For interior design fanboys and fangirls, the idea that someone could somehow hire both Jeremiah Brent and Athena Calderone to design their house is an exercise in daydreaming. With his reputation for creating elegantly soulful interiors, AD100 talent Brent is as in-demand as celebrity designers get—and that was true even before he became the newest cast member of Netflix’s Queer Eye. As for Calderone, the domestic goddess and Instagram star whose Brooklyn town house launched precisely one zillion copycat renos, well, she doesn’t even take on interior design clients. (Her one client being, basically, herself.) In other words, getting Brent and Calderone to team up on a house is like drafting Ronald Acuña Jr. and Shohei Ohtani on the same baseball team—the stuff of fantasy decorating leagues.
And yet in this case, a husband and wife with a deep love of design somehow really did score the Brent/Calderone dream team. And they say they owe it all to their affection for a single material: plaster.
In the kitchen/family room, a suite of custom furniture forms a sitting area. A51 ceiling fixture by Jane Hallworth for Blackman Cruz over a Calacatta Turquoise marble–clad island. Sink fittings by Waterworks; area rug by Marc Phillips.
The couple, who live most of the year in Connecticut and have three school-age children, had been working with Kamp Studios, the vaunted plaster workshop, on sprucing up their main residence. “We became obsessed with the transformative power of plaster and the way it adds softness and depth to surfaces,” says the wife. “As we kept adding more and more, we became friendly with Kamp’s co-owner, Kim Collins.” In late 2020, when the couple purchased a beach home in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, they began using Collins as an informal sounding board in their hunt for designers. “We had been a fan of Athena’s for a long time and we knew Kim had done a lot of work with her,” says the wife. “One day I said to Kim, ‘Is there a world in which you think Athena would ever take on a design project?’ ”
Collins offered to reach out to Calderone and also suggested Brent, another regular Kamp client whose aesthetic she thought the couple would appreciate. As it turned out, the two designers, who’ve been close friends for more than a decade, had been talking about teaming up on a project together for years but had never found the right opportunity. “Jeremiah and I have great respect for each other as designers,” says Calderone. “And we also share an obsession with real estate!” Unlike Brent, Calderone does not have the staff or infrastructure of a full-service design firm, but could offer her expertise on layout, palette, materials, and styling while relying on Brent’s team to handle the bulk of the design work and logistics. “It just felt like kismet the way we came together.”
“If there was a surface, we plastered it.”
“It was crazy,” says the homeowner, sounding almost still in disbelief. “Within the space of a week I found myself on a Zoom call with both designers.”
Built in 1903, the rambling Shingle-style house had beautiful bones and a dazzling setting, with views of Watch Hill’s East Beach and Napatree Point. But the designers agreed with the homeowners’ opinion that the house had the potential to be so much more. After spending a full day on-site, watching the light move through the house, the duo had the bold idea “to completely flip-flop the orientation of the house,” says Calderone. By expanding and moving the kitchen from the east side of the house to the west, turning the dining room into the living room and opening up space to create a back stairway that led to the lower level where they could add a spa-like wet room leading out to a new pool, the house would flow in a way that reflected how the family wanted to live. As for the fussy wall coverings, wall-to-wall carpeting, and ’90s-style honey-colored woodwork, the designers saw a chance to transform the vibe from Golden Girls rehash into something really special. “We got a dose of coastal grandma chic,” says the homeowner. Emphasis, of course, on chic.
In the sunroom, Arcade wrought-iron dining chairs by Design Frères with cushions of a Kravet fabric surround a custom dining table by Petersen Antiques & Design. Custom crochet light fixture by Sarah Esmoingt Design and Lamptouch.
As the designers explain, each area of the house is meant to represent a different time of day or quality of light. The kitchen, with its creamy plaster walls, Calacatta Turquoise stonework, and wraparound views of both the ocean and the bay, is an ode to the morning. The moody living room, whose purplish plaster walls and ceiling are, Brent points out, “inspired by a bruise,” is evening. The palette downstairs (which along with the stone-cobbled wet room, features a lounge and kitchenette concealed by zinc doors) is inspired by “the light at the bottom of the ocean and the way the sun cascades a green hue on the bottom of the sand,” Brent says.
True to Brent and Calderone’s shared taste for warm modernist interiors, most of the rooms balance traditional details with modern forms, highlighting vintage pieces and earthy materials like wood and stone, everything enveloped in neutral tones. Upstairs and down, the floors were replaced with beautiful, craggy 17th- and 18th-century reclaimed French oak and the walls, ceiling, and trim were, of course, plastered by Kamp Studios. (“If there was a surface, we plastered it,” jokes Brent.) Old-fashioned feminine touches like ruffled and hand-crocheted light fixtures, floral upholstery, and skirted sinks and seating serve as counterpoint to the home’s clean lines and austere forms.
The Primary Suite
With only one exception—a gilded mirror intended for the foyer that Brent adored and Calderone remained unmoved by (it was ultimately nixed by the client)—the duo say their creative collaboration went off without a hitch or hurt feeling. “You really can make something beautiful 300 different ways,” says Brent, adding that living with husband and fellow AD100 designer Nate Berkus has taught him to appreciate creative conflict. “I put a vase here, then Athena puts the vase there, but it’s cool.”
“It really forced us to communicate better as friends,” says Calderone. “We’re really proud of what we created together.” And the homeowners, who recently enjoyed their first summer in the refurbished house, say they couldn’t be more delighted with the result. Says the husband, “For us, it was worth it in every way.” And maybe even twice as nice.
