Name: Pete and Sandy
Location: East Washington, New Hampshire
Size: 1660 square feet (includes porch)
Years lived in: 36 Years; Fully Restored 2006-2008
We first featured Peter and Sandy's amazing minimal farmhouse last July. Since this quaint New Hampshire town is one of our favorite weekend escapes, we thought it would be a treat to revisit our good friends' home. When we photographed the house they had just finished remodeling their kitchen — the finale of a complete restoration they had been working on since 2006...
This house is amazing to us because when we photographed it, we had dropped by without notice. These pictures reflect how they live day to day — no mess, no fuss, just simple, soft surroundings. Styles and eras mix effortlessly here, creating the perfect backdrop for many of Peter’s bronze and iron sculptures. The well-proportioned spaces and careful attention to natural light make this modestly scaled home feel light and airy, while the pared down interior matches the colonial sensibility. The minimalism creates a lovely contrast with the historic elements that we find inspiring in their authenticity.
Don’t miss the rock garden between the house and the porch, the attic stair - turned - pantry in the kitchen, and the glossy white painted bedroom floors. And in case anyone notices, yes, there is only one appliance in the kitchen — the stove. The fridge is located downstairs in a root cellar, allowing the snug kitchen to remain minimal. Pete & Sandy’s home also includes lovely vegetable and flowering gardens, a chicken coop, and Peter's modern post-and-beam sculpture studio (which he built). But that's for another tour!
Apartment Therapy Survey:
My/Our style: A mix of country, classic, modern, minimalist, cozy, and quietly chic
Inspiration: Nature, peace, love, and understanding
Favorite Element: The small scale; The directions: south facing house, north facing porch, east facing bedroom; Sculptures; Colors; Morso stove
Biggest Challenge: To allow the early 19th Century cape keep its character and, at the same time, live with ease and a modern, minimalist sensibility
What Friends Say: Charming and lovely, empty and minimalist
Biggest Embarrassment: Always so many things still to do
Proudest DIY: Restoring the entire house; Choosing colors and furnishings
Biggest Indulgence: The sink, stoves and three small tables made by a dear fine furniture maker friend
Best advice: Simplicity; Less is more; Quality whenever possible; Create the feeling of the space you want, not "the look"
Dream source: Many things Swiss and Asian
Inspiration: Le Corbusier, Giacometti, Scarpa and many more
Resources:
Appliances: Wolfe, KWC, Miele
Hardware: Old/original
Furniture: Mostly non-expensive antiques - auctions and small shops
Lighting: Hubbardton Forge, Peter France, and standards like Lightolier
Rugs and Carpets: Little River Oriental Rugs, Concord, NH; A Candle in the Night, Brattleboro, VT; auctions
Tiles and Stone: Marble and Granite, Westwood, MA
Window Treatments: As few as possible
Beds: Made our own
Artwork: Mostly sculpture and prints by Peter France, Crow Studio; also, small old English and French prints and antique shops finds
Paint: California Paints and Farrow & Ball
Flooring: Old soft and hard wood; lots of oriental rugs, old and new
(Images: Wes & Kayla Schwartz)
Re-edited from July, 2008.
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Wow, I absolutely love this, and it's a nice change for AT to feature a home that is so well-edited, subtly toned, and minimally accessorized!
Love it. I feel as though I had a refreshing little vacation just by going through the photo gallery.
Charming! I love how casual and fun this house is. And how great is it to see beautiful antiques that AREN'T painted glossy white!
Lovely and serene. I swoon for that screened in porch.
Just beautiful and what I would want in style if I lived on the East Coast. Its very charming. Great job.
Beautiful.
Do you have the names of the paints? Particularly that green-gray in the guest room, or the molding color in the bedroom?
Beautiful home and a great addition to AT. I particularly loved the small elephant sculpture obscuring the floor outlet. The whole vignette of the table and charis with the rooster sculpture is magnifacent.
What is your wallpaper source? I took a quick look at Farrow and Ball's website, but I didn't recognize them.
Wow. Some of it is more country than my style, but other parts exactly match my daydream of Shaker-inspired minimalism. The master bedroom is perfect.
Do tell the name of the wallpaper behind the moose!
Very nice home - I'm envious of their neatness as much as their style. :)
Nice, but hardly minimalist.
Beautiful house.
I'm in love. The getaway house of my dreams. Only with better art.
It's so refreshing to see an historic home that manages to capture the spirit of it's original time period while still looking fresh and modern.
I love how the antiques have been incorporated--well-edited, suited to the house's vernacular architecture, not looking like an overcrowded antique shop or like Queen Victoria exploded all over it.
Also, I had to smile at the staircase-turned-kitchen cabinet. I have a funny little staircase closet in my house, too--it's my shoe closet!
Another one to put in my file. Simply wonderful....simplicity at its best. I love the traditional New England antiques mixed with unexpected, unique modern touches. The art and animals throughout are fun and charming. Excellent post!
this place is beautiful and is so without being stuffy or pretentious. Nice job.
