When interior designer Sarah Blank of Connecticut-based Sarah Blank Design Studio first drives up to a home, she takes in the architecture, the proportions, and the quality to get a sense of its spirit and character. After all, she’s there to help enhance a residence’s beauty, not upend its unique presence and personality.
From the moment Sarah saw Sunniecroft, a timeless Colonial built by Charles Cameron Clark in 1941, she was captivated. “The home has it all,” she reflects. “The architect’s respect for proportion and scale is clear throughout, making it a harmonious beauty.”
However, stepping inside, a renovation conducted in the 1990s had gone against the structure’s graceful, traditional aesthetic. The kitchen, dressed in knotty pine, was especially dark and clunky. Storage organization was impossible with no interior shelving and many appliances were not strategically placed, limiting counter space. The bottom line: It did not work for her clients, an active family of five. So, the designer, along with Joe Milicia of Hobart Construction, immediately got to work.
Sarah has a strong appreciation for historic homes that has grown throughout her 44-year career. Discovering her love of classicism while pursuing education at the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art and even further while immersed in travel, the designer has gone to great lengths to master the art of interior architecture and spatial planning. Sarah sees her projects through from the initial visit to the final touches of decor, but is not just picking out paint colors and fabrics. She understands that structural changes such as moving a door or adding a window can enhance a room’s function, flow, and aesthetic—ultimately enhancing her clients’ lifestyle and love of their homes.
While working with Sarah on one space, many clients soon ask if she can look at a second space, then a third, then their faraway vacation home. This Fairfield, Connecticut remodel followed a similar trajectory.
What started as a complete kitchen overhaul slowly turned into more. The kitchen, mudroom, breakfast room, butler’s pantry, office, children’s bedroom, bathroom, and dressing area all benefited from Sarah’s creative eye and keen ability to embrace a home’s existing attributes while envisioning its next chapter.
Taking inspiration from the architectural elements, such as crown moldings and a gorgeous bay window in the front, Sarah started with reconfiguring the back of the house. “There were so many beautiful details that we could work from. Now, all we needed to do was to make the kitchen function for this family of five.”
The mudroom closets were very deep, piled with the family’s belongs with no real organizational sectioning. Sarah saw that and realized they could expand the kitchen by taking some space from the mudroom as well as from a back hall closet. In the process, she also created shallow mudroom cubbies to more intentionally accommodate coats, backpacks, shoes, and more.
“We gained an entire wall of storage by utilizing space from these closets behind the kitchen. We also designed and added the bay window, which I knew would make the kitchen feel so much larger,” the designer recalls.
Every aspect was carefully considered to brighten up this heart of the home and give it five-star functionality. “When you have an existing kitchen, the space planning required during design development is so important: The size of a refrigerator, size of ovens, the way the base cabinets are configured for optimum storage,” Sarah asserts. “There are many beautiful kitchens out there, but there are quite a few that don’t function well.”
Listening to her clients intently, Sarah plotted out where the appliances should go and where storage could be maximized. The kitchen originally had a tall, four-foot-wide refrigerator, but Sarah realized that breaking up the refrigerator and freezer would provide an additional foot of counter space for food prep. Now, 30-inch-wide freezer drawers sit below the microwave, with the pantry tucked behind this wall. The amount of storage space the family gained is a game changer, all thanks to Sarah’s astute skills in interior architecture.
Looking to elevate the kitchen’s beauty and sense of history as well, Sarah added cutting boards to the top rail of the cabinets. The designer knew this was a typical detail seen in millwork in the early part of the 20th-century.
Blue, which was already a theme throughout the home’s living spaces, was a natural color story to continue in the kitchen. The hue then spilled over into the charming breakfast room, which Sarah tackled next.
The adjacent breakfast room simply wasn’t in tune with the new kitchen, so Sarah suggested some easy updates that would make a big impact. Recognizing that the built-ins flanking the fireplace and the millwork was all high quality, it became about accessorizing the space for optimal use.
Sarah painted the existing cabinets and fireplace surround, reupholstered her client’s chairs, and kept their antique table—respecting the room’s aesthetic while giving it a fresh feel. When it came to additions, she brought in a performance fabric rug and blue Phillip Jeffries Grass Cloth wallpaper to soften the space, but her most substantial upgrade involved boosting functionality yet again. Sarah designed a custom built-in to hold under-counter fridge drawers, a wine unit, and additional dish storage.
Sarah’s penchant for classicism and gift for bringing out the best in a space peaks in the surprising butler’s pantry. Inspired by its stunning black and white marble flooring, she kept the original cabinets but gave them a bold facelift with high-gloss black paint. This formalized and preserved the room, while also giving it some moody edge.
But this butler’s pantry isn’t just a showpiece; it’s practical. Sarah updated all the interior fittings, reworked the shelving, added the countertops, centered the sink on the window, and put in a dishwasher so her clients can use it to entertain glamorously as much as they’d like.
Sarah Blank and her eponymous studio work all over the country—from New York and Connecticut to the Palm Beaches and California. With 44 years of experience, the designer values trust and respect with her clients above all else. She listens to their priorities, their budget, and their heart’s desires, then guides them through the process from beginning to end.
Sarah’s primary goal is to help her clients, and will even recommend taking a breather from a project if she thinks it will benefit them. “Sometimes we suggest to clients: Take your time. Live in the home. Understand what you need. Hasty decisions only create stress and mistakes.”
To get in touch with the talented designer and see how you can work together in the future, visit sarahblankdesignstudio.com. You can also buy her latest book, Classic Kitchens for Modern Living, at your local book store or on Amazon. It focuses on her years of experience designing the heart of the home and provides plenty of pro tips, making it the perfect guide.
