Matthew Fisher’s Upstate New York Home: Living With Beautiful Objects

This article examines how a 1829 Rhinebeck farmhouse was expanded with a modern gabled addition. A couple and the designers at Apparatus reimagined the home to honor history while embracing contemporary craft.

Purchased in 2022, the home blends upstate charm with a restrained interior reassembly. The design foregrounds memory, art, and daily living as a form of healing.

A Thoughtful Blend of Historic Form and Contemporary Craft

The project preserves the house’s original volumes while upgrading essential systems. Interiors were reconfigured to reflect the owners’ sensibilities.

Instead of tearing apart the architecture, the couple reassembled spaces to serve contemporary life and art collection. The result is a residence that feels like a personal retreat.

Architectural Strategy: Preserving Volumes While Upgrading Systems

Key moves include relocating the kitchen to the original cellar. The team reconstructed a plaster staircase and inserted a glass-and-steel partition in the attic-level primary bedroom.

The primary suite is perched in the attic, softened by fabrics and lighting that nod to the former owners. The architecture retains its historic cadence and proportion.

• Reconfigured kitchen placed in the cellar to preserve above-ground volumes
• Plaster staircase rebuilt to integrate with the house’s historic feel
• Glass-and-steel partition in the attic bedroom creating airy privacy
• Attic primary suite as a light-filled, memory-rich retreat

Interiors as Personal Gallery: Craft, Art, and Memory

Furnishings and finishes weave high design with personal history. A Liaigre dining table anchors the dining room, paired with a blackened French-oak base.

An antique brass-and-iron lantern adds a patinated glow. Matthew and his gallery, M.Fisher, contributed custom granite and marble pieces, grounding the interiors in bespoke craft.

The primary suite’s details include a striped silk jacquard canopy and hand-painted wardrobe figures. Apparatus lighting echoes the design language of the house’s original inhabitants.

In the powder room, a Paonazzo-topped vanity pays homage to Liaigre. The kitchen’s oak cabinetry nods to the owner’s father’s work at the US Geological Survey with specimen-drawer-inspired forms.

Public and Private Spaces: Studio to Guesthouse

A former pottery studio was repurposed into a private guesthouse. The guest bedroom showcases locally sourced antiques and textiles.

These choices reinforce a sense of place through regional craft and material history.

Landscape and Outdoor Living

Brooklyn-based landscape designers Harrison Green updated the grounds to complement the interiors. Outdoor living is accented by a custom marble fire table and thoughtful seating areas.

These features invite day-to-night use of the property and turn exterior spaces into extensions of the artful, memory-filled interiors.

Memory, Healing, and Architecture

Throughout the house, curated objects—many connected to personal moments—shape an intimate, collected atmosphere.

The goal was not to display a brand. Instead, crafted finishes and artful details are woven into a space that supports memory and healing.

This weekend retreat balances craft, personal history, and architectural restraint.

It offers a place where visitors and residents can pause and reflect.

Keywords: Rhinebeck farmhouse renovation, Apparatus design, historic home restoration, upstate New York interiors, bespoke cabinetry, art-informed interiors, memory and healing in design, landscape by Harrison Green

 
Here is the source article for this story: Matthew Fisher Designed His Upstate New York With One Goal In Mind: Living With Beautiful Objects