Colonial Facelift

Photo Credit: Julia D'Agostino

This 1960s Westport Colonial was ready for a transformation! The mudroom, laundry room, and office were stuck in the basement, while the primary suite and kids’ rooms felt cramped with limited closet space. The family also dreamed of a first-floor game room to create a hangout space for their teens.

Enter Architect/Builder duo Mary & Chris O’Dell of The O’Dell Group, alongside Interior Designer Arianna Thill of Act Design. Together, they worked their magic to reimagine this home’s blueprint, delivering the ultimate facelift.

The Big Reveal

Expanding the Layout
By extending the façade and bumping it forward and to one side, the team created a new “envelope” around the house. This allowed for a main-floor mudroom, office, and game room, plus a spacious new primary suite. A second laundry room was also added upstairs, conveniently located near the bedrooms.

One standout detail? The whitewashed cedar siding on the addition. Arianna Thill shares:

“We chose a different siding for the addition to add texture and warmth. The whitewashed cedar gives a modern farmhouse vibe and reflects the interior – light, airy, and modern.”

In with the new, but not quite out with the old…

The updated design preserved the home’s New England character. Mary O’Dell explains:

“We worked with the existing Colonial window grid to avoid additional costs. We ensured the new materials would harmonize with the existing ones while bringing a fresh, modern-day aesthetic.”

Interior Highlights

Arched Doorways
Inside, the arched doorways leading from the living room into the game room connect the spaces with a sense of flow and elegance.

Enter through the arched doorways to the family’s dream game room! Interior Designer Arianna Thill says the game room is “sophisticated enough to live on the first floor, but fun enough to want to spend all of your time in." The homeowners also worked with Sarah Hannah Designs to select all of the soft furnishings in a neutral palette. Hygge vibes anyone?

Wood Details

The primary bedroom’s vaulted ceiling with wood beams is bright but not too cavernous. A cozy reading nook is bathed in light in the bump out created by the new addition. The family, avid skiers, wanted the primary bath to feel like it might exist in a Scandinavian style hotel spa in Europe. Thill struck this note perfectly with vertical wood paneling and light wood millwork.

Functional Spaces

The office is separated from the living room by a steel door adding industrial modern elegance and creating a sound proof work space.

The home originally had a basement mudroom. One of the key goals of the project was to relocate it to a more convenient spot on the first floor. Thill and O’Dell accomplished this mission with flying colors — Farrow & Ball’s Inchyra Blue to be precise. By bumping out the entry foyer the team created space for a new mudroom to the right side of the front door. Built-ins give the space a clean, sophisticated look, and a door closes it off from the entrance when it needs to disappear.

Did you love this transformation as much as we do? Learn more about what The O’Dell Group can do on their full profile in the Designportfolio.

Additional Sources:

EXTERIOR :

• Front door: Interstate + Lakeland

• Siding: 8” Knotty Pine, smooth side out

• Windows: Andersen Windows + Doors

• Door Paint color: Farrow & Ball’s “Down Pipe”
  

  INTERIOR:

• Fireplace Trim: Karma White Quartzite

• Fireplace sconces: Blueprint Lighting

• Flooring: 4” Select White Oak

• Interior Color: Benjamin Moore’s “Super White”

• Mudroom Color: Farrow & Ball’s “Inchyra Blue”