Fay and David Sciarra Preserved a 1791 Stone Cottage with a Contemporary Twist

By Ilene Dube | Photos by Jeffrey E. Tryon and Halkin/Mason Photography

For nearly 30 years, Fay and David Sciarra would drive to Stockton, with its rolling vistas and farmland, to spend time with their friend David Holman. Holman, once a sought-after New York City interior designer, retreated to the countryside when his passions veered toward restoring old homes and estates. In the 18th-century stone farmhouse he lived in, it was more about preserving it as it was. “He wanted to keep its integrity and charm,” recounts Fay.

Holman lavished his attention on the garden, and when the Sciarras came to visit he would take them on tours of his perennials. It was from Holman, Fay says, that she learned everything she knows about gardening.

Photo by Todd Mason, Halkin/Mason Photography

The Sciarras never imagined that, after Holman’s death at age 83, they would come to live in the house and nurture its garden and expand it, propagating the mature plantings in new beds around the redesigned courtyard and stone patio.

Fay, an artist and co-owner of Umbrella home decor and antiques in Hopewell, and David, a civil rights attorney who headed the Education Law Center in Newark (he was integral in the landmark Abbott decision that compelled New Jersey schools to reduce inequalities in its funding), had been happily living in Lawrenceville. Their previous home, a pink Tudor, was filled with Fay’s curated collection of antiques and her own artwork. Architect Ron Berlin had designed her studio in a space over the garage, a sort of treehouse with raw birch handrails leading up to an aerie. With its clawfoot tub and vintage appliances, it served as setting and subject for many of her early works, often in verre églomisé, or reverse painting on glass.

The Sciarras’ Lawrenceville home, garden, and studio were featured in the coffee table book Sacred Spaces: Princeton Parties, Gatherings, and Celebrations (2004), with photographs by Ricardo Barros, and their residence was a popular choice for house swaps — the Sciarras offered it in exchange for trips to Aix-en-Provence, Morocco, Barcelona, Venice, and most recently, Southeast Asia.

They raised two sons there, and Fay’s father — formerly of Florida — came to live with them for the last three years of his life. The house had many memories, but when the opportunity to buy Holman’s house on slightly shy of two acres abutting the Wickecheoke Creek Preserve arose, the couple did not dally.

The only problem was that the stone cottage, at 800 square feet, could not accommodate their contemporary lifestyle.

Fay knew George Akers, one of the two co-founders of Material Design Build (MDB). He had done a renovation of the front bar and production area at Small World Coffee (he is married to Small World co-owner Jessica Durrie), using locally sourced reclaimed wood; built a counter for CoolVines; and renovated the interior of Nomad Pizza in Hopewell. He also fabricated a parklet in front of Small World; remodeled the Blawenburg Café; and created the outdoor patios and facilities at Ironbound Farm in Asbury.

“We never considered anyone else,” says Fay. “We both liked his aesthetic. I call it ‘Scandifornian’ — it’s modern, unfussy, all about the material.”

Fantasy Loft, collage on cello.

“Collaborating closely with the property’s owner, we embarked on a journey that artfully blended a deep respect for the past with our clients’ profound appreciation for modern architecture,” says the MDB website of the project. “We envisioned this as a restomod for a home, bridging the gap between history and contemporary living.”

Akers, who started out as a cabinet maker and considers New Jersey Barn Company’s Elric Endersby and Alex Greenwood mentors, makes it clear that he is not an architect. “We are facilitators, our expertise is to listen to what the client is asking for and help them understand the practical aspects of construction, then work in tandem for agreeable elements within their budget,” says Akers. “Anything can be made beautiful with umpteen dollars but being clever about what you can accomplish within budget is the art of construction.”

The project was one he wanted to take on, Akers says, because “I’m always looking for the longevity of a project to the lives of its owners. It’s their forever home, they’re not building for resale. We can customize to their needs and not be subject to what a realtor would want to sell fast. I believe you should build with as much customization as budget allows and build better. That’s what makes it stand out.”

Both Sciarras stress that the project was a collaboration, and the combined visions of the parties is apparent throughout. Antiques from all over the world, sourced from Fay’s connections with dealers, abound. It’s as if the space was designed to fit the objects while, simultaneously, the objects seem to exist for the reason of being in those spaces.

The enormous triple-paned windows, imported from Poland, on all sides of the contemporary addition offer views into the woods, flooding the space with natural light and providing insulation.

Speaking of those views: one of Fay’s more recent paintings, Dawn, is a view at the Wickecheoke Preserve just as the world is coming into light. While the Sciarras have seen deer, fox, squirrels, birds, snakes, coyotes, and crickets, this fanciful view also includes raccoons, rabbits, owls, and more.

