As any renovator will tell you, there’s nothing quite like discovering unexpected architectural treasures during demolition—beautiful tiled floors under old carpets, perfect windows behind drywalls, charming wooden beams concealed by low ceilings. For Maryline Damour, cofounder and principal interior designer of Damour Drake (a design and construction company in Kingston, NY), that hidden gem turned out to be dentil crown molding on the front door, a discovery that would lead to the transformation of a homely mid-1800s house into a stately Victorian with major curb appeal.
“I wanted the exterior to match the grandness of the interior, with its substantial moldings, ceiling height, and tin ceilings,” says Maryline. “The original house colors and clutter of shutters made the house look less impressive.”
Here’s how she and her firm (the building houses Damour Drake’s office as well as rental apartments), gave the building a Victorian Gothic makeover—complete with an elegant D.I.Y. Victorian door.
Photography by Matt Petricone unless otherwise noted.
Before
Above: “The house had been used as a rental property for many years. It was structurally sound but needed a new roof,” says Maryline of the building pre-makeover. “Overall, I wanted the house to be more imposing, less cutesy, and with a more modern feel.” Photograph by Maryline Damour.
After
Above: The new exterior, with new roof, new paint, new door, new porch, and new windows. “I always remove shutters as a first step so I can really see the house. Often, they don’t go back on. It’s really about scale and proportion for me. I felt this house was too small to accommodate all those shutters,” says Maryline. Above: In lieu of the oddly institutional-looking front door, Maryline and her design partner, Mel Jones, designed an elegant Victorian version. “After looking at equally expensive reproduction and original Victorian doors, we purchased a couple of hundred dollars worth of stock molding at Home Depot and Lowe’s and applied them to two flat front doors.” They then painted the doors Coral Bronze, by Benjamin Moore, to brighten the overall look. Photograph by Maryline Damour. Above: The dentil crown molding on the original doors had been thoughtlessly concealed behind the former doors. It was replicated and rebuilt by Fred Drake (of Damour Drake) so that it’s visible once more. Photograph by Amanda Sanchioni. Above: Maryline chose Sherwin Williams Black Forest Green for the house color because it “visually strips away details that would make the house look smaller.” The front porch, painted Sherwin Williams Night Owl, was decorated by Scott Zimmer of Zimmer Gardens, who also did the landscape design. The swings are from Jay Teske Leather Co. in Kingston. Above: Shortly after making over the exterior, Maryline decided to use the building to launch the Kingston Design Showhouse, an annual showcase for Hudson Valley designers and makers. (She is also the founder of the Kingston Design Connection, a network for local designers.) Photograph by Doug Menuez.
When you register as a free Member of the Remodelista family of websites (Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home), you gain access to all current posts plus 10 archived posts per month, our internal bookmarking tool, and the community bulletin board.
Access 10 archived posts (older than one year) per month on each site
Use of our internal bookmark tool, so you can save products, posts, and other pages for quick reference
Access to our community bulletin board so you can ask and answer design-related questions
Unlimited access to the Product Catalogs, Design Travel sources, and Architect & Designer Directory listings
Choose from our ten newsletters to keep up with the latest on the sites
Or Subscribe for Maximum Value!
For $5/month ($59.99 paid annually) you'll enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home and all the benefits of Membership.
Annual subscribers pay 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99
×
Subscribe to the Remodelista family of websites
For $5/month ($59.99 paid annually) you'll enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home and all the benefits of Membership.
Annual subscribers pay 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99
×
Sorry! As a registered member you get 10 free posts from our archive (posts more than a year old) every 30 days. You have reached your limit for this 30-day period. If you would like to access unlimited posts from the archive (ad free, too), become a subscriber today, and keep reading as many articles as you want.
Full Access Individual Subscription
Benefits include:
Unlimited access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home sites
Ad-free browsing environment
Unrestricted access to 30,000+ archived posts
Receive the full-text daily newsletters
All features that Members have access to
Annual subscribers pay just 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99
Sorry! You have reached your limit of three (3) free posts from our archive every 30 days. You can increase this to 10 posts by joining as a free Member, or read unlimited posts with no ads by becoming a paid Subscriber.
Subscribe to the Remodelista family of websites
For $5/month ($59.99 paid annually) you'll enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home and all the benefits of Membership.
Annual subscribers pay 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99
Become a Member at no charge
When you register as a free Member of the Remodelista family of websites (Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home), you gain access to all current posts plus 10 archived posts per month, our internal bookmarking tool, and the community bulletin board.
Access 10 archived posts (older than one year) per month on each site
Use of our internal bookmark tool, so you can save products, posts, and other pages for quick reference
Access to our community bulletin board so you can ask and answer design-related questions
Unlimited access to the Product Catalogs, Design Travel sources, and Architect & Designer Directory listings
Choose from our ten newsletters to keep up with the latest on the sites
Manage Newsletters
Congratulations on becoming a Subscriber to Remodelista, Gardenista and The Organized Home! You now have access to many great features across the sites:
Unlimited access to all three sites
Ad-free browsing environment
Unrestricted access to 30,000+ archived posts
Receive any of the newsletters, including the the full-text daily Remodelista and Gardenista newsletters
Use of our internal bookmark tool, so you can save products, posts, and other pages for quick reference
Access to our community bulletin board so you can ask and answer design-related questions
Congratulations on joining as a free Member of Remodelista, Gardenista and The Organized Home! You now have access to many great features across the sites:
Access to all posts published in the past year
Access 10 archived posts (older than one year) per month on each site
Use of our internal bookmark tool, so you can save products, posts, and other pages for quick reference
Access to our community bulletin board so you can ask and answer design-related questions
Unlimited access to the Product Catalogs, Design Travel sources, and Architect & Designer Directory listings
Choose from our ten newsletters to keep up with the latest on the sites
If at any time you want to become a Subscriber and enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to all our content, just go to the My Account link and choose Subscribe.
Have a Question or Comment About This Post?
Join the conversation