Color is conversation, and a lively one at that for Long Island-based designer Meg Braff. Eavesdrop on the vibrant dialogue between rooms of her newly renovated Locust Valley, Long Island, home, and you’ll see why.
There’s a whisper of soft apricot across the living room, the tony banter of peacock blue echoing from the butler’s pantry to the kitchen, and the mirthful shout of chartreuse from a not-so-hushed library.
“I love walking from room to room and experiencing how the different tones work together, like they’re all speaking to each other in a beautiful, congenial way,” says Braff, a Mississippi native whose style defaults toward her traditional Southern roots and is often tempered with fearless color.
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For 18 years, Braff and her husband, Doug, lived just two miles away. But with their four sons getting older, they were looking for more space and a start to “our next chapter,” she says. This ’60s-era ranch caught their eye largely because of the way it was sited on a generous lot with mature trees. “It backs up to the golf course, which we thought would be fun for the boys, three of whom are serious squash players. They can zip over to the clubhouse to play squash or paddle.”
But lot size and location aside, the home’s curb appeal pretty much stopped at the curb. “This neighborhood has so many charming old-world houses, and this wasn’t one of them,” notes Braff, who worked with architect Laura Casale on a three-year transformation of the ranch into a spacious two-story family home. The footprint didn’t drastically change (despite adding 15 feet to the front), but each of the rooms save the library got a complete overhaul.
“We loved the scale of the original library and replicated its windows and French doors throughout the first floor,” says Braff. “I found old mantels at auctions and used raised ceilings wherever possible. We wanted it to feel like a house built in the early 1930s, like it had always been here.”
Braff glossed the library’s old panels in a whimsical chartreuse, a color carried over to the chinoiserie-inspired dining room. There, apple green silk drapes soften grass cloth walls, adding an air of cheerfulness while still amping up the drama. “I try to be very thoughtful about threading color through the rooms,” says Braff, who, for example, also balances a patterned wallpaper down the first-floor corridor (her own French Blue damask) with soft solids in adjacent rooms. “You need something that gives your eye a break.”
Meg Braff Long Island House Tour
A pair of rooms (living and dining) were combined to create one large formal living room with multiple seating areas, where Braff showcases a monumental Coromandel screen behind a sofa, and two chinoiserie panels she’d bought 10 years ago and pulled out of storage.
“Those panels contain the palette for the whole house, such beautiful blues, corals, ivories, and greens. It feels rich but not heavy to me,” says the designer, who rarely does white walls and instead favors a Venetian plaster finish to bounce natural light. “It’s a beautiful finish for pastels, and even for bringing in gold details. This room pretty much has all my favorite things—pretty porcelain, a little bit of Asian influence, French and English furniture.”
Though her harmonious melody of antiques and bespoke details defines the rooms, there’s more than one design voice in the Braff household. The boys chimed in with input on colors for their bedrooms. A cozy upstairs family room is their video game room and “hangout central” during the warmer months, but when one of the home’s four fireplaces has a fire going “that’s where we all gravitate,” Braff says.
“The boys have grown up being dragged around auctions, helping me load and unload, so they’ve seen it all. They appreciate the work that goes into this,” she says. “This—a love of beauty—is the core of my being, and I’m so thankful they see it.” ✦
Featured in our May/June 2019 issue.