So amazing! Lots of details, everything quirky but consistent. Please, please show us more!
I like to think that the owners armwrestle every morning to see who has to eat their breakfast staring at the chicken's butt.
Seriously though, I love the whole New England Cottage Meets Noah's Ark thing. It has charm to spare.
The sculpture made me want to learn how to make my own. I loved it all, especially the tall wire bird and the small wire something (can't tell from the picture) on the wooden base. I'm so inspired, I'm going to get some wire right now!
This is the only way I could do country. Beautiful and spare.
Absolutely love this place. But while I love the way the windows look without window treatments, but I don't think I'd like sleeping in a room with no window coverings.
This is lovely. I would ditch that Eames chair, as I'm sick of them, and they're not as comfortable as people pretend. But I adore the Hitchcock chairs, the simplicity and the colors. What's it like in the winter?
anyone know the maker of the bed frame in the master bedroom? or even a similar frame for that matter?
Can anyone identify who makes the armchairs in the livingroom?
Looks very peaceful.
I'm loving all the animals, especially the wire cow and the moose. Where, oh where did you get the animals from?
Wow!
I don't usually comment on house tours, but I love this one. Every room looks so calm and relaxing. It must be so nice to come home to after a busy day. Well done!
Lovely. Makes me long for New Hampshire.
Wow. This is just to my taste. I want to come relax here.
Does anyone have any information on the small, black chair in the living room, with books on the seat (featured in the photo montage)? We have six chairs, that seem identical to that one -- purchased at an antique show in Connecticut about 8 years ago. We would love to know more about them, and had thought about selling them as well.
Thanks.
I'm not sure that this couple are quite ready to follow Palmetto's suggestion of ditching the Eames chair but I do suspect that they may be graduating in that direction, even though they haven't quite managed to work out how to disguise it with those throws yet...
Kayla here with a few answers to your questions from Sandy, the owner:
The wallpapers are Schumacher, Williamsburg Collection, circa 1972. I don't know if you can order vintage papers. I haven't seen much from the company recently that I liked but they had some great papers, to my eye, back then.
Peter made the bed frame. I have seen similar, can't remember where. Design Within Reach maybe?
The bronzes are all Peter's, as is the wire Sandhill Crane. People can email him at crowstudio (at) gsinet (dot) net. We are finally working on a web site but not there yet.
The living room armchairs are by Baker. I don't have the chairs' name. They are very comfortable.
The guest and master bedroom room paints are California. Two colors are used in reverse. They are from California's Historic Collection colors, Andover Cream and Pitch Pine. Color choices were done with the help of a wonderful colorist named Susan Harlow in Putney, Vermont.
Perfect: the traditional features of the house are left to themselves, the furnishings allude to that traditional character, understated color allows all furnishings and other features such as woodwork to come forward with elegance and the avoidance of clutter gives the thematically collected sculpture room to be what it is mean to be. The bedrooms may be among the best I've ever seen. Those comforters--soft and rounded against the bare right angles of the austere space: ahhhhhhhh....
What a beautiful house. Prompted me to finally register to make a comment. Any chance that we can find out where the wallpapers are from?
What a beautiful house. Finally prompted me to register so that I can comment, although my first comment went awol. I particularly love the wallpapers - having seen the response above I can see that I'll end up spending this evening on ebay snooping around.
This is a beautiful home. I love the white glossy floors. Can you say which paint you used? Thanks!
Very nice house. Peaceful atmosphere.
Comfy, casual and elegant! Would love a night in the guest bedroom!
Coming home to this house must be the best feeling. I love how they did country without doing "country". This feels like a big fluffy comforter at the end of a long day; that's the feeling I get. Love it.
Lovely, aside from the late 80's/early 90's floor lamp in the porch. I had that same lamp in college. If you're going to ditch anything, ditch that lamp!
What a nice home. I especially love the look of all the oriental rugs with the otherwise sparse furnishings, they look lovely. I love when people can use antique, authentic furnishings that match the house without it looking crowded or stuffy. This is perfect because the furnishings really shine and they feel lived in and practical. The painted floors and the lack of clutter give it just the right dose of modernity so that it still feels like young people live here. Really beautiful. Nice job guys!
The bedrooms are so "Emily Dickenson." Quiet, thoughtful, meaningful.
Stunning.
This is like the Welsh holiday cottages of my childhood - except obviously with fewer screaming toddlers and arguments about the washing up. I bet these people never argue about the washing up. They probably clean their dishes with their natural serene glow.
I adore this house. I don't think in real life I'd like to climb down into a root cellar every time I wanted a cup of tea but I'd certainly like to sit in one of those chairs while someone, someone clearly in possession of an unstained arran jumper and proper grownup opinions about Picasso, does it.
I too love the glossy white floors...can you tell us the paint and finish coats you used to get that look? So pretty!!
I love the house and the use of grey and white (at least it looks dark grey on my laptop).
Question: the heater in the kitchen - is that a standalone? or is it vented through the wall and up to the roof?
Beautiful little place!!!
LP
Love the glossy white floors.
Lovely!