Photography by Donovan Roberts Witmer
Warm sunlight casts angular shapes across a rich walnut floor. It’s a modern space like something you’d see in California, or a modern home magazine like Dwell. “The whole house is wrapped in light,” says homeowner and designer Amy Bye. Its south-facing position is ideal for natural light. Amy smiles, happy on the sofa in her sunroom. But it wasn’t always this picture.
Renegade Renovation
When the couple purchased the 1982 ranch- style home in Hershey, they knew they had their work cut out for them. Literally, cutting out a wall between the living room and what they’ve turned into a sunroom sitting area; ripping out wall-to-wall carpet; converting a four-car garage to add a guest bedroom, bath, and laundry room; and adding new life to smoker-stained yellow and quick-contractor-white-washed walls. The renovation is finished with collected treasures of sentiment to create a space in which the family lives, works, and plays–artfully.
Even the exterior got a makeover from an outdated brown to a warm, historic Louisburg Green by Benjamin Moore with updated shutters in Farrow and Ball’s Black Blue and an Arts and Crafts-style door.
It was the double-sided expansive stone fireplace that sold them on the home. Stretching the length of the living and dining rooms, it is a statement, the star of the space. “We knew it was special,” adds Bye; “The stone palate determined a lot of the colors in the space.
Home Work
“We gravitate toward the natural palate of things, natural wood and elements,” says Bye. Colors and textures play a big role in her home. Her eye for design, color pairings, and room composition are evident in the family’s living spaces, which are styled, yet lived in. Bye’s business of nearly twenty years, Surface Studio (www.surfacestudioinc.com), has evolved over time from decorative finishes and color consultation to full service interior design.
Bye specializes in plasterwork, and many of the walls in her home beckon you to have a closer look, and touch. The master bedroom, for example, is plaster with walnut shell aggregate, which adds subtle flecks of texture and color to complement the walnut floor. In fact, the couple met at an Italian plastering class in New York City, so the material seems only fitting for the walls of their abode.
Other reminders of their days of dating and life in New York are scattered throughout the space, such as whimsical puppets they bought together in SoHo on a chest of drawers in their bedroom and an oversized painting of a Coney Island food stand that hangs in the dining room, painted by Amy's husband Jeff, who is a fine artist (www.jeffbye.com).
Old and new elements coexist in the space. There are mid-century modern dining room chairs and a console in the bedroom from Circa Antiques in York (717-852-4422); antique cherry side tables from Amy’s grandmother, which she plans to paint navy blue to draw from the orange and navy rug; and the bedroom’s pendant light and matching pillow stamped with leaves from Galbraith and Paul in Manayunk (www.galbraithandpaul.com).
Oh, Baby
The day the couple sold their condo to buy this home, they found out Amy was pregnant, so in addition to their major renovations, they would need to prepare a space for their daughter Evelina. The two-and-a-half-year-old’s room is a fun filled space of whimsy and wonder. Amy hand stenciled one wall of Evelina’s room with an animal and floral design from Royal Design Studio in California (www.royaldesignstudio.com) using Benjamin Moore’s Cat’s Meow and Citrus Blossom for a bold yet warm pink and orange accent wall. She works with Aumen’s Paint and Wallpaper Store in Hershey (www.aumenspaintstore.com) to custom match colors for herself and clients. Because wallpaper has become vogue again, she’s doing more stenciling to create custom accent walls like this for other people’s homes. “It’s more unlimited to do colors and finishing than the other ingredients of a room,” she adds.
“At first, I had her room all white. I wanted it clean and modern. Then reality kicked in; kids need visual stimulation,” explains Amy. Interest and imagination pop up behind books on shelves backed with decorative paper, and in lovingly handcrafted items from both grandmothers, like the colorful wooden animals that top the windowsills and a cross-stitched bunny pillow that cozies up a reading nook.
Cooks in the Kitchen
The creativity that runs in the family doesn’t end at Amy (and Jeff’s) artistic abilities. Amy was first considering becoming a pastry chef and continues her love for baking. So when the couple designed their kitchen, they needed a space that functioned and fit their modern aesthetic. They turned to the local pros at Swartz Kitchens and Baths (www.swartzkitchens.com) for their clean-lined birch cabinetry topped with natural soapstone from Natural Stoneworks in Lancaster (www.naturalstoneworks.com). The couple also found the slate for their entryway there.
But the hub and conversation piece of the kitchen is the one-of-a-kind giant slab of salvaged walnut that was custom made into an island by a wood expert friend in the business, Mark Scheller, who made a similar slab sink base out of cherry wood for the bathroom that is adjacent to the kitchen. Above the island hangs a modern version of a tin punched pendant, found at one of Amy’s favorite places to shop, Terrain at Styers in Glen Mills (www.shopterrain.com).
Personalized Panache
Through her work as an interior designer, one of Amy’s most important goals is to help homeowners personalize their spaces. “I listen to their needs, try to focus on what’s meaningful, and help with personalized accessories.” It’s a process of poring through magazine clippings, ideas they like, Pinterest boards and Houzz finds, but she tries to educate them on why they like what they like and then shop for similar items. She adds, “The most interesting personal accents are the ones that are found over time.”
One of the things that makes her own home so special, inviting, and interesting is the collection of unique accents, antiques, souvenirs from around the world, and original artwork that eclectically come together to form the personality of the space, and a reflection of the family that lives there.
