There’s a phenomenon in Maine where the entire state can feel like a small town. The person you buy a bunch of rhubarb from at the Brunswick Farmers Market could easily be your neighbor in Bath. The lobsterman next to you at a bar in Camden could end up being the father of your Rockport real estate agent. Despite the sprawling, green landscape, winding paths and rugged, rocky coastline, there is intimacy and connection to the place. That is, when Frances Merrill, AD100 designer and founder of the Los Angeles-based firm Reath Design, was asked to design the Northport, Maine, home for a family she knew in California, it was only fitting that her grandmother -His brother-in-law was mayor of a nearby city on the central coast.
Having previously designed the owners’ primary residence in Los Angeles, the Reath Design team had already built a strong friendship with the couple. This camaraderie deepened as both parties embarked on a Maine home project, reinforced by the husband and wife’s own upbringing in Maine and Merrill’s personal ties to the midcoast region. The clients’ family, particularly the wife’s mother and the husband’s sister, played an active role in the home’s transformation, offering family heirlooms and in-person consultations when travel restrictions were strict.
“The house was on a walk that my sister-in-law used to take,” says the wife. “So when we told her we were starting to look (for a house in Maine), she joked, ‘Oh, I found your house.'” They tried to convince her to knock on the door, but she got angry. the thought. “Then, honestly, the next day she went on the market. “It was something strange and fortuitous.”
Embracing a love of color, patterns and a quirky mix of personal items with vintage and contemporary pieces, Reath Design ensured the home exuded authenticity and charm. The clients were open to Merrill’s imaginative, playful taste, but they also had a simple wish: “This will be a place where people will run in one door and run out the other,” the designer says. “They were looking for lots of places to read, lots of places to do a puzzle, lots of areas to do different summer projects.” With no fear of color on the part of the homeowners, it was the Reath team’s job to figure out how it would flow from room to room, and where they could be a little stronger and where they could be a little more restrained. The desire for a comfortable and practical home also meant that minimal architectural changes needed to be made, whilst preserving the original character of the home.
Upon entering the large L-shaped living room, visitors are greeted by wicker chairs with custom checkered upholstery surrounding a classic Saarinen Tulip table. This leads to a cozy living room filled with luxurious and casual furniture, antique treasures and family heirlooms. The consistent use of Webster Green trim, called “green house,” unifies the space, drawing the eye from the doors to the stairs and beyond. “The history of the house is quite interesting,” Merrill says. “They were two identical houses that were built at the same time and were joined together. And at one point it had been a boarding house, so there were lots of hallways and bedrooms that made you wander in that wonderful summer style.”
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