![Collecting Enchantment](https://magarticles.magzter.com/articles/6178/443062/5eb1797b60a9b/Collecting-Enchantment.jpg)
An unassuming gabled Victorian on Long Island, the house was built ca. 1856 by Edward Howell, a Hamptons whaling captain. The house stayed in his family until the late 1970s. Set on three acres of orchards and farmland, it had never been significantly altered. The designer Ann Pyne came upon the property on a grey and blustery day in the fall of 1983, and she immediately felt at home.
Ann Pyne is the daughter of legendary interior designer Betty Sherrill, the late chairman of McMillen Inc., New York City’s oldest continually operating design firm. Ann says that her mother humored her but never truly understood the love her daughter developed for the 19th-century antiques she collected to furnish the simple Victorian house.
The old house had been maintained by the Howells and just needed freshening. An appropriate William Morris pattern replaced striped wallpaper in the front parlor. The dining room became a leafy bower with the installation of a Louis Bowen wallpaper with undulating bands of pale-green roses. Systems were, of course, updated, but the original hot-water radiators still work.
Early renovation included the kitchen, a straightforward room with beadboard walls and cabinet fronts, and updated appliances. The ceiling, 10 feet in height, gave the room a stunning Victorian Revival presence when Ann papered it with Bradbury & Bradbury’s Morris-inspired pomegranates. At this point, Ann and her family settled in, and little else changed for 30 years.
Ann Pyne, who came to McMillen Inc. in 2002 and is the firm’s president, had inherited her mother’s eye for color and design. But her embrace of Victorian hadn’t been immediate. She recalls her first visit to a dealer in 19th-century antiques, when, dismayed by the “heavy, ugly” furniture, she bought an overstuffed Turkish armchair, the least offensive piece, and left.
Denne historien er fra June 2020-utgaven av Old House Journal.
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Denne historien er fra June 2020-utgaven av Old House Journal.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
![a farmhouse renewed](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/6178/1797028/zgt8tB1sf1724757674350/A-FARMHOUSE-RENEWED.jpg)
a farmhouse renewed
Sensitive renovations and restoration work preserved a house that dates to 1799.
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AN OVERVIEW OF METAL ROOFING
METAL ROOFS ARE RESURGENT, FOR GOOD REASONS.
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ENDURING BEAUTY IN WALLS of STONE
Now back in the family who had been here since 1830, the old farmhouse is again ready for generations to come. Additions dating to 1840 and the 1950s were preserved.
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ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS COME TO LIFE
Owners and their designer celebrate the unique features of a 1912 Arts & Crafts Tudor.
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For a Wet Basement Wall
If there's problem common to old houses, it's a wet basement. I'm not talking about occasional flooding, but rather a basement that apparently seeps or leaks after even a rain shower or during snowmelt. Several approaches are available; sustainable solutions will get to the root of the problem.
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Patching a Plaster Wall
Fix a hole in the wall with a few common tools and some drywall supplies. Practice your technique!
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Navigating the Lumberyard
Here's some lumber lingo you should know before you venture into a lumberyard.
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Roofing & Siding
Make note of these historical and unusual materials for the building envelope.
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The Riddle of the water
When water incursion happens, the roof isn't necessarily the culprit. Maybe snaking a drain line, or clearing debris from a clogged gutter, temporarily will stem a leak. But a recurring problem usually means other forces are at work. It takes persistence-and a team with the right skills and patience—to identify the source and apply a solution.
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Light-filled Craftsman Redo
For a dark kitchen in a 1914 Illinois house, the trick was anchoring white expanses with woodsy warmth.