Homes & Gardens | James Thomas
This timeless home was inspired by the grand country houses of England – you'd never believe it's less than 20 years old
“I feel like a lot of clients come to us asking for a secret room,” laughs Blair Moore of Moore House Design. The Rhode Island–based designer recently renovated an expansive 1834 landmark—the residence of noted sea captain Ward Buckley—infusing it with historical charm (and that cleverly concealed room) for a couple and their two young sons. The 6,000-plus square-foot home sits in the heart of downtown Southport, Connecticut—an idyllic harbor village anchored on the Long Island Sound. “I really wanted the design to be a blend of both the house and its persona, and the clients and theirs. They have this very cool, New York, Mad Men feeling to them,” shares Moore.
Joining JP Franzen, who was first onboard as architect, Moore first had to rethink the layout. While steeped in traditional New England appeal, the house had experienced its fair share of poor architectural decisions after the captain’s time. Though the front of the house is original, successive add-ons over the years caused the home to feel increasingly disjointed, and its early character became harder and harder to discern. “It was as if there were extensions added on with no master plan and no thought process as to the flow of the property,” explains Moore. “And so everywhere you went, there was a jog, a dip, a step up, a step down, a step up. There was no connection point.” The property was reimagined with the goal of creating usable space and family-functional ease that history had erased—or, in some cases, where there had been seemingly none to begin with.
