a moody gray surprise.

Stress Awkward Spaces

Rather than try to open up the low ceilings in the attic bedroom, Post Company decided to call attention to them by covering every surface of the cavernous space in Portola’s textured Dry Ground limewash. “We’re not trying to fool anyone,” says Salem. The only visual trickery is the cabinets tucked within the pitch of the dormer: It’s the couple’s primary closet.

While Jonny traveled back to New York a few times toward the end of the reno, Krystal went six months without seeing the house. Their first night in the home was a bit of a blur (mostly due to jet lag, they admit), but they do remember one thing: lying in bed watching the snow falling outside. “It felt truly magical,” says Jonny. 

Reach Peak Bathroom Goals

Previously, when Jonny and Krystal entered their bathroom, they’d find two small freestanding sinks to the right and left of the door and a tub-shower tucked in the corner. To achieve a more comfortable bathing experience, Post Company shifted the shower placement to the center of the room where the ceiling height is the tallest. Then they clad the whole thing in dramatic slabs of Calacatta Rosa marble, mimicking the same level of saturation in the mudroom downstairs.

The central shower placement also lets whoever is in there enjoy the views out of the bedroom window. “When you’re in a more private space, you don’t necessarily have to  close your bathroom door,” Salem points out. Going with two small doors over one large swing one allows for some flexibility without totally blocking the path to the bed.

Not pictured? The bathroom’s moody lighting. There are two matching sconces over the new vanities on either side of the door, as well as a canned bulb that throws light down the center of the shower. 

Push the Kitchen to the Walls

The main design challenge in the kitchen was making way for a proper dining table. Post Company swiftly nixed the peninsula that was bisecting the room and brought in a vintage Belgian table that can double as an island when there aren’t chairs around it.

They continued to elongate the space by adding a stretch of lower cabinets across the windows, which now fall in line with the new bleached white oak floorboards. They won back storage by cladding the wall that leads to the mudroom in floor-to-ceiling cupboards that disguise the pantry, refrigerator, and microwave. 

Pick Overhead Lighting Wisely

Knowing that the petite cottage gets loads of natural light from the large windows (which Post Company simply replaced with efficient versions from Marvin, keeping the openings the same size), the need for overhead lighting was fairly minimal. “We don’t love using recessed lighting, especially in a compact house like this where materials are super-important,” says Salem. For any area that needed an overhead fixture (over the coffee table, above the kitchen sink), they brought in brass and oxidized brass spotlights from Long Made Co. and Roll & Hill that contribute to the home’s newfound patina.

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I’ve always loved old things. As a kid, I was enamored by antiques shops and salvage yards. I was so fascinated by the quality, craftsmanship, and story behind who owned the objects. So I knew I wanted a historic home in Connecticut. There’s so much rich history here, given that it’s one of the original colonies and the British marched through our area during the Revolutionary War. And pre–Revolutionary War homes are an endangered species—there’s so much new construction going up that’s ironically made to look like farmhouses. I’ve always felt called to conserve and protect an old jewel of a home. 

So when a historic 1700s one came on the market not far from the mid-century house where we currently lived, I dragged my husband kicking and screaming to go look at it. We have three kids and were not necessarily looking for a new place, but when we walked through the property together, we were both awestruck. It’s funny because the two of us couldn’t be more opposite: He’s a marine, and everything is very planned and methodical, and I’m a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of girl. It’s rare that we agree on the same thing at the same time, but the house had so many little twists and turns and original charm that we both thought was so, so, so special. 

This was in 2021, when there was a mass exodus from New York City to the suburbs, so there were 15 showings for the house in one day. We never in a million years thought that we were going to actually get it, and our agent told us that ours was the lowest of five offers. But one 600-page inspection and mentions of the word asbestos later, the city couple who originally got it bailed and everyone else had moved on to other offers. Luckily, the homeowner was eager to not go back on the market, so she took care of all of those scary things for us. I firmly believe that this home picked us.

