SLEEPING BEAUTY: A savvy designer awakens the inherent beauty in her old

SLEEPING BEAUTY: A savvy designer
awakens the inherent beauty in her old
ColonialRevival house with a do-over
that emphasizes its classic good looks.
Reprinted from the Spring 2013 issue
of New England Home Connecticut
Text by Regina Cole / Photography by Michael Partenio / Interior design and architecture: Katherine Hodge, Sage Design / Builder: Ryan Burke, RSB Construction Management / Produced by Stacy Kunstel
A S AV V Y D E S I G N E R AWA K E N S T H E
I N H E R E N T B E AU T Y I N H E R O L D C O L O N I A L
R E V I VA L H O U S E W I T H A D O - O V E R T H AT
EMPHASIZES ITS CLASSIC GOOD LOOKS.
S L E E P I N G
beauty
K A T H E R I N E H O D G E C O N F E S S E S to a penchant for falling for the
least lovely house on the street. “Why buy something halfway decent if you
can find something really bad and fix it up exactly the way you want?” asks the
interior designer. For ten years she has worked largely in renovation design,
with layout, cabinetry, kitchens and bathrooms her specialties.
She points to her family’s own home in Fairfield to illustrate her weakness.
“We were relocating from Washington, D.C., four years ago,” she explains.
“The neighborhood appealed right away. Beautiful houses were built in the
1920s with big porches, just four blocks from the beach.”
This house, however, was a bit of an orphan. No one had paid it much
attention for years, as was obvious by the porches hanging on by splinters
and the seriously out-of-date bathrooms.
“But I love old houses,” Hodge says. “This Colonial Revival was built with
graceful lines and good bones in 1928. And I love being near the beach.”
To turn her ugly duckling into a swan, Hodge designed an addition that
68 NEW ENGLAND HOME CONNECTICUT SPRING 2013
Saturated colors in carpet and
upholstery, dark blue silk window
treatments, mahogany paneling
and an emphasis on warmth and
comfort create what designer
and homeowner Katherine Hodge
calls her “winter room.” Pops of
color enliven the small space.
SPRING 2013 NEW ENGLAND HOME CONNECTICUT 69
added approximately 1,500 square feet to the original 3,500-square-foot
plan. The new section includes the family room and master suite as well as an
enlarged kitchen. Hodge expanded the kitchen by combining the original space
with two other small rooms, then adding six feet to the back and connecting
the new space to a rear terrace via French doors. “The kitchen is now the biggest room in the house,” she says.
While the back of the house was enlarged and given a more contemporary,
open look, Hodge kept the original configuration of the front of the house,
where living and dining rooms flank a center entry on the first floor and two
bedrooms sit on the level above.
In the formal dining room, Hodge went with one of her design signatures:
soothing, goes-with-anything white. Crisp, pale-painted woodwork, white
ABOVE LEFT: The home
is a symmetrically
proportioned centerentry Colonial Revival
built in 1928. ABOVE
RIGHT: Twin slipper
chairs add a note of
color in the living room.
LEFT: The living room’s
calm personality speaks
with soft brown walls
and unfussy window
treatments. RIGHT: The
designer uses color
judiciously, opting for a
kitchen with clean lines
and a subtle palette.
“ I ’ M P R E T T Y S T RU C T U R E D , A N D I L I K E T R A D I T I O N A L D E S I G N
W I T H C L E A N L I N E S A N D A S U B T L E C O L O R PA L E T T E . I L I K E R E A L LY
S I M P L E A N D L I N E A R A RC H I T E C T U R A L D E S I G N . ”
70 NEW ENGLAND HOME CONNECTICUT SPRING 2013
SPRING 2013 NEW ENGLAND HOME CONNECTICUT 71
The family room is in
the new addition at
the rear of the house.
Reflective surfaces in
the coffee table, side
tables and lamps spark
a room that’s all about
comfort. Soft neutral
tones and traditionally
designed furniture promote relaxation. RIGHT:
Antique bell jar lamps
above the dining table
hold candles whose
light is romantically
reflected in a sheet of
antique glass set into
the dining table top.
H O D G E I N T RO D U C E D A B I T O F PAT T E R N I N T H E TA N A N D
C H O C O L AT E - B RO W N RU G A N D S C AT T E R E D T O S S P I L L O W S T O L E N D
I N T E R E S T T O T H E PA I R O F C H O C O L AT E - B RO W N S O FA S .
