The Portland Symphony Orchestra's 12th Annual ShowHouse
REMARKABLE - NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2007
By Joshua Bodwell
Photography Darren Setlow
Great Room
Ann Henderson
Ann Henderson Interiors
Sunroom
Amy Hawkes
Manchester Designs
Study
David Klenk
David J. Klenk, Furniture Maker
Great Room 
Artists. For designer Ann Henderson, a single oil painting—Winslow Homer’s 1876 Breezing Up—was the origin of her design for the estate’s great room. The painting’s oceanic blues and greens, in particular, captured Henderson’s imagination. “I wanted the room to have the same sense of power, light, and breeze as that painting,” she says. But with one exception: she didn’t want to go with an overtly nautical theme. Rather, Henderson wanted to respect the classical integrity of the elegant 80-year-old home and yet still make the great room feel casual and welcoming.
With iridescent blue walls and white woodwork, the great room has an immediate seaside quality. Henderson—who has been working in interior design for 25 years and has spent the past 15 running Ann Henderson Interiors in Keene, New Hampshire—brought in painter Jane Considine from Newburyport, Massachusetts to execute the multi-layered faux-finish walls, as well as several tasteful morsels of trompe l’oeil painting.
To play down the great room’s elongated shape, Henderson did not go with a traditional couch-facing-fireplace arrangement, but instead grouped a pair of chairs with a modest-sized sofa. She created another intimate sitting area in the room’s large bay window, which she bordered with thickly layered window treatments. “I wanted these curtains to feel heavy, almost like columns,” says Henderson.
Surrounding these central elements are “rustic yet refined” details such as end tables made from salvaged antique heating grates, sconces from East End Brass & Design Company that are reminiscent of hurricane lamps, and a Chinese alter table with a lustrous patina.
No novice when it comes to showhouses, Henderson says she enjoys the occasional challenge of creating a space on a strict deadline that hundreds of people will see. “For an interior designer to take part in a showhouse,” she says, “is equivalent to a movie actor going to Broadway.”
Sunroom
In Maine, sunrooms have become our precious year-round connection to the outdoors. The bright solarium that Amy Hawkes of Manchester Designs created at the Oakley Estate allows the owners to take in the out of doors and still enjoy all the creature comforts of home.
Located at the home’s far end, the sunroom projects outward from the great room and features three full walls of tall windows. Hawkes chose a ceramic tile with the characteristics of slate for the flooring, and coated the walls in Benjamin Moore’s oceany Annapolis Green—a hue that sparkles like the sea on a sunny day. Throughout the room, Hawkes has interwoven relaxing shades of blues and greens. “They have such a soft, easy feeling and are very calming,” she says of the palette.
Hawkes used floral fabrics throughout the sunroom (but stayed clear of overtly feminine designs) and chose several patterns with darker accents to make the space “more sophisticated.” The simplicity of the room’s linen curtains was also intentional. “I kept them very soft and plain, so they wouldn’t compete with what’s outside,” says Hawkes. “I wanted to pull in the natural light.”
In the end, by combining traditional elements with a few dashes of the contemporary—consider the conservative wicker chairs and oriental rug alongside the Art Deco-themed mirror and decidedly modern lamp—Hawkes succeeded in creating a room that befits both the home’s age and its present-day use. “I wanted this to be a casual space that also has a certain level of elegance,” she says, “a space where someone can read alone and enjoy the scenery or entertain friends.”
Study
While David Klenk moved to Maine in 1985 intent on making his living as a furniture craftsman, the non-woodworking jobs he ended up taking for a time have served him well.
Klenk says the years he spent as city planner in both Portland and Yarmouth taught him several life lessons that inform his fine woodworking today. “I worked at seeing every angle ahead of time,” he says, “and learned the real importance of things like patience and determination.” Since 1995, Klenk has owned his own shop in Gray.
For Klenk, a craftsman who is as passionate about the philosophy behind a well-made object as the object itself, the rich history and vintage of the Oakley Estate were a perfect fit. Klenk worked with homeowner Stephen Goodrich to get the study’s design concept down to four words: “like a boat’s interior.” To that end, the room was crafted entirely from mahogany that was hand-varnished; “that gives it the glow,” says Klenk. The study also features a beautiful coffered ceiling (with recessed lights by House of Lights consultant David Richard) and an impressive built-in window seat upholstered with buffalo leather that stretches nearly the entire length of the west-facing wall. Additionally, Klenk custom-designed and built a coffee table and writing desk and chair for the room.
The craftsmanship in evidence in the study’s woodwork—which will grow richer, deeper, and a touch redder as it ages—feels exquisitely detailed yet never stuffy. In a showhouse crawling with designers, subcontractors, and workers of all sorts, it is Klenk’s study that nearly everyone wanders into periodically to quietly admire. “Twenty people must have helped me with this room,” Klenk says appreciatively. “It’s been wonderful to see everyone take a bit of ownership in it.”
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