A few months after we moved in, I started exploring the yard. Someone had given me a metal detector—I don’t even remember when, for Christmas or something—and I thought, this property is 300 years old, maybe there are some old coins. Now just to be clear, you’d be way more likely to find me at Bloomingdale’s than you would me metal detecting, but I really got into it. I’d have my hat and fanny pack on, and I would wave this thing around my yard like a lunatic. One time, I did find a coin from 1787 that’s specific to New Jersey, which means it predates the U.S. Mint. That really got me excited. I even started an Instagram account, Peter Thorp House, to document my findings. 

Not long after, I discovered the midden. I was metal detecting around the corner of a stone wall, and I found a simple pewter spoon. As I was digging for it, I came up with something else: fistfuls of oyster shells. I remembered someone saying to me that when you find shells, keep digging, because it could be a trash heap (also known as a midden). There weren’t garbage cans in the 1800s—they just dug a pit in the back of the house and hucked things into a hole. So of course I got my shovel out. What I found was amazing. I’m talking platefuls of pottery and animal bones and glass. I couldn’t keep up. What started out as a little hole is now about a 6-by-6-foot trench because I just kept finding stuff, like the pieces of almost an entire teapot. 

I reached out to the town’s historical society and did a little research to track the lineage of the land ownership from 1739, when the house was built by Peter Thorp—though he never lived in it—all the way through to present day. There’s this family, the Browns, who lived here for more than 100 years, and they’re the ones who passed it down to their children and built this massive farm. I always felt like there must be a connection between the things I was finding and the Browns, given how long they lived here.

Soon enough, I became addicted to finding treasures elsewhere on our property. There’s a root cellar underneath the barn, and in the fall, I went in there to clean up. I brought my metal detector, a lamp, and a fan because it was September and it was really hot in that tiny room. Within two minutes, the metal detector died, the fan turned off, and the light drained of its battery. I yelled to my husband, “Why did you turn the fan off? It’s so hot!” But he wasn’t outside. Could it have randomly happened? Sure. But what are the chances that all three of those things would malfunction at the same time so quickly? 

It’s strange—ever since I started bringing objects out of the ground and into the house, little occurrences started to happen. But also, any logical person could explain them away. We live in an old house! It crunches! It makes noise!

But then, weirder things started to happen. I was talking with some friends, and the topic of ghost stories came up. My little guy looked up at us and said, “Yeah, that happens to me, too.” We all looked at him and said, “What happens?” And I’ll never forget what he said, so matter-of-factly: “There’s a shadow that walks into my closet.” 

I thought it was strange; kids say strange things, right? But then there was another instance when I was taking my daughter on the stairs in the main house to her room—at the time she was 2—and she looked right at me and said: “Can he come, too?” It was one of those parenting moments where you’re like, I feel like I shouldn’t freak out because then she’s going to freak out, so I’m just going to smile and we’re going to keep moving. It made me think: Gosh, is there something here that I’m not seeing?

I kept digging in the yard and collecting things. I know this sounds insane, but sometimes I’ll go in a new direction, almost like I’m being guided to a new part of the property, and I’ll find something cool. I can’t really explain it.

The kids were one thing, but one night, my husband and I were winding down for bed around midnight, and we heard a loud piano note, an E, clear as day. It was as if someone put their finger down right on the key of our piano, which is directly below our room. We both shot up in bed, like, What on earth was that? When multiple people witness something, you know you’re not losing it.

A few mediums reached out to me online after I shared everything on Instagram, and two of them had very consistent stories they told me over the phone: There is a woman, a nanny or a nursemaid, here. They both said there’s also a farmhand who didn’t own the property but took tremendous pride in it who is just here keeping tabs on it. The mediums mentioned water, but there’s no water on the property, so I don’t know where that comes in.

We’re noticing that a lot of incidents revolve around the original staircase. Most recently, I was away with my sons in Florida and my husband was home with our daughter when I got an alert on our Nest camera saying there was motion detected in my daughter’s room. You can see a shadow near the staircase that couldn’t be my husband because it’s too small—and because he was downstairs watching TV. He’s very pragmatic about all of this, but I think it’s a lot of coincidences. 

