This feature was written by Melissa Andersen and first posted on And North, a curated guide to upstate NY featuring the best of travel and lifestyle north of New York City.

New Paltz Real Estate Farmhouse
Photo by Kelly Merchant for And North

For upstate restaurateur Agnes Devereux, to live in a historic home is to be endowed with a certain responsibility, one that she gladly takes on with her early-19th-century farmhouse in New Paltz, New York.

“I feel that we’re just the caretakers of this house for this moment in time, and one day somebody else will probably live here. And we just hope that they’ll love it as much as we do,” she said.

It’s that notion that she is part of something larger than herself that has driven Agnes to take such loving care with the home’s design, and it’s that same respect for the past that stokes the graceful warmth radiating from every inch of this upstate sanctuary.

The home, which shares a lot in the center of town with Agnes’s acclaimed restaurant, The Village TeaRoom, was originally built by Daniel Relyea in 1830 and purchased by John Vanderlyn in the late 1800s. Because of Vanderlyn’s prominent public role as Ulster County District Attorney, any work he did on the farmhouse was noted in the local paper, resulting in a well-documented paper trail of the home’s evolution.

And for Agnes, being a part of that evolution was as much about highlighting the home’s past as it was about incorporating hers. From English wallpaper, to the “imperfect and speckled” glass of the kitchen cabinets, to the commanding AGA stove reminiscent of her childhood in Ireland, each aspect was carefully maintained, restored, or added.

“I wanted to have the feeling in the house that I wasn’t trying to make it modern,” said Agnes. “I wanted it to feel like an elegant Irish farmhouse.”

Inspired by both her upbringing in the pastoral Irish village of Clogheen and a visit to Katharine Hepburn’s “a little worn, but lovely” New York City apartment years ago, she created an elegant and, most important, a comfortable family home.

“When we sit by the fire at nighttime, we think we’re part of this whole continuum of people cozying up to a fire on a winter’s night,” as Devereux put it. And it’s these winter nights, and all the winter nights for the caretakers to come, that make it all worthwhile.

New Paltz Real Estate Farmhouse

“Adding a fireplace to the living room was one of the best decisions we made. It’s the best place to be on a snowy upstate evening.”

New Paltz Real Estate Farmhouse

“The dining room is the oldest room in the house with the most modern feeling! It’s a square room (an unusual proportion) with a wide, deep, west-facing window for lots of diffuse light.”

New Paltz Real Estate Farmhouse

“We gutted the kitchen and rebuilt it to look like it might have been original to the house. The vintage wide-board flooring, the AGA stove and the painted cabinetry lend a country kitchen feeling.”

New Paltz Real Estate Farmhouse

“We have lots of art. This one I bought at a storage facility sale. We move the art around now and then to get a new perspective.”

New Paltz Real Estate Farmhouse

“The kitchen design was built around my beloved AGA stove. It warms the kitchen and it roasts, bakes and stews beautifully. It eliminates the need for a toaster (AGA toast is fantastic), a toaster oven, or a microwave. It’s also very handsome.”

New Paltz Real Estate Farmhouse

“Our study was once the law office of John Vanderlyn, D.A., of Ulster County in the 1800s. I painted this room a deep raspberry color and filled it with bookcases that I found in High Falls.”

New Paltz Real Estate Farmhouse

“The framed photo is of my daughter Elizabeth, when she was 3 years old, perfecting a Dickensian attitude next to the baked goods at the restaurant. It was taken by Jerry Novesky of Valley Table Magazine. We use these curtains to close off the living room from the entry on cold nights.”

New Paltz Real Estate Farmhouse

“I love wallpaper and this pattern from Zoffany is one of my favorites. The headboard was created with Kravet fabric that looks like strips of fabric sewn together, the bolster and bed skirt are Nancy Corzine silk damask and the blanket is organic cotton from Target.”

New Paltz Real Estate Farmhouse

“This chest is part of a suite of three pieces of bedroom furniture we bought on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn when we lived in a loft in the ExLax building.”

New Paltz Real Estate Farmhouse

“I chose unglazed hexagonal tiles for the bathroom floor so they would scuff and look original to the house. The claw foot bathtub is a reproduction in a lightweight material. The wall tiles are off-white hand-finished subway tile that have an appealing uneven surface.”

By Melissa Andersen. Captions by Agnes Devereux. A version of this post originally appeared on And North.

[Photos by Kelly Merchant]

Related Stories
Brooklyn Couple Restores 1813 Saugerties Farmhouse With Views of the Catskill Mountains
5 Offbeat Places to Stay in the Hudson Valley and Catskills
Brownstoner Upstate: 3 Indie Movie Theaters to Visit in the Hudson Valley and Catskills

Follow Brownstoner on Twitter and Instagram, and like us on Facebook.

[sc:daily-email-signup ]

What's Your Take? Leave a Comment