Robert Couturier
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Robert Couturier, right, reworked the 1743 Connecticut country house he shares with Jeffrey Morgan, left.
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A specialist in period restoration, Morgan refurbished the structure, attaching hand-planed clapboards with handwrought nails.
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"Jeffrey is very New England and somewhat estranged from luxuries, which I thrive on," Couturier says with a laugh. "He wanted no electricity, no upholstered furniture—of course, we now have both." A mid-18th-century side table stands outside the kitchen.
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Couturier adapted the guesthouse after a circa 1782 schoolhouse nearby. "It was so romantic," he says, "with perfect proportions."
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An 1814 oil by Ethan Allan Greenwood hangs in the bedroom; below it is a 1720–30 chair. The William and Mary high chest is circa 1690. "Early American furniture was mostly useful," says Couturier. "French pieces of the era were mostly useless—made for luxury."
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Couturier transformed a pantry into a sitting room, with Directoire side chairs and a silk-upholstered sofa. The photograph depicts the Piazza del Popolo. Clarence House sofa and chair fabrics.
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A coverlet crocheted by Morgan's grandfather is on the bed in the guesthouse. The oil is English, circa 1720.
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A peaked living room occupies the house's upper floor. The designer gradually introduced such pieces as the 1860s Irish barley-twist chair for "warmth and comfort." The circa 1760 blanket chest, at right, is from Connecticut. Striped fabric, Scalamandré.
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The dining room features 17th-century floorboards reclaimed by Morgan. Among the mid-17th-century pieces are a Scottish armchair, at the end of the table, and an English court cupboard holding 19th-century watercolors of his ancestors.