Inside a Concord Colonial: Modern European Design Meets Historic Architecture

The eagle carving on the mantel of the fireplace is a bit of original history in Kunze’s son’s bedroom, where a Blu Dot lounge chair and ottoman is a comfy place to work on a laptop / Photo by Jared Kuzia

This article is from the winter 2025 issue of Boston Home. Sign up here to receive a subscription.

Sometimes, a house speaks your language. Emily Kunze, an American who has resided overseas for the past 25 years, felt an immediate kinship with this historical estate perched on a hilltop in Concord. “It wasn’t what we were looking for—we planned to buy something on the Cape—but it was so easy to fall in love with this,” she says.

The home’s 1903 Colonial architecture is nothing like the ornately detailed Spanish architecture of Kunze’s Barcelona home. Nevertheless, she knew that approaching the interiors similarly would result in the refined European style she admires: one that employs clean lines and neutral colors. “Using restraint in the furnishings highlights the woodwork and plasterwork,” Kunze explains. “You respect what the house has to offer and allow it to speak for itself.”

The paint color in the vestibule, Benjamin Moore’s “Templeton Gray,” serendipitously coordinated with the artwork by Joanna Pousette-Dart from Locks Gallery. “It’s hard to convince someone to paint an entire foyer blue, but a vestibule is a jewel-box-like space where it’s okay to be daring,” Scales says. / Photo by Jared Kuzia

Interior designer Sarah Scales embraced this approach throughout the nearly 10,000-square-foot home. “We created monochromatic neutral, textural backdrops for furnishings with clean, sometimes sculptural lines,” Scales says. “It’s intentionally simple to let the architectural details and artwork that Emily collects stand out.” The sunlit vestibule is a tiny moment of saturated blue-green color before visitors step through the original multipaned glass doors into the center entry hall. A mod, black bouclé bench, cerused-oak credenza, and playful abstract artwork ease the formality of the symmetrical space, which is replete with painted woodwork. A Thibault wallcovering with a tone-on-tone geometric that looks etched wraps the long space, continuing beyond the fluted, arched casework and up the three-story stair.

Scales painted the stair glossy black; it was her boldest move. “This stair is massive, so once you commit, you’re all in,” she says of this original feature and focal point. She incorporates linear black accents throughout the home—most often in the lighting—that refer back to it, help ground the large rooms, and tie one to the next.

An abstract painting by Louise Fishman provides a moment of strong color in the formal living room. “I gravitate to powerful pieces by 20th-century American female artists,” the homeowner says. / Photo by Jared Kuzia

An enormous, Japanese-inspired chandelier with cane work by Market Set fills the top of one of the kids’ bedrooms. As for the CB2 hanging pod chair, Scales says: “The client’s daughter really wanted one, and I never argue with teenagers!” / Photo by Jared Kuzia

Colorful, abstract artworks from Locks Gallery in Philadelphia beckons one into the formal living room, a serene space with greige walls and facing sofas anchored by an oversize, faux-horn-topped cocktail table. Unlined white linen drapes feel almost ethereal on either side of the original built-in china cabinet with leaded-glass doors. The aged-iron chandelier with handblown glass discs takes cues from the cabinet’s black muntins, while the fireplace quietly recedes.

Directly across the entry, a Roll & Hill chandelier with 21 chocolate-colored, smoked-glass orbs pulls the eye into the formal dining room. The contemporary configuration hangs above a 12-and-a-half-foot-long, live-edge walnut-and-glass dining table that Scales designed based on the one Kunze uses in Barcelona. “In Europe, you sit down for lunch and dinner with your family every day, which makes the dining table an emotional piece for me,” the homeowner says. “It needs to be a piece of artwork.”

Schumacher’s “Kisho” sisal wallcovering in silver sets off the painted woodwork in the dining room while imbuing it with a subtle shimmer. Tailored, black-leather chairs all but disappear, allowing the custom wood-and-glass table and chandelier to carry the room. / Photo by Jared Kuzia

A Lee Joffa “Stigma” wallpaper by Kelly Wearstler reads like framed artwork in the dark, moody media room. “The wallpaper, sheen of the paint, and the unlined linen drapes together provide interest despite the monochromatic palette,” designer Sarah Scales points out. / Photo by Jared Kuzia

The more-casual rooms alternate between dark and light. The media room, with its wood-paneled walls and ceiling painted in Benjamin Moore’s “Hale Navy,” has a moody-meets-Mad-Men vibe. Here, tweed-and-walnut seating boasts midcentury-modern silhouettes, a style echoed here and there, including in the adjacent office.

The family room, meanwhile, is light and lounge-y. It’s also the domain of Kunze’s three teens and the family’s black Labrador retriever. “Keeping the corner of the giant Blu Dot sectional open with an ottoman lets the family be a part of the surrounding spaces in this huge house,” Scales says. “It’s easy for the kids to pop over it to the kitchen instead of having to walk all the way around it.”

Scales peppered the kids’ bedrooms with blue and devised a tailored, monochromatic scheme in the primary bedroom that is consistent with the public rooms on the main level. Kunze appreciates the way Scales layered neutral upon neutral. “That approach [of layering different shades of neutral colors together] was new to me. Sarah said, ‘You can always add or subtract a color or another neutral,’” Kunze recalls. “I love that approach.”

Homeowner Emily Kunze commissioned the portrait by Steve Adair through Libby Silvia Artstyle for the primary bedroom. “I identify with the contemplative pose of this swimmer,” she says. The mixed-media piece by Erin Clark in the sitting room is from there, too. / Photo by Jared Kuzia

Photo by Jared Kuzia

MOD MAKEOVER

Instead of tearing out the custom kitchen, Scales opted for a modern refresh. The designer refaced the cabinets with slab fronts boasting aluminum pulls, streamlined the range hood, and added touches of black, including Allied Maker pendant lights. “We painted the new doors soft white to match what was there, then did the island base in black,” she says.

Interior Designer
Sarah Scales Design Studio

First published in the print edition of Boston Home’s Winter 2025 issue, with the headline, “European History.”