Schoolhouse Visits A Cozy Connecticut Cabin & Barn
Had Instagram existed in the early aughts, Melanie Charlton Fowler would likely have been an original organizer influencer. The founder of Clos-Ette, her approach to custom storage solutions no doubt laid the groundwork for the aspirationally glam and meticulously arranged, dressing rooms glittering in our social feeds today. Watch the full video tour as Melanie walks through every detail.
“I was in the fashion world for many years, and that’s why I do closets,” says Charlton Fowler. “I’m also an avid cook, and that’s why I started doing kitchens, too.” Unsurprisingly, she’s also deeply passionate about interiors—and nowhere is that on fuller display than in her personal projects, which have lately come to include a stunning barn-turned-guest-house, nestled on a family property in Connecticut, a few hours outside New York City.
The conversion was a matter of necessity: Charlton Fowler and her husband, along with their five kids, began leasing the estate a decade ago, in 2014, and fell in love with the rolling hills and stunning natural setting. A few years later, they bought it, with a plan to update the main house. “We were not going to live off the property during that process,” she explains, so they turned to the existing outbuildings, which included a centuries-old barn, relocated from Vermont by the previous owners.
She knew that bringing it from horse habitat to human homestead was a major challenge, having been here before. “You really have to be up for a renovation. It’s hard on a marriage—it’s hard on everybody,” she adds, laughing. “You need to have some real love for preservation in order to go the distance.” They decided they did, and forged ahead, tapping in architect Michael Goldman to develop the structure.
Designed to be independent from the main house, the reworked space features a large primary bedroom plus plenty of other places to bunk down, literally. The great room, which can be cordoned off with large sliding doors, is the hub of it all—along with a gorgeous, Old World European-inspired eat-in kitchen. A snug was added to the back area of the structure, a place to lounge and watch movies, and a tack room that houses equestrian necessities, she says. “The back is all glass. You can see my riding room. You can see the mountains. The views are spectacular.”
Charlton Fowler collaborated with London-born, Connecticut-based designer Virginia Tupker to imbue the decorative layer of the space with a heritage sensibility: elegant and comfortable, yet unfussy and forgiving. “We spend a lot of time in the Cotswolds and I’m also a big lover of Swedish and European antiques,” she says. Compared to the plans for the main house, the barn retains a rustic charm: “It was not meant to be overdone.”
Antique pine tables mingle with a quilted sofa, patterned seating, with wicker pendant shades overhead and seagrass underfoot. Not one to waste, Charlton Fowler resized and re-used a Stark carpet that had previously had a life in the main house; the two large chandeliers anchoring the great room were also from that space.
The project is complete, which isn’t the same as finished. Charlton Fowler remembers the early days of a decade ago, when the children were little and darting down trails, playing make believe, weaving through the trees, creating the memories that would make this place feel like home. “When you love a property, you’re really renovating it forever,” she says. “You almost have to think of it as an ongoing loving instead.”
