Suburban Homes

manor modern

Frank DelleDonne reinterprets Old World traditions in this Short Hills Mediterranean Revival

“I'm just the chef here,” says Frank Delle Donne, the Summit-based designer more likely to be wielding a tape measure than a Henckels knife. “I took her taste for traditional and his taste for contemporary and just mixed up all the ingredients.”

nj colonial

Gerald C. Tolomeo creates a modern stage for English classics in Saddle River

The notion that a house is never “finished” rings true for the owners of this Dutch Colonial in Saddle River, who have spent 18 years fine-tuning their four-bedroom home with the help of designer Gerald C. Tolomeo. Collectors of portraits and equestrian paintings, English furniture, silver, and...

living the dream

For a lucky few reverse commuters, Fire Island is a home for all seasons

For everyone who's ever dreamed, late on a summer Sunday, of living full-time in their beach house: Let Gail Shields-Miller be an inspi- ration. The New York interior designer, who had been summering on Fire Island for years with her husband,Andy Miller, moved out to this 32-mile-long...

inner light

A calm palette revives a classic Tudor in Westchester County

"The interior of this house comes as a surprise," says designer Brendan Kwinter-Schwartz. “From the outside, it’s a very traditional and charming 1930s Tudor, with a stone facade and leaded windows. But once you step inside,the space projects a loftlike, city feel....

a place on the lake

Designer Barbara Ross brings serene sophistication to a late-'80s house in Litchfield County

Whole-house renovations are not adventures one dives into on a whim. But in the compelling instances when “ideal location” trumps “move-in condition,” it can pay for homeowners to commit to the dream, take a deep breath, and turn the reins over to a designer with whom...

quiet color

A palette inspired by sea and sand calms a New Jersey interior

"I never want a room to feel like an island onto itself," says interior designer Susan Tully. Mastering the flow of a house—linking each space effortlessly to the next with fabric, furniture, and, most important, color—is for Tully the key to a job well done.This five-bed-...

modern romance

Unapologetic modernists fall in love with a Connecticut house built a century ago

Even best-laid plans are open to last-minute revision: Architect Gene Kohn and his wife, Barbara, had spent two

history on hudson

In the heart of Hudson, New York, Frank Faulkner ushers an 1870s building into the present—patina and all

Artist Frank Faulkner had visited this neoclassical building in Hudson, N.Y., many times before he bought it: Ironically, the circa-1870 structure had housed the law offices of the real-estate attorneys he would go to when closing on other properties he’d purchased in the area. “I’d always been...

inner light

Karen Houghton Interiors rescues a dour Larchmont Tudor from the dark ages

"It used to be 'Grandma's Tudor'—your typical dark, dank, depressed 1930S interior,” says designer Karen Houghton. “The architecture was charming, and the property was beautiful, with a private yard and stone walls. But the inside needed to lighten up.”