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A Veranda report features a Greenwich, Connecticut, estate from the 1930s, redesigned by Ashley Whittaker with architect George Knight for a family with five sons. The project pairs historic details with livable spaces, including a game room, a reworked kitchen and a blue-lacquered dining room; the work is still ongoing.
Veranda has featured a 1930s neo-Georgian estate in Greenwich, Connecticut, where designer Ashley Whittaker and architect George Knight adapted a historically layered house for a family with five sons. The project combines traditional architecture with more relaxed rooms, from a playful game room to a reconfigured kitchen, while preserving the home’s established character.
The homeowners bought the property about five years ago after moving from New York City in search of more room for their children, then aged eight to 18, according to Veranda. The house sits on about six acres beneath mature trees. Its grounds include a swimming pool, a pool house and two separate garages, one of which has a guest apartment. Additions built over several decades, including new wings in the 1990s, give the residence what Whittaker described as a charmingly rambling layout.
Whittaker’s favorite room is the game room, furnished with a wool-covered banquette, brass drinks tables and an antique Russian cabinet holding dominoes, cards and board games. Striped walls are broken up by a pairing of 18th-century Indo-Persian borders. The result reflects the design’s recurring balance: formal materials and period references alongside spaces intended for everyday use.
Knight, whose New Haven firm has experience renovating older Connecticut homes, had worked on the property before the family bought it. He updated the kitchen so it could function as a social space rather than remain in the background, and changed a back stair to connect the children’s bedrooms more directly to the kitchen. Knight and Whittaker also widened the opening between the kitchen and family room. The report says their aim was to make the house feel more familial than formal.
In the 30-foot living room, two seating areas and matching velvet sofas help make a large space work for family use as well as entertaining. Patterned upholstery in blues, greens and earthy taupes sits against creamy Venetian plaster walls, alongside a landscape photograph by Carol Greenan Bouyoucos. The dining room takes a more dramatic approach: its paneled walls are finished in peacock-blue lacquer, while decorative painter Chris Pearson added white chevron bands to the dark floor.
A Historic House Made for Family Life
The project offers a specific example of how owners and designers can adapt a historic home without treating its formal character as untouchable. Changes to the kitchen, stairs and doorway address how a family moves through the house, while the rooms retain architectural details and furnishings suited to the property’s age. That tension matters to readers interested in older-home renovations: preservation can involve changing circulation and use, not only retaining decorative features.
The design also avoids a single look across the house. The game room’s relaxed furnishings, the living room’s calm plaster walls and the dining room’s glossy blue surfaces each serve a different purpose. Whittaker’s approach, as described in the report, uses color and pattern selectively rather than applying them uniformly. The home’s scale and amenities are particular to this property, but the underlying decisions concern familiar questions of comfort, entertaining and making formal rooms feel usable.
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A Greenwich Home with Layers
The residence is described as a 1930s neo-Georgian mansion, but it is not a single-period building: it was expanded over time, with additional wings in the 1990s. That history helps explain why the design work involved both preserving established character and improving connections between rooms. The family’s move from New York City also shaped the brief, with space needed for five active children as well as for hosting.
The report links some of the home’s decorative choices to earlier design references. Whittaker said she and the homeowner had admired a blue-and-white room by designer Albert Hadley for years; that influence informed the dining room’s blue walls and graphic floor. The homeowners’ art collection includes works by Robert Motherwell and Peter Beard, and the house also displays pieces by artist friends, including Melinda Hackett. Veranda’s account presents these details as part of the design story, not as a full inventory or appraisal of the collection.
““There’s a playfulness to the space. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, but at the same time, feels elegant.””
— Ashley Whittaker, designer
The Renovation Is Still Underway
Veranda says Whittaker’s work at the house is ongoing, and that she and Knight are creating a new “ba”—the source report cuts off mid-sentence at that point. It does not provide the full description of the project or say when that work will be finished. The report also does not give a renovation budget, a detailed construction timeline or a complete account of which elements were newly installed versus retained from earlier updates.
The published account is a design tour, not a technical renovation record. It does not set out the property’s permitting history, structural work or a room-by-room construction schedule. Those details should not be inferred from the visual and design descriptions.
Further Work at the Estate
The next confirmed development is continued design work by Whittaker and Knight. The supplied report ends before identifying the new project they are creating, so its scope and expected completion date are not available. Any further description of the work, or a complete account of the finished estate, would depend on additional reporting from the designers or the homeowners.
Key Questions
Where is the estate?
The house is in Greenwich, Connecticut, on a property of about six acres, according to Veranda.
Who worked on the house?
Designer Ashley Whittaker led the interior design, and architect George Knight worked on the home’s updates. Knight had overseen an earlier update to the property, the report says.
What changes were made for the family?
Knight reworked the kitchen as a social area, adjusted a back stair connecting the children’s bedrooms with the kitchen, and expanded the opening between the kitchen and family room. The changes were intended to improve everyday flow.
Is the project complete?
No completion date is given. Veranda reports that Whittaker’s work at the home is ongoing and says she and Knight are creating another feature, but the source text ends before explaining what it is.
Source: veranda.com
