In a sea of gray, cedar-clad houses, Laurie Fisher’s Cape Elizabeth, Maine, home stands out like a fashionable sore thumb. “The exterior’s green color is unusual for this neighborhood,” Laurie admits. “It was kind of a risk.” But it’s a risk she and designer Tracey Rapisardi believe was well worth taking.
The two met when Laurie wandered into Sea Rose—Tracey’s South Portland, Maine, shop—to buy a few pieces of furniture. Several months later, she called Tracey to help renovate the old shingle-style house she’d purchased nearby. “The bones were in great condition, and we wanted to maintain the integrity of the house’s historic nature,” Laurie says. “But the people before us had lived here for 45 years, and it needed freshening up.”
With the ocean just across the street, Tracey decided the house could use a beach-friendly makeover. “We wanted it to be relaxed, so the kids could live in it,” she says. “Things aren’t untouchable.”
She started by removing the layered wallpaper and avocado-green shag carpeting. Though the house required replastering and a lot of paint, no room needed more help than the kitchen. When Laurie and Tracey began the project, the narrow space had a hearth and brick chimney, and seven adjacent closets for cupboard space. “We had to start from scratch because there really wasn’t anything to keep,” Tracey says. To spruce up the room, she covered the walls in beaded board and the ceiling in V-groove planks, replaced a high window with two farm windows and a seat, and installed radiant heating under maple floors painted white.
In addition to serving as the place where Laurie cooks meals for her three daughters—Colby, Carter, and Brooke—the kitchen is part mudroom and part breakfast nook. Tracey chose cheery colors reflective of the home’s sunny interiors and coastal location, painting the cabinets a sea-glass blue and accenting with custom-painted pink appliances. After the renovation, Laurie and the girls started gathering in the kitchen all the time. “It’s a small space, but that’s never fazed us,” Laurie says. “We do everything in it because it’s so happy and bright and girly.”
Tracey wove soft blue-greens and pinks into all of her paint and fabric choices. “I focus on details because most people who come to me are looking for something they can call their own,” she says. The details may look deluxe, but Tracey guarantees they’re functional, as well. “I pick fabrics that can be washed and dried,” she says. “It’s unrealistic to think you’re never going to need to clean them.”
Though the labor was intense and the remodeling messy (Laurie and the girls lived in the house throughout the process), both owner and designer are thrilled with the outcome. “I love everything,” Laurie says. So does Tracey. “It’s one of my favorite projects,” she says. “We really tried to make this house different.”
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