This home was a surprisingly pedestrian Victorian. When the present owners moved in they saw a need to instill charisma in their home – something most Victorians have in spades. Inside, the formal rooms lacked identity – all were plastered walls and painted trim. The kitchen and baths were a homage to 1970s tastes. Outside, the house was awkwardly tall, the facades unrelentingly flat. Someone pasted on a colonial revival entry, perhaps to give the house a hint of the third dimension, perhaps to provide a place to stash shoes. At the owners’ behest, all of this changed.

Each formal room now has its own identity. The parlour has richly detailed, custom-designed cabinetry flanking the room’s entry. The library is wrapped in floor-to-ceiling shelves made of mahogany. The dining room has a new hutch with glass and lead caming doors. The room is papered in can’t-miss-me ruby red fabric.

The back of the house was expanded to contain a modern mudroom, family room and kitchen. The kitchen is the hub of modern living, and accordingly it received the most attention. The cabinets are custom-designed and anchored by a Lacanche range. A custom farmer’s table, made of cherry (the owner’s favorite species), is the centerpiece. Opposite the kitchen is a butler’s pantry, also in cherry. At the second floor of the addition is a new master suite.

Outside a new porch extends across the two primary facades, giving the house needed depth and foreshortening the formal façade. A modern addition was removed at the rear, replaced with more dramatic forms to bring Victorian energy to the house’s previously unprepossessing posterior.

This home, once dull, now shines brightly.