72 NEW ENGLAND HOME CONNECTICUT SPRING 2013
lampshades and upholstery fabric shine against a soft, saturated background of
warm brown. “I like rooms that show a dark-light contrast,” the designer says.
“Against dark walls, pale tones start the room humming. Here, we set two light
couches against a backdrop of a brown that has a little green in it. The result is
a formal room with great presence.”
She eschews much pattern and color; a pair of light-green slipper chairs
sounds the living room’s one color note. Simple Roman shades dress the windows. “I look at stuff all day long, and don’t like that many things,” she says.
“I’m pretty structured, and I like traditional design with clean lines and a subtle
palette. I use color judiciously. And I don’t like heavy window treatments. I like
really simple and linear architectural design.”
Too much pattern, she believes, competes with any art that hangs on the
walls. As devoted collectors, she and her husband, Ron, buy a painting a year.
“We tend toward representational art,” she says. “And we are careful in placing
pieces. Too many paintings can overwhelm a space and leave no breathing
room. Every room should have just one hero.”
While a light palette distinguishes most of the rooms in the Hodges’
home, the small den, entered from the living room via a set of French doors,
features deep tones of brown and blue. The intensely cozy room is a “winter
room,” according to the designer. “We also have a summer room, which is the
informal family room. It has neutral colors and lots of light, and opens to the
out of doors.”
The big transformations happened at the back and the top of the house.
What was once a dark attic is now a spacious, light-filled third-floor office
for Hodge’s interior design business, Sage Design. This radical change was
wrought with dormer and eave windows, white paint and white-upholstered
furniture. “The dormers bring tons of light, which I need to look at plans,”
SPRING 2013 NEW ENGLAND HOME CONNECTICUT 73
says the designer. “I also need the white furniture to lay fabrics and other
materials against. I love my office!”
Below, the spacious new family room features a neutral palette of soft beiges
and browns. Hodge introduced a bit of pattern in the tan and chocolate-brown
rug and scattered toss pillows in gold and a taupe-and-cream ikat fabric to lend
interest to the pair of chocolate-brown sofas. The casual, comfortable room also
gets a shot of glamour from a contemporary Venetian mirrored coffee table, a silver metal drum-shaped side table and a pair of Canton jars-turned-lamps behind
the sofa. In a departure from the Roman shades that dress most of the windows
in the house, Hodge hung simple beige panels that repeat the gentle wall color.
Hodge especially enjoys creating kitchens and bathrooms. Millwork of her
design usually plays a starring role, as in the gracefully curved fronts of the two
vanities in the new master bath. “It’s great when you’re shaving or washing:
you can get really close,” she says.
The vanity legs are chamfered, adding another grace note. “I try to do open
vanities,” Hodge says. “It ensures that they’re not heavy in the room.”
While the Hodges don’t make a point of collecting antiques, their dining
room and kitchen tables are illuminated by old fixtures. In the kitchen, a handsome metal lantern descends above the table while the dining table is lit by a
pair of antique bell-jar lamps that still hold candles. “My husband and I bought
the lantern seventeen years ago,” the designer recalls. “In four houses, I have
taken light fixtures with me because it’s hard to find good lighting.”
The lantern certainly suits the white kitchen, which Hodge says she favors
above all the other rooms. With its round center table and farmhouse sink, it’s
perfectly suited to the warm livability of this house.
“When our three kids are home from school, and we sit around on a Saturday night talking while they are cooking—well, it doesn’t get any better than
that,” she says.
RESOURCES For more information about this home, visit nehomemag.com.
74 NEW ENGLAND HOME CONNECTICUT SPRING 2013
ABOVE LEFT: The curved
fronts of the master
bathroom’s vanities
make it easy to lean into
the mirror while shaving
or applying makeup.
ABOVE RIGHT: The master bedroom carries out
the designer’s serene
design scheme with
pale-blue walls, white
bedding, Lucite bedside
tables and symmetrical
bookcases. RIGHT: In
the garret office, bright
light and white walls
and upholstery are
important to Hodge’s
work. The antique
lantern was a long-ago
antiques shop find.
“ T H E D O R M E R S B R I N G T O N S O F L I G H T, W H I C H I N E E D T O
L O O K AT P L A N S . I A L S O U S E T H E W H I T E F U R N I T U R E T O L AY FA B R I C S
A N D O T H E R M AT E R I A L S A G A I N S T. I L OV E M Y O F F I C E ! ”
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