Design Goals

The clients love the architectural details in their new vacation home and wanted to keep its classic Newport style. The clients wanted a living room that felt formal but not completely traditional.

Design priorities included creating an ideal scene to display their growing art collection, providing enough seating for when the clients host parties, and adding soft textures to mitigate sound.

Key design decisions included:

• layering colors, textures and finishes

• selecting furnishings to maximize seating and room flow

• balancing traditional and contemporary elements

• prioritizing the focus on the art collection

Before & After Considerations:

The existing living room’s paint colors made the room feel dark and made the room feel smaller, and the room did not have seating capacity the clients required. When the clients hosted parties the ambient noise was too loud.

By choosing lighter paint colors, adding a variety of upholstered seating and dressing the windows with curtains, the room now feel open and airy and guests can converse easily with each other.

Historic Context

The living room’s architectural details were preserved in the design, in keeping with the rest of the home.