Access With Personality Within an 1870 Home

Laurie and Bruce Rabe were charmed from the dual doors, plaster molding and gorgeous gardens of the 1870 New England home. Just like the majority of old structures, however, this onetime boarding house had a great deal of work. Plus it also had to be made accessible for one of the couple’s daughters, who has multiple handicaps.

After 14 decades of thoughtful updates and personalized touches, the couple melded old and new by adding an elevator, restoring the initial stove and opening the kitchen. Laurie’s colorful murals — inspired by historic wallpapers, textiles and art — elevate throughout the atmosphere, giving this Second Empire dowager home a fresh lease on life.

in a Glance
Who lives here: Laurie and Bruce Rabe, daughters Olivia and Elloise, and puppies Tizsa and Luna
Location: Norfolk County, Massachusetts
Size: About5,000 square feet; 5 bedrooms; 4 bathrooms

Rikki Snyder

Laurie used acrylic paints to make cheerful wall murals in the family room. The patterned cushions on the couch were hand scraped and printed by Jennifer Clayson.

Rikki Snyder

Laurie utilized glazing techniques to provide the family room a rustic, weathered folk-art layout. “I occasionally make templates up of flowers and leaf shapes to use exactly the same shapes over and over, to provide the wall layout some unity, very similar to background,” she says.

Many of the pieces in this area, like the red stool along with the corner cabinet, were sourced from the Brimfield Antique Show.

Rikki Snyder

Many of the wall painting ideas include magazines, historic wallpapers, paintings, ceramics, fabrics and art from the past. “I particularly love art nouveau and Craftsman-style designs, and that I try to incorporate my love of flowers and gardening in my work,” says Laurie. “I travel to museums and gardens wherever I go and shoot photos of specimens, which I then attempt to incorporate into my work.” She really loves tailoring her work to satisfy with the likes and colour schemes of occasional customers for this, many of whom are buddies.

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The kitchen was originally a small galley-style space surrounded by three large pantries. The couple renovated the space by ripping out all these pantries and incorporating the leftover space into the newly open kitchen.

The kitchen is Laurie’s favorite room in the house. “It is certainly the heart of the home, and it is where we spend most of our time,” she says. “I love to cook and my oldest daughter is starting to love baking and cooking, so we work on foods together here. We left it comfy with all the daybed in the corner, swing in the center and all its unique components.”

Rikki Snyder

The homeowners maintained the butler’s pantry cabinets and had them rebuilt on another wall. They also maintained the aluminum sink and had a carpenter build a distressed cherry counter including the one from the original pantry.

They added a recycled Victorian stained glass window into the wall to bring light and air into the space, improving circulation in the summer. Laurie also purchased antique tiles for the backsplash to enhance the butler’s pantry ambience, and they implemented beadboard to the initial wall surfaces.

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Laurie and Bruce knew how long they were planning to spend in the kitchen so they built this daybed to unwind. Laurie painted the walls surrounding the nook for cheery colour and pattern.

Rikki Snyder

They also set up a swing for their daughter Elloise. Swinging in it is one of her favorite things to do, and it keeps her busy while Laurie is cooking. Additionally, it supplies some activity in summer time when they can’t go outside.

Rikki Snyder

The couple hired a craftsman to refurbish this old black cooker from 1885, which is original to the home. The cooker was in bad condition, and had been converted to kerosene. The Rabes restored it to timber power, much to the joy of the dog, Luna.

Rikki Snyder

The kitchen is the center of conversation for the Rabe household and can be where they amuse friends. It’s the closest area to the pool and garden in the summer, and as soon as the woodstove is fired up in the winter, it is the coziest room in the house.

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The craftsman who refurbished the woodstove convinced Laurie and Bruce to buy one of his restored 1920s gas stoves. He outfits the appliances with fresh electrical ovens and a double gas and electric cooktops.

Rikki Snyder

The household’s fiery reddish living area is utilized mostly in the wintertime for entertaining and parties. “We set a 10-foot-tall Christmas tree, which we always cut ourselves down,” says Laurie. “That’s the location where we spend our time around the holidays, visiting friends and family.”

Laurie purchased a Number of the pieces in this room in the Brimfield Antique Fair. “I love to go there with friends and attempt to collect unusual folk art pieces,” she says. The red horse above the mantel was a gift from a friend, who purchased it from an artist in Amsterdam.

Many of the first-floor rooms contain double doors, which assist with accessibility for Elloise.

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This hand-painted Indian torso was purchased from a shop in Brattleboro, Vermont, and doubles as storage along with a coffee table. Splashes of turquoise from your planter, bowl, lamp and vase match the red through the area.

