Off The Beaten Path
PACKAGE UP THE FRESH CHARM OF A BUCOLIC LIFE, ADD A DASH OF RUGGED LODGE STYLE,
AND THE RESULT IS A CHARMING SKANEATELES HOME FULL OF HEART AND PERSONALITY.
Think sweet country flowers and cozy cottage touches that balance assertive timber beams, slate floors, and black counters. It’s farm fresh, full of sophisticated panache, and utterly unique.
“I don’t want anything trendy or contrived,” says homeowner, Mattie Tracy. “I love finding things along the way.”
Design Resources
Home & History
The approximately 1600-square-foot home was built in 2019, but radiates a history and warmth typically reserved for older homes.
Mattie’s ancestors have been in the region since the 1800s and both she and her husband, Jared, often joke that they are “all things homes.”
The Tracys run JMR Excavation, which contracted the home build. Mattie also oversees Snow & Rose Gifts and Furnishings located in downtown Skaneateles. The shop is filled with many of the types of unique furnishings and home décor found in her house. But don’t go there expecting duplicates. For her home and store, Mattie finds treasures at garage sales, antique stores, and other salvage spots, and gives every item a meticulous, artistic upgrade.
“I don’t really buy anything at a main-stream place,” Mattie says. “I want it to feel personal. I want substance over style.”
Old & New
While Mattie gravitates to sources off the beaten path, she also enjoys browsing new ideas and inspirations. It was during this type of outing that she met Caroline Sussman, lead designer at R&G Furniture, an authorized Ethan Allen retailer.
Mattie recalls that she just wasn’t quite happy with the furniture she had in the new home. Caroline offered to make a house call to present her ideas in Mattie’s home and immediately fell in love with it.
“The house is warm, inviting, and super, super cozy,” Caroline says. It appeared incredibly natural and simultaneously, wisely curated.”
Caroline explains that she focuses on bringing out the homeowner’s personality and she describes the Tracys as vibrant people, down-to-earth, and deeply grounded. Her recommendations and selections proved to be a perfect fit for their sophisticated, rural cabin charm.
Artisan Quality
A hybrid of conventional and timber framing, the home’s beams were provided by Finger Lakes Timber Framing. A local Amish woodworker designed and constructed all the built-ins, including the kitchen island and dining room cabinets that appear as corner hutches.
The stylish kitchen is outfitted with robust, decorative beams against a tongue and groove ceiling that accents the island below. Red stools, a garage sale find, deliver a vibrant punch of color against the crisp, black countertops. The kitchen cabinets were a salvaged find, restored by the Tracys.
Caroline’s primary focus was the living room and she pulled inspiration from the kitchen colors and a rug Mattie owned. To replace the room’s two massive, dark brown leather sofas, Caroline selected a sofa with a formal structure and upholstered it in an inviting green flannel making it feel like a luxurious day bed.
“It’s a cabin feel in a completely new way,” Caroline says.
“You don’t need antlers.”
Two gorgeous barrel chairs, dressed in bold contrasts of patterned, pale green fabric and dark wood, wrapped in toast-colored leather, anchor the living room. The leather and wood mimic the stair’s large wood timbers and black iron spindles.
Cohesiveness also comes from unexpected places. Black silhouette folk art of the Tracy’s girls coordinates with the use of black in the kitchen, dining room, and living room. Caroline’s custom-designed window seat features pillows embroidered with black flowerpots, a nod to the outdoor flower garden. The pillows also appear on the sunroom’s red bench, another of Mattie’s finds.
The sunroom continues the graceful juxtaposition of unexpected things. It feels open and connected to the outdoors but furnished with elegance in the chairs, an ottoman, a stone fireplace, and a braided rug of earth colors.
“The rug’s colors are reminders of mulch and bark and moss and sticks and twigs,” Caroline observes. “Mattie’s love of the outdoor garden and lifestyle are designed into this room.”
The home’s captivating style comes, in part, from its honesty. The girls share a room in keeping with Tracy’s preference for smaller, high quality, and personal, over large and mass-produced.
“I’ve worked hard to create my own thing,” Mattie says. “I want to keep it special.”