What do you do when the city zoning commission gets in the way of building the office of your dreams? If you’re AD100 designer Sarah Sherman Samuel, you follow through with your signature flair anyways. She and her husband Rupert bought this 1920s Tudor-style home in East Grand Rapids, Michigan, with the intention of converting it into the SSS design offices, but they found out shortly after starting renovations that their plans butted up against zoning restrictions. “We wanted to keep this place forever because of all the character,” Sarah says, but the pair ultimately decided to finish the remodel and sell the home instead (which just hit the market at $895,000).
The project was the couple’s first soup-to-nuts renovation under SSS Builds—the new restoration and renovation arm of Sarah’s interior design business—and came as Rupert, an advertising veteran for over 27 years, felt a calling to leave his desk job behind and get his hands dirty on construction projects instead. With a builder’s license now under his belt, Rupert manages SSS Builds and acts as general contractor on projects. But the pair also got an assist from a third family member, Sarah’s dad, for the finishing touches on this build. “Pop pop,” as the interior designer affectionately calls her father Lee, is an avid woodworker who executed some of the finer details—from the cabinet containing the refrigerator to the walnut island top in the kitchen.
With the goal of infusing character into the home while restoring its handsome original features (like the windows and plaster moldings), the renovation required peeling back layers of flooring and tiling in the kitchen and bathroom (accrued over several successive renovations), knocking down a wall between the dining room and kitchen to enhance flow, adding splashes of color and warm patterns on the walls, plus contending with a rogue raccoon trespassing via the chimney. Below, Sarah Sherman Samuel shares a highlight reel of seven of her most clever design moves worth taking notes on for your own home.
Anti-wallflower wallpaper
Not one to shy away from a romantic print or color scheme, Sarah mixed and matched two playful wallpaper prints on the walls and ceiling to envelop this bedroom in cheerful patterns, then doubled down with matching window treatments and yellow trim. “I wanted to go for layers on layers and pattern on pattern, which I think is fun and also indicative of a Tudor, but doing it in more modern versions of something you’d see back in the day,” she says. Even the vent cover is painted yellow so the eye can rest instead on the soothing neutrals of the armchair and rug after roving the room.
Texture-maxxing
The living room is a prime example of what it looks like when texture reigns supreme. It’s a who’s who of pieces designed by Sarah—past, present, and forthcoming (such as the daybed and fireplace screen)—that are flush with undulating curves and soft textures like velvet and bouclé to draw you into the room. “We wanted to mix lots of texture and subtle patterns to make it feel just as rich and layered as the house itself,” she emphasizes.
Buttery yellow cabinets with mismatched doors
This is the year of the butter yellow kitchen, after all, so why not go all in? Sarah says the creamy color seen here was just the right hue to play off the cabinets, the subtle undertones in the marble, and the floor tiles that were all brought in after the kitchen was fully gutted. Rather than a cookie-cutter grid of matching millwork, the kitchen also layers in varied hardware and cabinetry, including a custom design made by Sarah’s dad to conceal the refrigerator. It’s accented with wood pulls and finished with a curved frame that mimics the arched doorways in the home. “We installed my soon-to-be-released DIY version of modern beaded cabinets by Semihandmade and mixed three different cabinet door styles to create the sense of more storied character in the brand-new kitchen,” Sarah notes.
Woods on woods
Paying homage to a home’s history is never a bad idea, so long as you’re drawing in some modern elements to take it out of the dangerous dated territory. A medley of woods, from the dining table to the chairs, play off the original base trim, while the earthy rug underfoot makes the green hues on the walls and ceilings pop. “Mixing woods adds that extra layer, making a home feel more storied and less like everything was bought in the same decade, let alone the same year,” Sarah explains.
Eclectic arrangements
If you prefer to keep your bedroom quiet on the color and design front, play up tension elsewhere through your decor choices. Here, warm woods and textures set the scene for serene coziness, while modern art and tactile sculptures keep the room from feeling too snooze-worthy. “I’ll always tread that line of contemporary and classic, where there’s a little tension between the two,” Sarah says.
An island for all purposes
Making the best use of spaces where you have to prep food is extremely necessary for avoiding premeal chaos. This kitchen used to be a peninsula with lots of dead space before the room was oriented into a U-shaped layout that made room for this square five-by-five-foot island with a curved, extended walnut top. The island features plenty of hidden storage: a complex configuration of ready-made Semihandmade cabinets assembled to accommodate a hidden dishwasher, all of which nearly broke the couple, they joke. Your own endeavors might involve going custom to spare you the headache, but if you’re dreaming of an open kitchen design like this, consider orienting your kitchen island in a similar angle that allows people to congregate on all sides and comes with storage baked in to conceal appliances and dishware.
Mismatched materials
The powder room is an ideal contained space to let your freak flag fly, specifically when it comes to mixing materials and finishes. Sarah opted for layered patterns with a mosaic tile, a grass cloth wallpaper from her own collection, along with a striped sink skirt and green marble that dialogue with each other while you wash your hands. “I like the idea of having some kind of color blocking, not just a matching or a white marble,” she explains of the decision to go with an unusual green hue. The lacquered brass on the faucet is a material that she also says ages well over time.
Originally published in Architectural Digest
Text by Lori Keong
