Belmont Farmhouse Revisited

Belmont, MA

Significant imagination was required to update and recapture the essence of this poorly renovated and expanded 1855 Italianate farmhouse, which incorporates Greek Revival and Colonial elements. The result is a home that is sympathetic to the past but conducive to twenty-first-century living, with an open floor plan and opportunities for indoor-outdoor enjoyment.

The clients hoped to turn the surroundings into a lush, formal landscape, a goal achieved with a series of intimate outdoor rooms. One of the owners, a French artist, wanted the gardens to feel like the Parisian countryside. This aesthetic was blended with an Italian-accented but largely local farmhouse sensibility.

To open the house to the landscape, a skylight-lit covered porch was added to the rear and connected to the interior by five sets of French doors that let in sunlight.

The adjacent barn became an art studio with carriage-style doors welcoming the outside in and a hayloft reconceived as a gym.