Before & After: Old Beams Meet a New Metal Staircase in a 1700s Farmhouse in New Jersey
Fuller/Overby Architecture inserts treads and railing in perforated steel, a colorful bathroom, and sleek millwork that harmonizes with the original eccentricities in a family’s new home.
From the crooked wood floors, to the hand-hewn timber frame and two-foot-thick sandstone base walls, "Nothing is quite straight in this house," says Clément, of the farmhouse he and wife Eleonora bought in 2022. Perhaps that’s to be expected, since the original portion of the house, which consisted of two rooms and a loft, was built in 1734, while the rest of it was added in 1787. The home was one of a few then built along this portion of the Hackensack River in Teaneck, New Jersey, thanks to a group of Dutch colonists moving out of nearby Manhattan.
Clément and Eleonora’s farmhouse in Teaneck, New Jersey was originally built in 1734, then given a larger gambrel roof addition to reach its current size in 1787. With its thick walls made of New Jersey sandstone—the same material used to build Manhattan brownstones—local historical records note that it’s an excellent example of early stone houses in the area.
Paul Warchol
When Clément and Eleonora found the house, such timeworn irregularities held a certain appeal, as he is from Brussels, Belgium, and she Milan, Italy. "We both grew up around old historical buildings, so when we saw it, it reminded us of home right away," says Clément.
After living in a Manhattan apartment with their two Great Danes for too long—"When we were thinking about the next step, it included a garden for the dogs," says Clément, a software engineer—the couple limited their house hunt to those a certain distance from Eleonora’s work, as she’s a neurosurgeon who needs to be within 20 minutes of the hospital. While the old farmhouse fit their criteria in terms of character and location, they reached out to architects Emma Fuller and Michael Overby of Fuller/Overby Architecture before purchasing, to make sure it could be modernized.
Before: Stair Hall
Before: When Clément and Eleonora bought the home, the lower level had been kept intact, while the upper two floors, where the remodel was focused, had been extensively changed in the ensuing centuries. "I wouldn’t necessarily say the beams caught our attention right away because they almost looked decorative, as opposed to integral to the structure," says Fuller. "They were so obscured and so messed with, they felt like a ‘ye olde country feature.’"
Courtesy of Fuller/Overby Architecture
After: Stair Hall
Fuller/Overby Architecture removed a portion of the floor between the second and third levels to create a light-filled, open-air stair hall. "Our approach to the project was to unearth the original hidden timbers and organize a new open plan around the spatial matrix that they define," says Overby.
Photo: Paul Warchol
See the full story on Dwell.com: Before & After: Old Beams Meet a New Metal Staircase in a 1700s Farmhouse in New Jersey
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