The Unexpected Way I Bring This 210-Year-Old Design Style into My Modern Home

Discover what makes each of The Vibiest Towns in America so special, and take our quiz to find out which town’s vibe is a perfect fit for you. This content is presented by the All-New Toyota Camry; it was created independently by our editorial team.

When I was 10, my family moved from Washington, D.C., to Annapolis, Maryland, a colonial-era waterfront state capital. We only settled 30 miles away, but I thought I’d entered an entirely new world. A place where sailboats bobbed along the horizon and straight-backed Midshipmen from the United States Naval Academy strolled the streets in their dress whites. The cobblestone alleys, narrow clapboard row homes, and postcard-worthy harbor of Annapolis looked like a surreal backdrop from a movie — one that we’d happily make our home.

Moving to the coast inspired plenty of lifestyle changes: We spent weekends boating or fishing, attending Navy football games, or eating all the seafood we could at the countless waterfront crab shacks that dot the region’s coastline.

Admiring the city’s historic homes became a passion of mine early on. My family lived in a typical suburban home, but I vowed I would one day live in one of Annapolis’ historic homes. Fast-forward to my mid-20s in 2002: My husband and I purchased our first home as a married couple, a clapboard row house in the heart of the historic district.

Our first home was a narrow, shotgun-style row house built in 1810. It had an awkward layout and limited square footage, but we loved its proximity to great shopping and dining, its charming front porch, and its coveted driveway with parking. We wanted our decor to stay true to the home’s historical roots and coastal location. Living in an old home comes with plenty of quirks, like uneven flooring and the horsehair walls we discovered while doing plaster repairs. Slowly, we created a space that reflected our style and honored our home’s locale, such as our collection of nautical maps depicting the Annapolis harbor.

As our family expanded, we outgrew the row house in 2010 and moved to a 25-year-old Arts and Crafts shingle-style home on the water just outside town. Living on the water was amazing, yet decorating a newer home had its challenges. We loved our more-than-200-year-old row house’s inviting feel and storied history and didn’t want to lose that authenticity. Here’s how we have remained true to our original decorating ideals, honoring this town’s history and the coastal aesthetic of our beloved hometown.

Thanks to its age, our row house exuded history and tradition. Old books help bring that same sense of heritage to our 25-year-old home. As a writer, books are some of my most cherished possessions. I’ve been collecting books all my life and have both modern works and older antique books that require some care. Both of our parents (seasoned readers) have downsized in the past few years, leaving us with dozens of antique books. 

I also scoured Annapolis bookshops, scoring a few from the antique book collection at Old Fox Books and Back Creek Books, a shop on Main Street specializing in rare books and antique maps. Most of my old books are not worth much, but they give our home a rich patina rooted in the past and my greatest passion. 

I already had a love of antiquing from scouring junk shops as a teen with my mom, so I knew that older finds give a home some personality. When I searched hard enough while furnishing our row house, I found a 200-year-old mahogany chest cheaper than a standard white dresser from a big-box store. I also got an old writing desk and a firebox. 

We bought these antiques specifically to match the history of our home and give our 1810 row house credibility. They did the job perfectly, and now these older pieces sit in our current home, lending a sense of depth to our modern upholstered pieces. 

Lighting choices are my favorite way to add style to a space, and most of our fixtures are rooted in historical style. I like to find designs like bell jar pendants, brass picture lights, and wall-mounted lanterns that look at home in historic and newly built homes.

I tried to find the right mix of tradition and nautical style to evoke the cross-section of our design sensibility. In our dining room hangs the antique crystal chandelier that we purchased for our Annapolis row house. A large-scale fixture that’s a modern take on a candle pendant grounds the space in our family room. Our breakfast area lighting has a nautical-style nickel pendant that is well-suited to the rounded wooden banquette, which was designed to mimic the seating on a boat.

Similar to how we decorated our row house to complement its structure and surroundings in the historic district, I took that same approach in our new home. Moving to a home on the water was a dream come true, and we wanted to incorporate it into our decor. But there’s a fine line between coastal-inspired and having a home that relies too heavily on a theme. 

Our time in the row house solidified a design sense rooted in tradition, so most of the nods to our waterfront location have some history. Our art includes nautical maps, both old and new; a portrait of an old sea captain; and collections of shells gathered on our vacation to Maryland beaches or to my husband’s hometown on the coast of Maine. Similar to how the antiques grounded our row house design, these coastal accents perfectly complement our waterfront home.