On Saturday my New Hampshire client and I spent the day wandering around my favorite local city of Newburyport, MA taking in the 2012 Holiday House Tour in Newburyport which benefits the Custom House Maritime Museum. When I lived there I did the house tour one year and it was really great. This year it was chilly and rainy – typical New England late fall – but not so much as to dampen our spirits. Here are a few highlights of the tour:
The image above is the exterior of the Compass Rose Inn.
Love the “cheek by jowl” buildings in this town!
They did the decorations in a Nutcracker theme.
The dining room featured a beautiful metallic ceiling which looked gorgeous in the light of the chandelier. Obviously, this pic didn’t really capture it, but it was an unexpected bit of glamor.
This is the only real shot I got of the kitchen. I forget whether it was too crowded or the pic didn’t come out well…
Looking from the kitchen into the family/sitting room. Love the furniture detailing on the cabinet base.
They had a nice mix of rustic and bling in their holiday decorating.
This “island” separated the kitchen and table from the sitting area nicely, while maintaining the open feel. The dark walls were painted Ben Moore’s Newburyport Blue, appropriately.
Cozy on a cold New England day overlooking the water.
Well, it’s been a crazy busy week, couple of weeks really, and I got side tracked from finishing up my Newburport Holiday House Tour. So, here are the final two properties I wanted to share. This property was a newly renovated Federalist style rowhouse building in Brown Square. Love the curved exterior
These are three-story condo units and very traditional and formal. The holiday decorations here were accordingly formal and very pretty. Loved the centerpiece on the table below.
The house was so crowded it was hard to get decent photos. This was a little corner of the kitchen with the charming little antique drop-leaf table.
Houses in downtown Newburyport are very cheek by jowl as you can see through the kitchen window.
And here is the house next door. Don’t you love the colorful brick?
The next house (yes, another gray house!) had my very favorite space of all the houses on the tour.
The main part of the house was nice enough, but the real star is the new addition kitchen. From the original house, you walk into this fresh and open space.
Love the Holly Hunt pendant lights!
These pics don’t really do the space justice – the view out the window to the rustic old barn looked like a stage set backdrop it was so perfect.
The Christmas decoration were generally all natural plant based and very sparse, but the room itself was so fantastic it didn’t really matter.
Note the art piece on the wall – which features beach glass, shells and stones. Gorgeous – it almost looks like a specimen display.
Anyone know the make of this chandelier? I’ve been trying to find out. The metal almost looks like something that’s been submerged in the sea for a long time and is all rust and barnacles.
A fantastic plate rack.
And here is the butler’s pantry. I see in the photo that there were business cards which probably were for the builder or designer – wishing I’d picked it up!
And finally the backyard and barn. Lovely. Of course, it’s December in New England so everything was dead and trimmed back, but this must be beautiful in the summer.
This is the most open space I’ve ever seen in a private yard in Newburyport.
The entire front yard (which is maybe 10-12’deep from the street) was given over to a garden. I will have to remember to stop back next summer to see what the front yard looks like in full-bloom.
I’d like to send a shoutout to my friend Kristin Hunter of Kristin Hunter Interiors who was co-chair of the house tour event. These things are huge undertakings – great job! And thanks for the tickets! 🙂
