Rustic Meets Modern in Pascoag Home Inspired By its Surroundings

When Jennifer Barone first moved to Rhode Island from Connecticut, she bought an old storage trunk salvaged from a barn in Burrillville. “That was in 2010 and I didn’t even know where Burrillville was,” she recalls with a chuckle. Just three years later, Jennifer ended up in Pascoag, one of the eight villages that comprise the town in the state’s northwest corner, while house-hunting with husband Nicholas. She was instantly smitten with a saltbox-Colonial, reminiscent of her childhood dollhouse. The charming property sat on 12 acres abutting the George Washington Management Area and even had its own red barn. “I feel like I brought the trunk back to its Burrillville home,” says Jennifer.

“A lot of people think coastal decor when they think of Rhode Island, but I tend to gravitate to the general New England farmhouse style instead,” says Jennifer, who takes her design cue from the woodland surroundings of stone walls and even a cranberry bog. “The man we bought the house from built it using reclaimed beams from an 1800s mill in Providence and brick salvaged from Boston’s Big Dig,” she begins. “He whittled each peg from trees from the property. All of our floors are also wood from pine trees that were here.

He first built our red barn in the back in 2006, then completed the saltbox in 2008.” Recently, the Barones have added on a garage, mudroom, and bedroom, adhering to a “carriage house” sensibility while accommodating their growing family of four young children, a dog, four chickens, and a catfish.

“The post and beams in the house add so much character. I love every wooden peg and it’s also convenient since there are so many little places I can hang or tuck something special,” says Jennifer. To keep interiors feeling bright despite the deep wood tones, Jennifer relies on white paint to help reflect light. Recently, she’s been exploring wallpaper for its “Old World feel” and is drawn to anything with a story and pieces that spark conversation. Accents are a discerning assemblage of family heirlooms, vintage prints and plates, and finds from shopping downtown Chepachet.

“We enjoy living in the woods,” says Jennifer, who enjoys nighttime stargazing, and foraging with her kids, using their finds for nature crafts and decor. “I love Rhode Island. Where else can you be in the countryside and then dine in some of the best restaurants in the US, see the ocean, and even get away to picture-perfect Block Island?”