You know, I hope whatever spirits that may be around here know that we’re going to take care of this property and shine it back up. I choose to think that it’s someone just doing their rounds, trying to keep an eye on us and the house. Truly, I’ve never felt scared or intimidated. You know that creepy feeling when you’re turning off all the lights at night and you need to run up the stairs? I’ve never felt that here. I am totally comfortable being here alone walking around at night. Whatever does exist around here—I think it exists with love. 

I joke that this weekend is opening season for me, and I’m going to start searching the yard again. After a thaw is actually when metal detecting is at its best. The ground churns and purges, and new things come to the surface. 

To learn more about the Peter Thorp House, visit the Weston Historical Society starting on May 18 to see an exhibition of Maryclare Roos’s findings. Her home will be featured in the upcoming book The Heirloomist: 100 Treasures and the Stories They Tell by Shana Novak, out April 30.

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When we ask renovators about what inspired them, they often reference an Instagram post they saved or a cool hotel they visited. But Leah Hodson’s bathroom makeover began much closer to home. Er, technically, it began at her old home.

When the U.K.-based DIYer behind @thestanleydiary moved in December, she was especially sad to leave behind her “perfect bathroom,” which was almost entirely covered in marble tile. The best spot in her new house to re-create the look was the powder bathroom: It was a blank canvas—albeit one with lots of quirky ceiling and wall bump-outs. 

The only difference this time was Hodson didn’t want to use actual marble. “I’m not quite ready to take on tiling just yet with two toddlers running circles around me,” she says. Hodson also wasn’t interested in spending thousands of dollars on a bathroom upgrade, so instead of browsing the stone yard, she found herself Googling Calacatta Viola marble–inspired mural wallpapers. Belarte Studio proved to have the most realistic option. “Everyone who has seen it in real life can’t believe it is wallpaper,” says Hodson. 

The Supplies 

• Wallpaper
• Wallpaper adhesive (Hodson used a U.K.-sold product by Anaglypta)
• Wallpaper smoothing tool
• Scissors
• Box cutter
• Wood molding of your choosing
• A level
• Liquid nails
• Clear acrylic backsplash 
• Brass screw caps

Calacatta Marble, Belarte Studio ($6 per square foot)

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Ultra Clear Strippable Wallcovering Adhesive, The Home Depot ($9)

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Step 1: Find the Start Line 

Because Hodson’s mural wallpaper is so bold and the powder room is so small, she felt swathing every inch in the faux marble design would make the space feel minuscule. So as a compromise, she decided to only cover three half-walls and one full wall. Because the back toilet wall was getting the full treatment, she decided to begin there. First, she drew a line down the middle of the wall, so she would know where to align the two seams of the separate wallpaper panels. (Over time, wallpaper can slide and reveal the gaps between sections, and if said gap is situated in the middle of the room, it will actually be less noticeable than if it were off center.) 

Step 2: Paste and Stick 

While peel-and-stick treatments are popular among DIYers, the design Hodson fell in love with requires you to coat the wall first. Using a paint roller, she dipped it into a tray of paste and then rolled the adhesive onto the wall. “I found this gave more even coverage than a brush, which I’ve previously used,” she says. 

Step 3: Patiently Work Around Bump-Outs

The tricky part came when matching the panels on the full wall with those on the half-walls. This is when the sharp box cutter and time-tested rule of “measure twice, cut once” came into play. Hodson made sure to line up the sheets on the pipe box perfectly so the veins in the faux stone looked like they were all one piece. 

The area around the vanity unit gave her the biggest headache. Hodson accidentally cut the wallpaper too short, forcing her to cut a small sliver piece to hide the gap. “Which took far longer than I’d have liked to get right, but I’m glad I did, as it is barely noticeable,” she says. 

Step 4: Give Yourself a Seamless Border

For the surfaces only covered partially in wallpaper, Hodson installed wood molding around the top edge, first using a laser level to make sure the border would be a straight line. Then she applied the wallpaper from the top of the baseboards to the bottom of the wood molding. The trim piece gives your eye a natural end point. 

