Tour A 1920s New Jersey Home Full Of Zesty Design Surprises

For a young family relocating from Manhattan’s Park Avenue to Summit, New Jersey, the move was more about leaving the chaos of the city than its vibrancy, which they love. So, in renovating their 1920s Tudor home, they sought to recreate a similar edge and urban zest. The new residence also needed to accommodate their ever-growing collection of contemporary art—but not in the familiar, white-walled way. “They didn’t want to live in a gallery,” designer Teresa Manns shares. “This was about creating confident, courageous spaces that would enhance their daily lives.”

In collaboration with architect Kimberly Tone and general contractor Brent Ingersoll, Manns embarked on a renovation to make the home read “a little less ‘suburban Tudor,’” and more in alignment with the family’s tastes. Inside, they replaced the central stair’s “too frilly” wrought-iron railing with a heftier, Chippendale-inspired design and jettisoned a pair of matching iron gates that separated the formal front rooms from the family spaces at the back of the home. “The house was begging for a bit more muscle,” Manns continues, noting that she also added robustness to the home by painting its once-white doors “a rich Turkish coffee color that reads like wood to the eye.” And, to create a place where the family could gather easily, the team enlarged the original kitchen and added a sunny breakfast room. “There’s a reading nook there, too—that was a big request from day one,” the designer notes.

As for decorating, Manns devised a design scheme that “honored the history of the home, while punctuating the eclectic art collection with patterns and colors that extract the movement and sensation of the pieces,” she explains. (The couple have been working with art advisor Andrea Hazen to develop a collection that includes works by Donald Judd and Helen Frankenthaler, among others.) “We didn’t place any art in advance throughout this project, we just pulled inspiration from it. First, we found fabrics, then paint, and then everything just landed perfectly. We didn’t always know it would work until we held up an artwork.” That gutsy approach was partly inspired by Manns’ love for travel and visiting historic homes. “You can learn a lot by seeing what people in Europe are doing, like an old castle with a young family living in it,” she says. “The interiors aren’t dark and drab, they’ve got lots of color and the whole place has come to life in an exciting way.”

“A room’s components need to accentuate each other,” Manns continues. There were easy decisions, like the antique, Tudor-style bench in the entryway that speaks directly to the architecture, but there were some surprises along the way. The living room was given a cozy corner banquette and table, an element more common in less formal spaces, to create an additional place for conversation or small meetings. (The owners organize many fundraising events.) Manns also transformed the former telephone room into a bar area outfitted with an unexpected Japanese-inspired floral wallpaper and vintage seashell mirror.

Many colors are repeated throughout the home—especially blue and orange—but the designer used them in different saturations and tones to add interest. She also leaned into exuberant finishes and textures. She happily met the wife’s request for “a shiny blue library” with glossily painted wood paneling (“I immediately said yes to that,” she recalls) and found a nubby, raffia wallcovering for the breakfast room. In the pantry, which links the kitchen to the dining room, Manns needed to replace the original cabinetry, but she did so with a similar design, adding inset mirrored panels for a modern note. “I like mixing new with old, without that tension a room doesn’t sing. Plus, layers invite you to study the details, and then everything starts to tell a story.”

“This is a busy, outdoorsy crew, and that really played into their philosophy for this house,” says Manns, who is currently working on a second home for the family out West. “It was important to them that they could all live comfortably in every room. Even the family dog is allowed—encouraged—to get up on everything.” But it’s the vivacious, infectious energy of this home’s design that truly causes Manns to effervesce. “The only time these clients told me no was when I was being too safe,” she recalls. “This house was a blast to do!”