Kristin Nicholas and Mark Duprey’s 1751 home was a blank canvas, painted in simple whites and pastels, but Nicholas has spent the previous 14 years layering on brushstrokes in vivid colors. A working artist famous for her knit, crochet and stitchery designs, Nicholas has made their home a genuine reflection of her ability and soul. “There isn’t a space left that is the way we found it,” she says.
at a Glance
Who lives here: Kristin Nicholas and Mark Duprey, their daughter, Julia
Location: Franklin County, Massachusetts
Size: 3,500 square feet; two bedrooms, 2 bathrooms
That’s intriguing: The couple tends to more than 300 sheep.
Rikki Snyder
Nicholas color stripped and washed the walls from the home living room in a mottled chartreuse and gold. The vintage desk is home to old photos, a grim antique typewriter that belonged to her dad and other significant pieces.
Rikki Snyder
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A 1920s sideboard once belonging to Nicholas’ great-aunt got fresh life with a glowing coat of red. Nicholas does oil and gouache painting, paints pottery, is a published illustrator and writer, and has taken up mosaics.
Watch more of Kristin Nicholas’ artwork
Sideboard paint: Satin Impervo, Benjamin Moore
Rikki Snyder
In the living room library, the homeowner created her own background by cutting shapes out of FedEx boxes, layering the contours in addition to one another and hand painting each shape.
Rikki Snyder
A large wooden chest makes a perfect ottoman with this reading nook.
Rikki Snyder
Nicholas painted the stairwell from the living room using a blue flower design.
Video: Create Your Own Mural Wall With Easy DIY Stencils and Stamps
Rikki Snyder
Another hand-painted treatment adorns the wall opposite the library sofa.
Rikki Snyder
The couple maintained the wood surround in the library. The mantel is home to family photos and other significant pieces.
Rikki Snyder
Added black and white pictures of the couple’s households are found throughout the dining room as great reminders of their farming background.
Rikki Snyder
One of Nicholas’ free-form murals adorns the dining room walls. Its chickens, birds, flowers, leaves, guinea hens and peacocks provide a tribute to the animal-friendly home. Beneath the chair rail, a plaid pattern designed with painter’s tape contrasts the playful forms over.
“Most of this year, the dining room serves as a shipping and storeroom for our different companies, but after per year at Thanksgiving it functions as a great basis for a family party,” Nicholas says.
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“I really like my set of 1920s Jacobean revival dining room furniture that came out of my great-aunt Jennie in New Jersey. It was a nasty oak-color wood when I moved it here, but I cleaned it with a thin layer of black acrylic paint,” Nicholas says. “It isn’t exactly current trend, but neither are we all. It’s chunky and sturdy and matches our home’s decoration “
Rikki Snyder
A long hallway between the living room and the kitchen carries a plush window chair sandwiched between two built-in bookshelves. It is the perfect place for resting and reading without being too excluded from the remainder of the home.
A white and blue patterned blanket and a few of Nicholas’ hand-crafted cushions decorate the cushioned chair. Her original artwork hangs beneath the wall lamps.
Rikki Snyder
A massive stool sits in a closet across the hall, decorated with a collection of framed drawings and photos.
Rikki Snyder
This Hoosier cupboard from Nicholas’ German immigrant grandmother, Frieda, was made by G.I. Sellers in Indiana in the early 1920s. Nicholas painted it bright orange and hung a bit of antique folk embroidery instead of a busted rolltop cover.
“It was in her kitchen her entire adult life and contains a flour bin with a sifter,” Nicholas says. “I keep all of my baking supplies in it and love that link with my grandma.”
Rikki Snyder
The couple gutted three chambers on the floor and transformed them into one large kitchen. The kitchen was in the cellar.
A classic wooden dining table matches the first rustic wood flooring, where Phoebe the puppy makes herself comfy. A black iron electrified oil lamp sourced in the antiques store hangs over the dining table. The corner cupboard houses Nicholas’ hand-painted ceramics.
Rikki Snyder
The kitchen is intended to mimic a British-style country kitchen, with local Ashfield schist stone countertops and milk-painted cabinetry. A slotted drainboard is carved into the rock.
A maple counter produced by one of Nicholas’ friends tops the island. “The lights are old,” she says. “On the island turned into a wacky iron lamp having an opalescent glass shade that I carried home from England soon after we purchased our house. The walls are full of pottery — some old, some new, some I made myself. It’s the nerve center of the house. I cook a lot and develop recipes to our sheep-farm site. Our kitchen works really well as a room for our loved ones and farm.”
Cabinetry: Crown Point; Granite: Galaxy stone, Ashfield
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Nicholas made the lampshades and foundations as well as a number of the pottery in the house. “I’ve painted lots of the lampshades in the house and had the lamp foundations constructed out of antique lamp parts I collected from flea markets through the years. I really like the way the light shines through the shades — they look a whole lot like stained glass,” she says.
Rikki Snyder
Two years ago the couple built an upstairs addition, which now functions as an informal dining room and seating space. The high ceilings and painted wood walls result in a bright, airy and inviting space.
Paper lanterns hang out of a wood beam in front of a gallery wall full of original artwork by Nicholas and daughter Julia. A selection of painted chairs is gathered round the dining table.
Rikki Snyder
A colorful seating area with wicker furniture sits across from the dining room, adding to the indoor-porch texture of the space. Plenty of windows make the room seem even bigger than it is.
More of Nicholas’ handmade lamps and colorful pillows keeps the upstairs space inviting and bright. The family loves this addition to their home and spends a whole lot of time relaxing .
Rikki Snyder
One of those household kittens, Delilah, plays the linen on one of Nicholas’ chairs.
Rikki Snyder
Nicholas works and teaches knitting and stitching in her downstairs studio. White walls make way for the colorful tiled flooring and chairs.
Rikki Snyder
A pink-orange wall is an appropriate background for one more bit of Nicholas’ art. First wooden beams equilibrium the saturated colour.
Rikki Snyder
This upstairs bathroom is one of two baths the couple renovated when they transferred in. A claw-foot bathtub sits on a wooden platform surrounded by beadboard, bright yellow walls and individual decorative tiles.
Rikki Snyder
Nicholas and Duprey understood this house was the one for them when they found it. “Mark called me at work and I insisted on seeing the place initially, so we drove up to the house the following day, and before I got out of the truck,” I said,’OK, we can purchase it. ”’
On the outside, the couple replaced the dilapidated cedar roof, an obsolete 1970s gambrel dormer accession, and added a mudroom.
“Our place is steeped in history, but sadly there isn’t much known about our house,” says Nicholas. “All our deeds state the year built as 1751. It was no doubt built as a farmhouse by a few of the founders of the small town. Supposedly the stagecoach used to maneuver our house!”
Rikki Snyder
Rikki Snyder
A grape arbor provides fruit and organic shade within the stone terrace in back. The stone walkway wraps around to the front of the house, passing by a second, smaller terrace area.
Rikki Snyder
The couple added this part of this house a couple of years back.
Rikki Snyder
The garden is home to a large garden and a fenced-in place for your sheep.
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