Houzz Tour: Cottage Comforts on the Jersey Shore

If I didn’t know better, I’d think this home’s purpose was to undo all the damage Snooki did to the beautiful Jersey Shore’s reputation. Just five blocks from a beach in the Point Pleasant Beach area, the 1940s home got its charming groove back, thanks to an extensive renovation, new interiors and a stunning landscape redesign. This is the real Jersey Shore, and the cottage-inspired design celebrates the area’s lovely architectural heritage and is stunning without being ostentatious.

The bulk of the architectural renovation was complete before interior designer Jules Duffy tackled the interiors. Armed with a subtle coastal palette including pale greens, driftwood tones and layers of natural textures, she warmed up the space, made it inviting and comfortable, and gave it a sense of history. “Furnishing and warming up the interiors was the last piece of the puzzle,” she says. Here’s a look at how everything fits together in one complete vision.

Photography by Laura Moss

Houzz at a Glance
Location: Point Pleasant Beach area of New Jersey
Size: About 2,000 square feet (186 square meters); 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms

The renovations were designed by Christopher Rice of Rice and Brown Architects. The landscaping was redesigned by Joe Crapanzano of Green with Perfection Landscaping Design.


Wide shutters with hinges, pediments and window boxes add to the home’s many charms. Duffy chose the exterior paint colors.

Siding paint: Baltic Gray 1467, shutter paint: Mill Springs Blue HC-137, both by Benjamin Moore


Part of an addition is this cozy family room. The fireplace surround is crafted of local stone, and the mantel is a piece of reclaimed wood. The brass anchor andirons already belonged to the homeowner and inspired other brass finishes in the room.

Duffy began her layering on the floor, with a woven braided sisal rug bordered in leather. Another nod to coastal style is the raffia-wrapped bench in front of the hearth. For paint colors, she added pale greens and driftwood tones, which subtly nod to the coast. Overhead she painted the beams white for an airier feel.

Table lamps: Christopher Spitzmiller


Next she added custom upholstery in solids. “I wanted to keep everything in this room very textural, and let in only a little bit of print via the throw pillows,” she says. She also broke up the solids via the large coffee table she designed. The granite top adds a natural pattern.


In the built-ins, natural light highlights the homeowner’s pitcher collection. Duffy added vintage books to bring in warmth, color and a sense of history. She mixed in white objects to balance the whites of the pitcher collection. The built-ins on the other side conceal the media equipment and a TV behind retractable doors.

See more ways to hide the TV


The mirror over the sofa reflects the light from the French doors and transoms across from it and stands up to the scale of the wall. It also lends a sense of local history, as it used to hang behind the bar at a hotel in nearby Spring Lake that has since been demolished.


Adjacent to the new family room, a covered porch was converted into a new dining room.

Patio furniture: Restoration Hardware


“The dining room felt cold and needed softening up,” Duffy says. She added warmth to the plantation blinds by hanging translucent Belgian linen panels between each window and on the ends. She also added a warm paint and a natural-fiber rug.

While she could have gone with a larger table, she loved the intimate feeling of the round pedestal table, which encourages conversation. The ladder-back chairs were the homeowner’s; Duffy had new cushions added, then added new upholstered chairs in a stripe to mix things up.

The metal étagères are backed in a wall covering and offer display and storage space.

Dining table: Barclay Butera (no longer available)


The strongest nod to coastal style is the whimsical shell chandelier in the dining room.

Chandelier: available via Jules Duffy Designs


Part of the renovations included doubling the size of the kitchen. Mark Arthur of Ideal Kitchens, a frequent collaborator with Duffy, completed the overall kitchen design, including masterful custom cabinetry. “The cabinets are unbelievable,” she says.

Duffy came in to finish things off, including the custom island, backsplash tile, light fixture, faucets, stools and countertops. “The island is designed to look like a table, which keeps things nice and open in here,” she says.
Pendant light: Vaughan Designs


Elements like plate racks, arches and a chicken wire door add to the eclectic custom look of the cabinetry. The countertops are honed Absolute Black granite with an ogee edge. Calcutta Gold marble brick-patterned tiles make up the backsplash. For a similar cabinet color, Duffy recommends Benjamin Moore’s White 0001.


For the new bathroom, Duffy had two different linen wallpapers meticulously cut to create even stripes, which lend a cool, crisp feeling to the vintage-inspired room. The mirror reflects the mosaic tile in the shower stall. The beadboard wainscoting, vented vanity door and simple hardware lend a period look to the new room.


“I am always mixing old and new,” Duffy says. She found preserved antique sea grass specimens from the 1800s at an antiques shop and had them framed for this hallway area. Just beyond the narrow console table, you can catch a glimpse of the mosaic in the new bathroom’s shower stall.


In an existing bathroom, Duffy added beadboard, in keeping with the cottage’s age. The flooring is original, as are its antique copper nails. She did a blue wash on the floor to highlight these nails, and the woven Moroccan-style wallpaper picks up on their color. She also added the glass-front recessed cabinet for storage and used a hand-painted ceramic tile in the shower surround. A skylight bathes the room in natural light.

Sconces: Visual Comfort; wallpaper: available via Jules Duffy Designs

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