After decamping from their city apartment to spacious digs in the Hamptons during the pandemic, this young family fell in love with suburban living. “Experiencing life in the suburbs during Covid definitely expedited our decision to permanently move out of New York City,” notes homeowner Ali McDevitt. “As much as we loved our city chapter, we had our third child in 2021 and our fourth in 2023, so it was tough for us to go back to apartment living after experiencing more space.”
Darien, with its thriving downtown and proximity to New York City, turned out to be just the right fit. This house attracted the family, because, McDevitt says: “The functionality and flow is what solidified this home for us. It was built for a large family and one who loves to entertain! The developer did an amazing job thinking of the small things that mean a lot to an active young family.”
Vintage-inspired accent stools are tucked under a walnut entry table.
Great room sofas in blue velvet flank an oak coffee table from RH, and the curtains are crafted from Elko Plaid fabric through Schumacher.
Urban Electric Anders bar pendants—custom colored with Benjamin Moore’s Caldwell Green—hang over the custom fluted bar topped with blue quartzite. Lee Industries natural oak bar stools feature Zak + Fox fabric chair backs and red Ultrafabrics leather seats.
Dining chairs through Four Hands in a Zak + Fox fabric from Holland & Sherry surround a custom dining table. The wallpaper is Zak + Fox’s Orangerie. The black and white floral ink prints are through mrshowardpersonalshopper.com, and the chandelier is from Julie Neill Designs through Visual Comfort.
A Julie Neill Designs Talia chandelier through Visual Comfort illuminates the primary closet.
Benjamin Moore’s Woodlawn Blue sets the tone in a girls’ room, where custom canopy beds and benches deliver shades of pink, and the ceiling light is from Stray Dog Designs.
This nook—located on a landing space leading to the bunk room—has a custom built-in window seat painted in Benjamin Moore’s Whipple Blue with a seat upholstered in a Schumacher fabric.
Custom built-in beds with storage underneath are painted in Sherwin Williams’ Interesting Aqua. Peter Dunham Textiles’ Starburst wallpaper is through John Roselli & Associates.
Next step was finding a designer that clicked with McDevitt’s aesthetic. Like so many things discovered online these days, that’s where she found Andrew Howard. “I was a fan!” she notes. “I had followed Andrew on Instagram for some time. I loved how playful his designs were. The way he mixes patterns in a sophisticated way really resonated with me. Traditional but with flair!”
Based in Florida, Howard and his eponymous design company has completed projects across the U.S., including this Darien home that he designed with assistance from Lanie Kirchhoff. It has a vibe that’s, in his words: “Casual, carefree and livable—ideal for a great adult dinner party or a kids birthday party.”
For her new home, McDevitt wanted a fresh mix of modern and traditional elements throughout, but the design also had to serve her family for a long time. “I wanted to purchase pieces that would grow with us and our taste and I would never get bored of seeing day to day,” she explains. “Although I appreciate a quintessential traditional New England design, I wanted to stay true to who I was and what inspired me. And that’s definitely a bit out of the box!”
Howard was enthusiastic about executing the homeowners “moody, funky” design ask. “Ali is incredibly well dressed, and I challenged myself to make this house as chic as her outfits! It was a new spec home, so all the finishes—other than converting the home office to a bar—were already there. I wanted it to have pieces that added character, but were also comfortable. The massive scale of the rooms sometimes dictated using oversized pieces.”
According to Howard, the colorful palette was mainly client driven, but fashion was certainly an influence. “Textiles needed to feel like they could be made into curtains or something that would make a great scarf,” he notes. A prime example is in the dining room, which has walls lined with Orangerie wallpaper by Zak + Fox. “We packed up a large suitcase full of things to bring to our meeting,” says Howard. “When I was pulling stuff out, we all saw this and thought it was perfect the second it came out. A group effort!”
The color story continues with bar walls in Benjamin Moore’s Knoxville Gray—a rich blue-green with a dose of gray—and ceiling lined with a shimmering gold metallic wallcovering. “The bar was going to be an office, but we had that custom island made to feel a little more bar-ish,” the designer says.
Glass doors lead into the great room, where extra-long plaid curtains draw the eye upward, and oversized furnishings fit the scale of the room. “If you don’t have curtains to complement the massing of the room, you miss out on a great design opportunity, and also the furniture ends up feeling squatty,” notes Howard.
The bedrooms boast bold combinations of color and pattern. Red and blue Starburst wallpaper lines the walls of the bunk room, where custom beds are painted in a cool blue with green-gray undertones. “That room was drywall galore and an attic,” says Howard. “We made the bunks up there, and because of so much wall, I knew they needed to be high drama or they would feel boring forever. This scale was perfect—not too big, not too small.” A delicate touch of pink is used in a girls bedroom. “Pink does amazingly when it is not the primary color in the room,” he says. “Here it plays second fiddle to the wall color.”
Looking back on the completed project, McDevitt concludes: “Andrew and his team brought positive energy from beginning to end, which made a normally stressful process really enjoyable. I wake up every morning excited and proud to be in my home—a place where memories are made and my family can unwind, relax and be themselves.”
