Interior Designer Charles Spada

Sited at the mouth of the Connecticut River in Essex, Connecticut, and with a wide view of Long Island Sound, this house was purchased and restored in the 1980s. Back then, interior designer Charles Spada took the historic Greek Revival house down to its roots and then built upon them stately columns, moldings and trim. Window casings were outfitted with broad-shouldered frames, leaving the views exposed. So, 20 years later the house only needed a refresher, like changing fabrics and wall colours and adding a back porch. Once again Charles Spada was called and brought the house into the twenty-first century.



A checkerboard-painted floor and sisal runner mix with a rococo demilune.

Elegant simplicity reigns in the living room under a George Bruestle painting and a host of green-hued fabrics.

On the opposite end of the room, framed intaglios float on wires hanging from picture molding rods behind a grand piano. Two flame-stitch-covered chairs from the Netherlands flank an eighteenth-century Italian commode with a mirror of the same era above it.

Charles Spada designed the intricate fireplace and window moldings during his first encounter with this house.

The library in its original colour from twenty years ago.

The breakfast room sits just off the kitchen and, like the living room, forgoes window treatments.

The stone floor on the porch was added during the recent updates to the rest of the house.

The dining table extends in front of the faux-finished console to seat more than a dozen people.

During the home’s original renovation, Spada gutted the warren of upstairs rooms to create an under-the-eaves master bath.

In the guest room, twin beds wear new layers of quilts and linen-covered headboards, sheer curtains hang at the windows, and a grasscloth rug for the floor. Mmilking stools were placed at the end of each bed. A range of pinks brings a rosy glow to a guest room

Custom bedding is key to the master suite’s comfort.

Photos: Bruce Buck
All images from here.

Connecticut Waterfront House

These photographs (very few, I know!) were featured in Architectural digest in 2003. The house was up for sale around April, 2009, for 30m US$. Located on Long Island Sound in Westport, Connecticut and owned by radio talk show host Don Imus and his wife, Deirdre. A stunning house with Gustavian style furniture.

New York-based architects John and Nancy Beringer employed a mix of styles for the exterior.

The entrance hall with a demilune table and bust, both 19th century.

For the parlor, the Louis XVI chair retains its original fabric. Reflected in the Swedish pine and ivory trumeau is a portrait of a gentleman from the Gustavian era.


Gustavian pieces in the parlor include an 18th-century daybed and tea table, which holds a 1790 urn.

Architecture by Beringer Architects
Photography by Mary E. Nichols

All images from Architectural Digest.