Press

Ms. Satterthwaite,
Tear Down These Walls

With that mandate, a designer transforms a house.

by Judy West

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Ann Satterthwaite had been living in her Fairmount townhouse for a dozen years when she signed up for an evening class that changed her life – or at least her home.  And since Satterthwaite, a marketing and fund-raising consultant, works from home, that was a big deal.

The class, part of the University of Pennsylvania’s continuing-education program, was called “Redefining Interior Design.”  The teacher, Caroline Millett, heads her own residential and commercial design firm, CDM Enterprises Inc.  Satterthwaite was so inspired by Millett’s aesthetic insights that she called her to help redefine her own “typical chopped-up townhouse.” 

Satterthwaite is a pragmatist, and though she clearly has her own style, she believes in getting a job done right by people who know how.  “Caroline put great emphasis on practicalities and color, and it spoke to me,” she says.  “So I called her, and we were off and running, and it was sort of about color, but it was also about function.” 

At their first meeting, Millett listened to Satterthwaite’s long list of needs and said, “Well, Ann, I could decorate, but I can’t really give you what you want the way the house is now.  If you’d tear down the walls, I’d be happy to help you.” 

Bringing down the walls in the hallway and between the living and dining rooms dramatically opened up the interior.  But with its east-west orientation, the house still felt dark.  Millett’s solution: and overhanging cornice that houses dozens of tiny halogen bulbs.  “It creates the illusion of an actual sun,” she says.  Venetian-glass lamps complement the halogen’s pure, clear light with an incandescent glow. 

Bothered by the glaring asymmetry of the house, with the staircase on the left and a small window off in the far right corner of the dining area, Millett resorted to trickery.  Now, “it looks like there are three windows,” she says with a mischievous smile.  “But that’s really a lie.  There’s only one. The other two are mirrors that we created to make symmetry because it was so tortured and titled with the one little window.” 

The palette Satterthwaite and Millett chose – a slightly ashen yellow, soft sage and old red, with pale cream molding – imbues the space with a warmth and a light that were lacking in the home’s earlier teal-and-peach scheme. 

Because Satterthwaite wanted her home to be a work of art as well as a functional place for business meetings, she agreed to whittle down her possessions.  What’s left is an intriguing combination: and Eastlake chair she found in a Downing town antiques store; a trunk she dragged out of the basement; an antique opium pipe she picked up on Martha’s Vineyard; a custom-made tufted sofa upholstered in yellow velvet.

Millett likes to help people tell their own stories in their homes.  “I try to discover objects that are really meaningful to them.  When people show you what they care about, you start to understand what they think is beautiful,” she says.  For Satterthwaite, that included a beat-up stool that had been in her father’s basement workshop and three ceramic Chinese figures. 

A recent addition, a capricious earthenware duck that is moved around the salon at whim, speaks to Satterthwaite’s playful side.  Despite all the serious thought that went into revamping her house, she says, “I try not to take myself too seriously.”