Lily&Rose Design Studio

Who says colo­nial has to be tra­di­tional? Not the designer who used a touch of gray to take this West­port fam­ily home from cozy clas­sic to sleek sophisticate.

Few tal­ents could have man­aged the trans­for­ma­tion of such a space from its sub­ur­ban ground­ings into some­thing so urbane, but in the hands of Mar Sil­ver, this home in West­port rein­ter­prets every idea of fam­ily liv­ing today. What started out as a small inte­rior ren­o­va­tion for a fam­ily with two young chil­dren turned into a two-year, full transformation.

“I see every­thing ­archi­tec­turally first,” says Sil­ver, a Westport-based designer. “I start by think­ing about how the walls play into each other and how art is going to fit on the walls.”

For many design­ers, con­tem­po­riz­ing a space would mean paint­ing it white and elim­i­nat­ing most orna­men­ta­tion and acces­sories, but for Sil­ver it was about adding just the right color. Shades of gray in a com­bi­na­tion of tones coat each room, while wood­work is either painted or stained Silver’s sig­na­ture gray hue. The col­ors unify the house beau­ti­fully, envelop­ing the spaces in moth-wing soft­ness. “For me, gray is more sooth­ing than stark white,” the designer says. “Grays look beau­ti­ful with woods.”

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