The home got here with sun-washed rooms, unique home windows and wainscotting—and a latest historical past of being practically condemned. What made Jacque Ivory and her husband, Chris, need to transfer in was a backroom relic: a preserved walk-in pantry with floor-to-ceiling fir cabinets and cupboards. “It felt like a miracle that no one had each painted all that woodwork,” she say. Positioned within the Southern Berkshires city of Sheffield, Massachusetts, close to the place Chris grew up, the 1890 construction was an inn for a number of a long time earlier than being transformed into a health care provider’s workplace with upstairs flats, which devolved right into a single-family home in dire want of assist.
Jacque and Chris purchased the property in 2017 from the developer who had swooped in and acquired it at public sale. With visions of restoring and re-creating what was, the couple referred to as in inside design Jess Cooney, a pal of Jacque’s who runs her personal busy Berkshires inside design agency recognized for its historic resuscitations. Having moved everywhere in the world for Jacque’s work in telecommunications, the 2 know the way to shortly arrange a house. First on the record of issues to deal with: the kitchen, which had, says Jacque, “floating home equipment, no counter house, seven doorways (it was initially the screened porch), and actually no redeeming options.”
She and Chris requested Jess and group for an all-new setup that “appeared as if it had all the time there.” “The problem,” says Jess, “was to steadiness trendy performance with a historied aesthetic and relevance to the remainder of the home.” Be a part of us for a have a look at the outcomes—and scroll right down to see the preserved, newly wallpapered pantry.
Images by Lisa Vollmer, courtesy of Jess Cooney Interiors.
Jacque and Chris have two grown youngsters; they added mastiff, Teddy, to the household in the course of the design course of—which is when Jess steered going with a flooring of tumbled limestone from Ann Sacks. “I had wished wooden,” Jacque says, “however I’m so glad we listened to Jess. Limestone cleans up so simply, and with a 220-pound canine, wooden would have been immediately gouged and scratched.”