A Massachusetts Couple Traded Their Historic Farmhouse for Something Much More Modern

For greater than 30 years, Ms. Morgan and her husband, Patrick Annunziata, lived in a home extra akin to the garments she designed than to what she wore. It was an 18th Century, 3,552-square-foot farmhouse with small rooms and wide-plank flooring, which the couple meticulously restored and crammed with antiques, in Sheffield, Mass., simply north of the border with Connecticut.

Then, in 2017, they offered the historic mansion, and all however 9.5 acres of the 40-acre property, for $1.875 million. They spent the following 4 years planning and constructing a contemporary, minimalist and achromatic home subsequent door.

“We wished a brand new expertise,” says Ms. Morgan, 75, who retired in 2012 after 42 years as a designer, promoting the rights to proceed to make use of her identify to her former companions. Mr. Annunziata, 80, who was a textile importer, says additionally they wished one thing extra low upkeep and scaled down as they aged.

The brand new home, completed in 2021 for round $1.2 million, is a 2,000-square-foot glass rectangle, set on an enormous open area, with no different homes in sight, all on one stage. It’s exaggeratedly horizontal, virtually like a pavilion, with extra-long roof overhangs on every finish and glass partitions sandwiched between a skinny, barely pitched roof and a concrete platform under.

Scott Specht, founding father of Specht Architects, which has workplaces in New York and Austin, Texas, says it was the mix of the couple’s trendy aspirations and their assortment of antiques that satisfied him to signal on to design what was a comparatively small challenge many miles away from his residence base of Austin. He says he noticed the potential to create a distinction between the brand new and the previous, with the detailed, historic objects set in opposition to a impartial background.

“There’s one thing intriguing in regards to the combination,” says Mr. Specht. “It’s not all minimalist—it has maximalist parts throughout.”

The minimalism makes the primary, stronger impression. Approached by way of a slim opening within the woods, the lengthy driveway edges round an enormous, empty brown area, planted with a mixture of three grasses (“Little Bluestem,” “Sideoats Gramma” and “Prairie Dropseed”), and ringed with bushes, earlier than touchdown on the home. In entrance is a symmetrical backyard lined up with the home, separated into rectangles of colours made up of two species of sedum and bisected by a straight, white concrete path.

Nearly every part inside is a shade of grey. Mr. Specht says it was a course of to seek out the best shades to make sure it didn’t look too monochromatic and that among the grays popped off one another. The principle dwelling area has flooring manufactured from grey ceramic tiles which can be so giant (5 toes by 5 toes versus the extra typical 12 inches 12 inches) and have such tight joints, with the grout completely matched to the colour of the tile, that they create virtually no seen strains. There’s a kitchen at one finish with a 12-foot lengthy, solid-gray granite island. Within the center is a protracted steel eating desk with chairs which can be constituted of interweaving metal wires. On the opposite facet, a modular, grey couch and cement espresso tables sit on a silver carpet.

Spareness guidelines. The LED lights in the principle room shine by way of tiny, virtually invisible holes punched within the 10-foot-high ceiling. The air-conditioning grills are within the flooring. The one ornamentation is three glass pendants hanging above the eating desk.

The pantry/laundry room has a wall lined with Sixteenth- to Nineteenth-century gold-framed work. In the principle rest room is a rack of previous kitchen utensils and an vintage ladder used as a towel rack.

Artwork items and vintage furnishings are fastidiously positioned in each room. The pantry/laundry room has a wall lined with Sixteenth-Nineteenth century gold-framed work. The powder room has an 18th century mirror and a slim wooden chair Ms. Morgan says was used within the Nineteenth Century for youngsters’s time outs. (“I put Patrick on the chair when he’s dangerous,’ she jokes.)

Moose antlers cling above the tv within the media room, close to a wooden Buddha made throughout China’s Han Dynasty. In the principle rest room is a rack of previous kitchen utensils and an vintage ladder used as a towel rack.

Closets that line two partitions on both facet of the principle dwelling space push open to disclose a treasure chest of collectibles, from Hermès cups and plates to vintage flasks, serving plates and numerous ivory and horn-adorned objects.

Roof overhangs of 15 toes eradicate the necessity for window shades, leaving each room with an unobstructed view of the fields and bushes outdoors. Ms. Morgan says the ensuing darkness at night time, and the publicity, doesn’t hassle them. She says they by no means put in screens on the glass doorways to maximise the views, although meaning they will’t open the doorways for lengthy or else they’d be inundated with bugs. The overhangs virtually utterly stop any direct photo voltaic achieve on the home windows, since daylight doesn’t hit the home windows besides when this can be very low within the sky, which helps maintain the home cool in the summertime, necessitating little or no use of air con.

The couple, who additionally personal flats in New York and the Dominican Republic, met in 1980, when Ms. Morgan purchased materials from Mr. Annunziata. They married in 1982 and have two grown kids from Mr. Annunziata’s first marriage. In 1987 they purchased the previous farmhouse in Sheffield, Mass. for $550,000 and spent a long time creating gardens and restoring home windows and flooring. They crammed the home with antiques they discovered on their journeys to vogue exhibits in London, Milan and Paris.

Although she is aware of {that a} glass home isn’t for everybody, Ms. Morgan says it’s an inspirational technique to reside. Thus far, she says, none of their friends have complained. “I take into account {that a} success,” she says.

Write to Nancy Keates at Nancy.Keates@wsj.com