An interior designer revels in the chance to deck out a summer house of her very own
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Some couples downsize when they become empty nesters. Newton-based interior designer Heather Vaughan and her husband, Michael, a financial consultant, did the reverse, purchasing a seven-bedroom beachfront cottage built in 1910 on an isthmus in Scituate, Massachusetts. “It was a celebratory act after both our sons graduated from law school,” says Vaughan. “I wanted somewhere I could lure them back to.”
After ruling out the island of Martha’s Vineyard off the Massachusetts coast as too much of a hassle, they considered Gloucester and other Massachusetts North Shore spots, but nothing felt right. “Like all designers, I have a very rich fantasy life,” Vaughan says. “I had a crystal-clear vision of what I wanted; I could see, hear, and taste it.”
Then they were invited to a friend’s wedding on the South Shore. As they drove past rambling places along the water, Vaughan thought, “I’m home.” Coincidentally, the house next door to their friend’s mother’s house was for sale. “It was falling down and a complete mess,” says Vaughan. “So, of course, we bought it.”
After replacing the rotted timber foundation with a concrete one, they got to work tearing up much of the 5,500 square feet from the inside out. Carpeting, window treatments, laminate counters, and vinyl siding got tossed into dumpsters (they filled 10), revealing fir floors, bead-board paneling, and wood plank ceilings. Vaughan says, “It was a liberation.”
The bones of the house were perfect. The open plan of the first floor with its living room that stretches across the length of the house parallel to the ocean, the working fireplace, the deep wraparound porch, the patio abutting the beach, and the tall bedroom doorways with transoms that flip open to let sea breezes through were all evocative of the easy-living vibe Vaughan had imagined.
Inspiration came from beach houses Vaughan remembers staying in as a child on Cape Cod and the Vineyard. “They had that Yankee Boston feel,” she says. “Simple and slightly threadbare, but collected, filled with great pieces like chinoiserie-style rugs and pots.” Using that as the stylistic starting point, Vaughan added traditional accents and lots of funky finds.
The most important factor was that everyone who would visit (the more the merrier, animals included) would be kicking back and relaxing with bare feet and wet bathing suits. All the furnishings are meant to take a beating. In the living room, Vaughan began with the sturdy, oversize coffee table made with a black ceruse parquet top repurposed from a client project and set in a custom metal base. She added a 12-foot-long sofa upholstered in a stain- and water-repellent “nanotech” fabric. Vaughan says it’s not unusual to see two people napping end-to-end, along with six dogs (the Vaughans have two, their son has two, and a friend often brings her two) perched on the back looking out the windows toward Minot’s Ledge Light.
Sloping wing chairs ($19.98 for the pair at Global Thrift in Waltham, Massachusetts) reupholstered in turquoise velvet and a bench in a painterly ikat round out the seating on one side of the room. On the other, four spool chairs on casters and upholstered in an indoor/outdoor fabric are arranged around a cluster of hexagonal side tables. It’s all movable, perfect for entertaining.
The centerpiece of the adjacent dining room is the multicolor crystal chandelier Vaughan found at the Brimfield Antique Show in Brimfield, Massachusetts. Skirted wicker chairs surrounding a wood trestle table add texture while a cerulean rug and orange curtains provide plenty of color, along with bright sideboards, colorful artwork, and a bowl filled with rocks painted by guests. “It’s an activity that loosens people up,” Vaughan says.
In the kitchen, two oversize Brighton Pagoda lanterns by Visual Comfort hang above the marble-topped island that only looks better as it ages. Same goes for the brass hardware, which quickly takes on a patina in the sea air. Vaughan made otherwise ordinary woven rattan stools from Pier1 Imports her own by adding bold stripes of paint.
Bedrooms occupy the home’s four corners one flight up, where Vaughan continues her New England meets Palm Beach meets the Adirondacks aesthetic. Crisp duvets in graphic patterns dress beds in playful profiles, including Serena & Lily’s signature pagoda-shaped piece. Other furnishings include a worn prayer rug from her husband’s grandmother’s estate, a carved rocking chair inherited from her parents’ beach house, and a vintage Eastlake bureau. Artwork runs the gamut from simple paintings of everyday objects to a collection of tramp-art frames to a gallery of silhouette portraits that includes a newsboy and an angry maiden aunt.
Despite her eclectic choices, Vaughan says that there was nary a misstep. She thoroughly relished the opportunity to do the beach house for herself, rather than a client. She says, “This was me doing me, turning up new finds every day, living the dream.”
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