A Connecticut Colonial Gains a Barn Wing That Matches Its Age

Rose Bonura's Colonial in Connecticut is about three centuries old, and its newest addition was designed to look just as old. The restaurateur asked designer Ryan Lawson, who is also her friend, to work on an aging garage on the property. He turned it into a barn-style wing filled with references to earlier times. The project shows how hard it is to add to a house this old: anything new has to fit with three hundred years of building and use, or it looks out of place. Lawson's wing was meant to fit. A visitor coming up to the house should see the barn and the Colonial as parts of one place, as if they had always stood together. The garage was not torn down. It was kept and given a new purpose. When a historic house gets new space and still reads as a single, finished place, credit goes to the designer and to the owner who chose the work.

With reporting from Elle Decor.