Before + After

This Couple Gave a Dated Ranch in Hudson Valley a New Lease on Life

With family heirlooms and plenty of paint, the space got a renewed spirit
living room in Hudson Valley with two black leather chairs an ottoman and a small dog sleeping on a dog bed
The Arkana Safari Lounge chairs from the 1970s were designed by Maurice Burke and belonged to Jennifers’ grandparents, as did the camel saddle stool. The side table is from an antique store on Warren Street in Hudson that was originally wood, but Jennifer decided to paint it blue to tie in the blue in the rug.

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Jennifer Greim and Adam Deen had been traveling regularly from their home in New York City, where they lived for six years, to Hudson Valley, for photo shoots and weekend trips long before deciding to move there permanently, in 2016. But after a few years, they decided they were ready for another change. “Our first house [in Hudson Valley] was more ‘city-country,’ on a main street, and we wanted a house that was out in nature,” Jennifer recalls.

The next house they found was surrounded by open space and had a backyard that felt like a bird sanctuary, which they were primarily drawn to, but the warm and inviting nature of the open-floor layout inside the home sealed the deal. “It continues to amaze me how much you can change the look and feel of a space without tearing down walls,” Jennifer says. “Luckily for us, and for our budget, the layout suited us and the arches were an unexpected treat.”

BEFORE: The bones of the house were great—especially the archways—but the decor, furnishings, and paint needed some updating.

AFTER: “The vintage Kittinger Mahogany Williamsburg Chest was a wedding present to my grandmother from her sister,” Jennifer says. The formal nature of the chest is softened with live-edge wood boards layered on top. The dried echinacea from the couple’s garden sits in a handmade vase from ReStore. The Sophie Tufted Slipper Chair is from RH, the Herman Nelson pendant is from DWR, and the ceiling light is from Triple Seven Home.

ADAM T DEEN

Given that they didn’t have to tear down the walls, much of the transformation involved changing the fixtures, finishes, and furnishing. The first order of business was taking down the dated and dark window treatments and then Adam went to work on painting the entire house. “I wanted to create a blank slate to build on and remove the bold wall colors, chopping up the open flow between the kitchen, dining room, and living room,” Jennifer explains. So she set out to find “welcoming white paint colors,” which randomly led her to Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent’s Los Angeles home. “I thought they must know what they’re doing!” After conducting more research, Jennifer found the color they would use in their own home—Benjamin Moore’s alabaster white. “It was perfect.”

BEFORE: The color of the walls didn’t suit the new homeowners, so that was an easy and welcome change.

AFTER: “The shelves have bits and bobs from all over, including pottery made by my grandmother and art and photography books,” Jennifer says. “[There are] little cabinets of curiosities with collected shells and wishbones.” The couple decided to remove the wooden legs from the West Elm Henry sectional sofa to give it a more modern feel.

ADAM T DEEN
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The next big thing that had to be redone was the floors. The couple replaced the wall-to-wall carpeting in the bedroom and the vinyl tile in the kitchen with slim-plank, red marblewood to match sections of the hardwood floor that already existed elsewhere in the house. “I’m particularly proud of the kitchen transformation,” Jennifer says. “You read so much nowadays about how awful orangewood is, but really you just have to give it the right context.” After poking around for some historical references and observing how design firms like Commune and Green River Project were using warm wood in unexpected ways, Jennifer ultimately settled on a photograph of the kitchen in Eliot Noyes’s New Canaan house as the guiding force. “As such, we also put in soapstone countertops,” which made the warm wood feel more elevated and modern, Jennifer notes.

AFTER: The couple decided to go all-in on wood and had the floors done in red maple with thin slats, typical of a midcentury one-story home, instead of wide planks that would skew more historic farmhouse. Soapstone countertops and tractor stools from DWR add some edge. The island is painted with Bucktrout Brown from Benjamin Moore and the oven hood is painted with Annie Sloan chalk paint.

AFTER: The kitchen opens directly to the dining room so Jennifer wanted to embrace the warm wood and make it feel more intentional to tie the two spaces together. She achieved this by adding this vintage credenza—a Craigslist find—in the same tone. The pine farm table was another purchase from Craigslist that sits on a vintage oriental rug from Jennifer’s grandparents. They added the modern, metal chairs from Hammertown Barn in Pine Plains to counterbalance the antique feel of the room. The curtains are nubby cotton from West Elm.

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Even though the L-shaped, open-floor concept of the kitchen, dining room, and living room was certainly an advantage, it also posed a challenge, as each room had to remain cohesive with the next in order to ensure a sensible flow throughout the space. To achieve this, the warm wood of the kitchen cabinets was balanced with a vintage Dixie credenza in the dining room and vintage bookshelves in the living room—as they have the same warm wood finish. The couple then used lighting to give each room its own distinctive quality. “Each of these rooms has its own lighting so the glow from each lamp further defines the room,” Jennifer adds.

AFTER: For the space by the back door, Jennifer was inspired by English boot rooms. “We spend a lot of time outdoors and have a lot of boots, coats, and layers for every season—plus the dog’s coats and leashes,” she says. “It adds up to a lot [of stuff] and we’re more likely to throw it on a hook than hang it up, so Adam built this beautiful, custom shelf and coatrack.” The hooks were purchased online from Garrett Wade. The bench was purchased from Live Auctioneers and sits on a porcelain tile floor printed with a texture to look like stone.

ADAM T DEEN

Although the house was built in 2001, the couple was inspired by midcentury design given its horizontal structure and how it is immersed in the surrounding landscape. They relied heavily on vintage items and befittingly, most of their furniture and decor is from Jennifer’s grandparents. “Their furniture is a mixture of items they purchased for their home and items they inherited from several generations back,” Jennifer, who has always been an advocate for buying secondhand whenever possible, explains. “It’s good for the environment, economical, and most of the time superior in quality and style,” she adds. The couple wanted to create a welcoming home by relying on old treasures and their small, personal objects in order to avoid making their space feel too precious. “For me, filling a house with objects that have a history or a story personal to only you is ultimately what creates a home, after all.”

AFTER: In order to brighten up the bedroom, they used the same paint color as in the living spaces. “We love the lamps,” Jennifer says. “I found these on RH Teen, which sounds silly, but they are lovely honed stone!” The shades are woven paper fabric from Annie Selke. The vase was made by Jennifer’s grandmother where it sits on a vintage Stickley side table also from her grandparents. The painting is by Jennifer, inspired by Alexander Caulder’s Flying Saucers.