Room of the Day: Going Glam in a Connecticut Colonial

When interior designer Susan Glick, her husband, Michael, and their two children left New York City for the suburbs of Fairfield County, Connecticut, 10 years ago, they gained enough space to upgrade their upright piano to a baby grand. They also had the freedom to design their new colonial-style house, adding classic architectural details. While Susan originally decorated the living room in a warm, English-inspired style, after a number of years she was ready to “oomph it up a little,” as she says.

Photography by Jane Beiles

“The architecture has great bones, and the details make all the difference,” Susan says. Arched transoms, tall windows, dentil molding and a fireplace with an Emperador marble surround are versatile, classic touches that can host a variety of styles.

Susan wanted to start with a color palette of grays, ivories, silvers and tans, then layer in shine and color through accents. “I’m very sensitive to color, and I like using it in subtle accents,” she says. The purple ikat from Dedar on the pillows inspired the amethyst touches around the room. The rug grounds the room with a medium-pile shag.

The designer recommends using window treatments to frame out windows with a little texture in a clean and uncluttered manner. This way they highlight, rather than distract from, the architecture. The drapes here are finely ribbed and French pleated. The window treatment hardware is nickel.

Painting: Kerri Rosenthal; wall paint: Smoke & Mirrors, Benjamin Moore


Before the remodel, Susan’s living room had a warm, English style, with lots of mahogany, gold leaf and rich hues of olive, burgundy, camel and deep brown. While she changed the palette, she repurposed and reused most of her furniture. “A lot of it had curved French legs,” she says. “I kept everything else very streamlined, which makes the curves stand out.”


The Glicks designed the large boxed-out bay window in anticipation of accommodating a baby grand piano for Michael.


“I wanted to put subtle, glam touches throughout the room,” Susan says. Silver-leaf tea paper adds shine overhead; the upholstery nails, sconces and window treatment hardware add the gleam of polished nickel. She designed the coffee table, which has an antiqued mirror top and legs covered in silver leaf.


While most of the larger swaths of texture are simple (the sofa is plain velvet; the armchairs are linen), Susan added the most intense textures in small doses. For example, the raised crocodile velvet on this ottoman, the unique lamp atop the bar and the sequined throw pillows on the sofa all have intricate patterns and lots of texture. Bottles and vases add glints of glass and silver.

Bar: Barbara Barry; lamp: Dez Ryan


Susan also recommends using antique pieces to garner attention in a transitional room. “Adding just one or two antiques to a room really makes them stand out,” she says. “I like to mix in some patina with the modern and transitional pieces.” In her living room, a console table fashioned from an antique wrought iron headboard topped with a crushed-stone slab grabs the spotlight.

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