A Wisconsin Tudor with Modern Flair

When Peabody’s Interiors designer Anna-Marie Miles was brought onboard to help with a new build in the small town of Waupun, Wisconsin, the architect had already “dreamed up a house that was architecturally spectacular,” says Anna. “All the rooms flowed beautifully, and the ceiling volumes were huge.”

But the clients, who had worked with the architect twice before, wanted Anna to fine-tune the functionality. “I’ll give you an example of what I mean by that,” she says. “The homeowner has a 12-foot Christmas tree, and we created a Christmas closet in her first-floor hallway. She just flips the tree upside down and pushes it into this closet that was previously dead space under the stairs. It’s one of the best things we’ve ever done, and it’s just one of the many cool details in this house.”

They also asked Anna to give their English Tudor a modern spin. “They didn’t want anything that felt stale and new,” says Anna. “The style that they loved was really a vintage take on newer pieces.” That meant reclaimed-looking wall paneling and aged oak floors paired with a modern tufted sectional in the living room, and an antique finish on the kitchen cabinet that “was multiple levels of detail.”

In fact, every cabinet finish was custom, and all of the furniture was custom-ordered. That attention to detail carried over to every tile selection too. In the coffee bar, Ann Sacks' Savoy Swiss Cross mosaic in Lotus serves as “almost a picture frame for the coffee maker,” says Anna. “I initially intended to run the countertop material up, but talking with the client, the design evolved, and we realized we needed something with a little bit of a pattern and texture and maybe even a color that brings in a vein that it’s in the quartzite counters. We went with the cross shape that speaks English, that speaks Tudor.”

Just off the kitchen, in the butler’s pantry, Anna ran Belcaro Fluted Tile in Lilac vertically. “It has this really beautiful veining that’s a little soft, and you get peekaboos of lavender, even a bit of green and charcoal. We wanted something that had movement to it, and we also loved how soft the palate was. So when we picked out our granite, it didn’t compete, and our cabinetry in there is really simple and soft to kind of mimic the kitchen so it almost feels like an extension of that, ” she says. The wallpaper, an oversize animal abstract, made for the perfect combination of Old World and newer print.

In the powder bath, which is hidden behind a wooden paneled wall, Anna made a dramatic statement with the hand-cut, hand-glazed Idris by Ait Manos Almas Diamond in the Rods mosaic in Black Kohl. “We did it in a high gloss so that room really radiates and feels bigger than it actually is,” she says. “When the lights are on, the gloss bounces around, and the grout lines almost create this woven pattern that is super interesting on its own. We hung the mirror from the ceiling so you look at the wall itself.” To keep the focus on the tile, she installed a custom Kallista quartzite sink with pedestal legs.

In the ensuite bathroom, the homeowners wanted a more serene, spa-like vibe and cool, calm colors, so Anna chose a Belgian limestone collection, Pierre Noire,  for the floor. “It has a very soft rigid edge to it, so at each seam it looks aged already and almost imperfect, which was so beautiful in the space.” She ran the Pierre Noire into the zero-entry shower and covered the shower walls with large-format dolomite Ann Sacks Glacé slabs, which Anna chose for the organic feel of the veining.

Anna also gravitated toward a large-format tile, the Ann Sacks translucent marble Mia 12-by-24-inch, for the drop-in tub in the larger of the two guest bathrooms. This was partly for function—less grout lines makes cleaning easier, she says— and partly for form: “Mia is one of my favorite tiles. It’s such a pretty combination of tones: soft blues, purple, a little bit of blue, that really crispy white,” she says.

She used Ann Sacks Savoy 3-by-12-inch Field Tile in Cottonwood in a herringbone pattern for the floor and a matching Savoy Hive Mosaic and Savoy Box Liner for the backsplash. “Savoy is a really good workhorse for me as a designer,” she says. The finishing touches: an antique-looking sconce and bold wallpaper. “There are a lot of textures and patterns happening in one space, but it’s not overwhelming because it’s so charming. And we picked a deep green color—Studio Green by Farrow & Ball—for the walls, so you’ve got a resting space for your eyes.”

The smaller of the two guest bathrooms connects to a bedroom that’s used by the homeowners’ grandson when he visits. “What I was reaching for in that space was to create a bathroom for a little kid that they can grow older with it. There’s a fun blue vanity; Ann Sacks Saint Louis tile on the floor, which has some texture, so you won’t slip on coming out of the shower; and then we wanted a little bit of coverage for the walls, so we picked the Savoy Thin Stack in Linen,” says Anna. To keep the space balanced, she also used Savoy in the shower, stacking the 3-by-12-inch tiles horizontally.

“The homeowners are creating this kind of home for their kids to come back with grandkids,” says Anna. “And even though their children have moved out, they wanted them to be able to create their own little home within the home. They wanted to create a space with a modern flair, but one that felt like they’d been living in it for a long time.”

October 11, 2024