Our 101-year-old Modern House

An oh-so-charming exterior gives nothing away about what you’ll find inside.

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Paul and Jane Beiles had plenty of space for their family of five in their 1960s Colonial in New Canaan, CT, but the house lacked the soul of pre-1950s architecture that Jane has always been drawn to. So when the couple decided to move closer to town a few years ago, a listing for a 2,700-square-foot home built in 1916 piqued their interest. They immediately fell for the storybook-quaint exterior and colorful front yard landscaped by the previous owner, a garden designer. But they were admittedly less enamored of the inside, with its choppy, closed-off rooms, typical of century-old construction. Recognizing the home’s potential, “truly a they-don’t-make-them-like-they-used to situation,” says Jane, they snapped it up and asked architect Louise Brooks and designer Melissa Lindsay to help them transform the interior into a bright, open, 21st-century space. That meant knocking down walls to bring in more light, painting walls and floors white, and decorating in a pared-down, uncluttered style that Jane loves. “People expect our home to look old-fashioned when they walk through the front door,” says Jane. “And judging from the outside, I get that. But that’s not us.” Sure, decorating a historic home with modern style was a risk, “but it’s one that was definitely worth taking,” says Jane.

kitchen and mudroom