For many people from out of state, summer in Maine evokes a preppy fever dream: lobsters, anchors, navy and white. But when a Californian family partnered with Reath Design for their summer home in Northport, they dreamed up a more enduring New England vision.
With excellent bones, the home required minimal renovation, and the family embraced a slower approach to design: reusing and repurposing items from the prior homeowners, in-laws, and nearby antique shops. The resulting vision is rich and textured, collaging patterns and time periods for a cozy, transitional summer home.
“It doesn’t feel like California. It has that sprawling summer house, back-bedroom feeling,” says Reath founder Frances Merrill.
Frances had worked with the family on their home in Los Angeles and relished every step of the process. “There are a lot of people who love design and care about the particularities,” Frances says. “They love design, but don’t get caught up in the particulars—they just want to like it and see it all come together in an interesting way with the reality of kids, dogs, summer, sailing, wet bathing suits, rain, and fog.”
The family purchased the home during the pandemic and began their work sight unseen, yet they saw the time period’s slower pace as an opportunity. Without immediate plans to entertain, they could take their time to figure out how they’d inhabit the space. They tested couches they’d purchased in the property sale and learned how older pieces fared, determining what truly supported their summer traditions.
In one living room, a plush floral sofa from the homeowner’s mother fit right in with wicker furniture, a Moroccan rug off Etsy, and a contemporary orange lamp. Two twin beds maintained headboards from the prior homeowners, which Reath reupholstered in red for playful juxtaposition with the Little Greene Clutterbuck Lodge wallpaper.
“We wanted it to feel like it didn’t all come together at once and used as much stuff as we could find,” Frances says. “This family is really fun with how far we can take things with color and pattern and making sure it doesn’t feel like a cacophony. It might feel exciting to be in the space, but not overwhelming.”
Though Reath is based in L.A., Frances was eager to make the trip east to work on the house. Growing up, her family had a home on Mount Desert Island and she spent a month every summer with her grandparents. Working on the Northport property reacquainted her with easy drives along Route 1 punctuated by spontaneous stops to see what treasures notched along the way.
This ethos of curiosity and play presided over the renovation as well. The exterior was largely left as it had been, and the family only renovated two bathrooms that had been more recently updated. The home’s older spaces offered the timeless air of patina that stitched through the home, only requiring some paint, wallpaper, and new furnishings.
“You don’t need to buy a house and tear everything apart,” says Frances. Embracing the imperfections and bric-a-brac makes the home so spectacular. Through its depth of style, it is not a home that will need a remodel again in five or ten years once the trends turn over.
Frances’s favorite example of this thoughtful, kintsugi mindset arose by a complete accident. The homeowners’ dogs ripped up a sofa’s upholstery one summer, and the homeowners simply taped over the patch.
“I love that so much,” she says. “That’s how the house will evolve, and it’ll keep the framework of working with what you have.” 