Step 5: Protect the Splash Zone

Even after refreshing the tired-looking vanity with a no demo hack involving precut fluted MDF and liquid nails, Hodson was left with a problem: preventing the wallpaper behind the sink from becoming damaged by moisture. 

Cue CutMy. She took the brand’s 6mm acrylic sheet (it came precut and predrilled) and made a backsplash, complete with brass screw caps that cover the drill holes. The invisible barrier allows the faux stone to still shine through. 

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Second chances don’t come around often. But second chances to buy a home you used to live in really don’t. So when Jeremiah Brent heard from his broker that the Fifth Avenue apartment he and his husband, Nate Berkus, had owned from 2013 to 2016 was coming back up for sale, unsurprisingly, he wept.

As the designer describes in his new book, The Space That Keeps You, it was the first place that truly felt like home to him. It was where he wrote his wedding vows and where the couple welcomed their first child, Poppy. When they decided to sell the place so they could move to Los Angeles to be closer to family, the new owners seemed pretty set on keeping the apartment. That was, until one fateful evening two years after Berkus and Brent had resettled back in New York City when their broker came calling. “I got off the phone and completely fell apart,” Brent recalls. “I said to Nate, we’re moving home.” 

The first time they lived in the Fifth Avenue place, Brent admits they had to get scrappy with the interior, buying subway tile from Home Depot and wall sconces from CB2. But their decisions were clearly a hit. The people who bought the apartment from them had barely changed a thing since 2016. “We got a second chance at a first look,” says Brent, “and we wanted to go big and really change it up.” After years of fantasizing about moving back home, they got to put their second stamp on the space. Here, in his own words, Brent shares the most pressing upgrades they made during round two. 

We Expanded Downward

The idea of coming back in the house and really creating it this time for the four of us (and not the two of us) was the challenge. We had to expand. But in order to expand, I had to convince neighbors to sell. Once I finally convinced [the downstairs neighbor] to sell, she told me she’d only do it if I found her another apartment in the building. I went door to door, and Nate sat back the whole time going, “Just let it go…move on. We don’t need this.” And I was like a dog with a bone. I was not going anywhere.

We added a playroom, two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a laundry room. It’s basically like a kids’ floor. But when [Poppy and Oskar] get older and try to sneak out, they have to come past my bedroom door. So good luck. I can hear everything.

We Opted for Statement Stone on the Island

I love a nice marble. Actually, the particular marble that we went with [in the kitchen], my husband did not want—it was one of the only few things we’ve ever really disagreed on. I finally said to him, “Please let me do this. I’m in this room. I cook. I really believe in this marble.” I wanted the stone to contrast against the simplicity [of the space].

We Painted the Existing Cabinets 

The cabinets are the same cabinets that were in there when we bought it the first time! I wanted everything light and bright this time [so we repainted them].

We Went Moodier in the Bedroom

During this renovation, we bought a farm in Portugal, and it really is where I’m the happiest (aside from New York). I found this wallpaper that reminded me of being in Portugal and looking out at the trees. I never in a million years thought I’d pull it. I said to Nate, “It’s going to be louder and definitely more look than we’ve ever had.” Now it’s my favorite thing.  

We Put Carpeting in the Closet  

When we originally put graphic tile in the closet, it was revolutionary. And it was very polarizing: People either loved it or they hated it. [Today] we really want things in the house that we’re not going to grow out of. [Now we have] carpeting that is soft and plush and comfortable and quiet. 

We De-brightened the Living Room

The house before was crisp white and black, and it was really handsome, but I wanted it to feel a little bit softer, a little bit more historic. We chose a chalky bone-colored white paint called Saint Sauvant from Portola. When you use something that’s got a little more depth to it, it shows off all the ornate moldings. 

We Turned Poppy’s Nursery Into Our Office

What used to be Poppy’s nursery is now our [small home] office. The other day, I was telling her about how she was a baby in this room, and I used to come in and hold her while she cried. She looked at me and she goes, “You put me in a closet?” And I said, “It’s not a closet—it’s New York City, okay?”

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