Rikki Snyder

An antique ladder functions as a plant stand and is a great alternative to an end table.

Rikki Snyder

Even though the formal dining area is blessed with big windows, the area receives very little natural light. The Rabes do most of their holiday fun in the area by candlelight, which adds to the home’s historic charm.

Considering that the home is so big and old, it requires a very long time to heat. To cut back on electricity bills, Laurie covered the windows with quilts rather than curtains, utilizing ones from Garnet Hill, Williams-Sonoma, Pine Cone Hill, Pottery Barn and April Cornell. They maintain the windows insulated from the cold in winter and keep the cool air inside in the summer.

When the Rabes purchased the home, this room had been used as a workplace; it was quite dark and covered in 1960s paneling. Laurie worked hard to provide the space that which she calls a starker, Scandinavian feel.

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The Rabes ripped off the paneling right away, just to come across a big hole behind it, which they dwelt with for quite a while until it had been fixed. To their dismay, the beautiful Italian marble mantel had been painted white. They stripped off the paint off the marble, returning to its original beauty.

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Stunning plaster molding is another unique feature in the dining area. A dim moss-green paint in the crevices creates its details pop. When it came time to paint the walls, the homeowners found they had been painted just twice in more than 130 decades.

The dining area is also utilized to access Elloise’s bedroom. An opening was cut in the ceiling, along with a high-rise elevator known as a Minivator was installed in the corner, offering immediate access to Elloise’s bedroom upstairs.

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Elloise was just 4 years old when Laurie and Bruce purchased this home, and they knew she would never walk or have the ability to take care of herself. They put her bedroom close to their own and took the walls down between her bedroom and bathroom to provide easier access.

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“When designing a room for someone who isn’t capable of performing any daily living abilities, one wants to consider the caretaker together with the space as far as the individual residing there — notably that individual’s back!” says Laurie. They purchased a regular double bed for Elloise and put it on stilts to lift it high, preventing back strain. This sling runs on ceiling monitors, allowing Elloise to move through the atmosphere between the bathroom and her bed.

The Rabes painted the room a bright, cheerful green; floral vases as drapes keep the room warm.

Rikki Snyder

Laurie and her other daughter, Olivia, share a great love of flowers and character. As a child, Olivia played in the garden and loved animals and fairies, therefore Laurie painted a mural inside her bedroom depicting fairies moving from blossom stems and birds smelling the flowers.

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Cabinets in the second-floor hall screen Olivia’s handmade pottery, while artworks adorn the walls.

“When buying a home, I think that it’s extremely important to consider all household members who will live there,” advises Laurie. “Some people told us we needed to buy a one-story ranch house due to our child’s multiply handicapped needs. However, Bruce and that I cared deeply about owning an old home with a great deal of personality. We believed that we had accessible space, but we also had to meet our dreams of home ownership.”

The house is close to the town center, which gave Olivia great freedom and independence from a young age. “She could walk to the library, do little errands for me and head off to play nearby friends without me forcing her,” says Laurie.

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Laurie and Bruce have worked constantly on their home in the 14 years they’ve owned it. “We like to do lots of projects ourselves, therefore things take time,” Laurie says.

They built the porch to help with accessibility and also to make a relaxing environment outside.

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A brand new driveway was built in the front of the house, and a brick ramp walkway was added to satisfy their requirement for simple access.

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The brick ramp goes right from the driveway onto the front porch. “We have slowly worked on projects to make the home fit our needs and usage, while maintaining its historic character,” says Laurie, explaining their selection of brick.

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The landscape is practical for your family’s needs and beautiful at the identical moment. “You can have both beauty and function — you just need to be inventive,” Laurie says.

Attractive brick ramps grace most of the entrances, including the pathway from the kitchen to the pool, letting them easily transfer Elloise in and outside of the home.

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“Our pool and the gardens around it provide us great pleasure and therapy during summer time,” Laurie says. The heated pool was built to offer physical therapy for Elloise while she enjoyed the outdoors and visited friends. A hydraulic lift chair offers simple access to the water.

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A seating area beside the pool is the best spot for outside entertaining.

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Laurie used fabric paint to bring life to the umbrella — an extension of her wall murals inside.

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This lion’s head is original to the house and was used to provide horses. Laurie and Bruce built a stone retaining wall for the patio and put the lion’s head there, so they can hear the fountain out of the kitchen (rather than the sounds of the busy downtown location).

The Rabes adore the history of the city, the people and its easy access to Boston (that has great medical centers) and the rest of New England. Many of the friends live nearby and are a wonderful support system for their family.

More: Check the striking hand-painted walls in the home of Laurie’s sister, Kristin Nicholas

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