Old Salt, New Look

Salt air and roses, too? Nantucket is a dream vacation destination, a place where work generally takes a backseat. But when designer Nancy Serafini of Homeworks in Wellesley, Massachusetts, was approached by Mary Helen and Mike Fabacher to design their Nantucket home, she couldn’t say no to the job.

Transplants from Texas, the Fabachers had recently purchased homes on the island and in Connecticut. Captivated by a Serafini project they spied in a magazine, the Fabachers tracked the designer down through her husband’s law firm. And—talk about lucky circumstances—Serafini was on Nantucket. She met the Fabachers, toured their 1802 house, which once belonged to a ship’s captain, and signed on.

As it happens, a two-year-long renovation, entailing a total gut of the interior and the installation of all new systems, had just been completed. With the original layout maintained, the home’s antique character was safely intact and even enhanced. Now, the Fabachers were ready to pull the picture together and create a welcoming home for their family, including two college-age children, and friends.

Familiar with the Nantucket lifestyle (Serafini has had a retreat on the island for twenty years), the designer hit the ground running. “I told them right off, they’d have to remove the wall between the dining room and family room,” she says. “The house is connected to its neighbor along that side. The interior room felt awkward and uncomfortable; I knew it always would unless we opened it.”

That stellar move altered the nature of the downstairs, rendering it instantly more livable and user-friendly. It also launched a happy collaboration that has grown from a compatible designer and client relationship to a real friendship. “Mary Helen and I hit it off immediately. That’s what made this a dream project,” says Serafini. “We enjoyed working together.”

Mary Helen discovered the mammoth folk art cow sign that commands the dining room today; Serafini added the green pickets to frame the animal. No longer a disjointed space, the dining room is a jewel. There’s an antique step-back cupboard displaying Mary Helen’s collection of handsome brown-and-white transfer ware, a gleaming antique table and a clutch of freshly upholstered French-style dining chairs (in “horrible condition,” notes Serafini, when she originally discovered them in a Cambridge shop). A custom wool rug, which Serafini loves “because it resembles a pot-holder,” anchors the setting. The nineteenth-century brass chandelier has a star motif. Stars, in fact, crop up in almost every room in one form or another. “They’re a favorite with Mary Helen, a reference to her beloved Lone Star State,” says Serafini.

The same thoughtful and cheery tenor found in this room permeates every nook from the entry to the bedrooms. “The owners envisioned a casual elegance,” says the designer. “They also hoped to incorporate as much of their existing furniture as possible.”

Be that as it may, suitable and irresistible additions like the nineteenth-century tole lanterns and the Regency sideboard in the front entry turned up along the way and were quickly snapped up and set in place.

A warm palette incorporating such colors as biscuit, buttery yellow and red sets off the myriad antiques, evoking an ambience of well-being no matter where you are. In the somewhat more formal living room, Serafini fashioned a comfortable environment—and helped lower the ten-foot-high ceiling—with an inviting paprika-hued sofa and a set of matching tomato-colored armchairs. Aubusson tapestry-covered cushions interject a dash of subtle texture. A flock of bird engravings, giving a nod to the spectacular outdoors, take flight above the mantel.

No surprise, there’s a host of such appealing vignettes to coo about. The kitchen with its bounty of burnt-red cabinetry and its come-linger table flanked with English ladder-back chairs, is certainly another. All the home’s wide plank floors are original. Here, however, Serafini produced some additional visual interest underfoot. She recruited Nantucket artist Audrey Sterk, who is also responsible for glazing the cabinets, to fashion a graphic pattern using dark stain instead of paint for a more aged look.

Sterk also painted a suitable whaler’s cry for a house with a salty past—“Thar she blows”—above a kitchen window. The whimsical gesture ties in with the wooden carving mounted above the French door leading to the porch. Antique metal shooting targets parade along a sill in a clever contrast to gleaming, top-of-the-line stainless appliances.

When the owners retire, it’s to a serene and glowing oasis. Serafini, known for her talent at choosing and blending patterns, covered the walls in the master bedroom with summer flower-yellow Zoffany fabric. And—proof that there’s never too much of good thing—scalloped shades in the same fabric dress the windows. A Chinese needlepoint rug blooms below. “We found the rug first and took our cue for fabric from there,” Serafini says. Custom bed linens designed by Serafini invest the faux bamboo bed with a quiet elegance. For a luxurious after noon of reading, a soft tufted chair and ottoman stand ready by the hearth.

Of course, guests get the full treatment, too. The decor in their lofty quarters switches to an appealing sage green and cream theme in wall coverings and fabrics. “To make sleepers feel more enclosed, we designed a beadboard niche for the beds,” Serafini explains. “There’s so much beadboard in Nantucket. We wanted just a touch, not an overload.”

Nooks flanking the beds hold everything guests might need from reading material to tissues. A green-and-white Stark wool loop carpet cleverly bound in khaki and ecru grounds the scene and affords a feel-good surface for bare feet.

In the end, the lovely house seems to have come into its own. An easy spirit pervades, which fits the locale and the owners. So much so, Serafini was also recruited to rehab their Connecticut house. Good thing, too. Friends should spend as much time together as possible doing things they love.

INTERIOR DESIGN: Nancy Serafini, Homeworks