One of the challenges in building the new light-filled contemporary space was to not dwarf or overshadow the existing house that meant so much to them.

Akers had the idea to cut through the old thick stone wall to create a passageway with a stairway that was inspired by the stairway at Stuart County Day School of the Sacred Heart by Princeton University architecture professor Jean Labatut. Architect J. Robert Hillier (publisher of Princeton Magazine), then a student of Labatut, worked with him on the design of Stuart and that stairwell. Coincidentally, Akers had built cabinets for one of Hillier’s homes.

“As a kid I had difficulties learning some things, but I had a near-photographic memory of architectural details,” says Akers. “I remembered running up and down those stairs at Stuart when my sister was going to school there, and how much fun it was.”

Recalling how the steps at Stuart were shallow so that, in the words of Hillier, it looked like the nuns were just floating up the stairs, Akers arranged to visit the school to fact check his memory. What it inspired for the Sciarra home is a stairway made of blackened steel with deep treads that creates a sort of equality between the two spaces. It is set where you enter the house, experiencing the old and new at once.

On the terrace outside the door is an outdoor shower, which the couple uses exclusively in the warm weather. It’s perfect after working in the garden — the couple does all the yardwork themselves — and a soak in the hot tub.

Bathing is a theme in Sciarra’s artwork, as well as her life. One of her older paintings was of an outdoor shower in Nantucket. Her earlier work also included self-portraits in her clawfoot tub. And there were tubs in the yard of the Lawrenceville home. Here, in addition to the outdoor shower, there are sleek modern tubs in both her studio and the master bedroom, as well as a large shower area with no enclosure. The couple uses them all.

The great room includes a living area with the aforementioned windows, the dining area, and the kitchen. Because everything can be seen in the room, the design includes storage and a large pantry so small appliances can be stowed out of sight. Even knobs and hardware have been eliminated to allow the eye to relax. All that occupies the counters, so they remain restful spaces for the eye, are a large wooden bowl and an enormous Birth of Venus scallop shell.

“I used to be the queen of clutter,” says Fay. “I run an antiques shop! I still love beautiful things but don’t have to have them all around me. I’ve learned to edit.”

David is the cook in the family. “He’ll wake up and read recipes,” says Fay.

One of his specialties is pho, the Vietnamese noodle soup, and while they were traveling in Thailand recently, he took cooking classes. He shops at local farms and makes everything from fish tacos to “an amazing brothy chowder made with corn and clams,” says his appreciative wife.

When David retired after two decades with the Education Law Center, the Star-Ledger’s Tom Moran called him “the most influential New Jersey man you’ve never heard of,” a “hall-of-fame lawyer who has spent a quarter century winning Supreme Court cases on educational equity … to ensure a good education for all students, rich and poor.”

David still does consulting work but also takes the time to volunteer for the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, go on daily hikes, take yoga classes, ride his bike on back roads, and travel.

The couple’s older son Paul, 42, a founder of Pinterest and Joby Aviation, recently gifted his dad a ticket to the Democratic National Convention. “It was my first, and it was electrifying seeing Oprah, both Obamas, and Kamala and Tim,” recounts David.

In what the couple calls the old house — the original 1791 cottage — the fireplace gives off the scent of burning wood. With wood beams, pumpkin pine floors, and vintage furnishings, it offers a contrast in feeling to the large open great room. A magnificent, tufted leather sofa with a vintage worn look seems like it was born for the space.

From that room, one takes the “winders” — the winding wooden staircase — up to enter a heavenly and magical space: the studio. The walls are painted white, and it is lit with natural light and track lighting in the beams. Because the space doubles as a guest room — younger son Sam, 30, a music producer, visits often — there is a Murphy bed and a bathroom. A stone sink is just outside the bathroom, and another smaller stone sink in the opposite corner is for washing brushes.

Dahlia Garden, reverse painting on glass.

On the easel is a work in progress, based on the dahlia garden in the yard below. It is mixed media on a vintage church window — a signature Fay Sciarra piece. In another work, an homage to her nana for whom she was named, is a fragment of an old reverse painting on glass she inherited. It was her introduction to the medium she has made her own.

All the while Fay had been running Umbrella, caring for her father, and working with a builder to create a one-of-a-kind home, she has been painting.

Her work is in the collection of the late Gloria Vanderbilt, among others. Vanderbilt discovered Sciarra’s work on 1stdibs.com and subsequently bought a second piece, a dress form sculpture. After that a correspondence ensued, and Vanderbilt became an Umbrella client. Among her purchases was a Hermès orange vintage desk. “She was a true inspiration,” says Sciarra, who created a reverse painting on glass and collage called Glorious Gloria.

During the pandemic she found herself, for the first time in her life, making abstract art — it was a kind of meditation for the practicing Buddhist. But now Sciarra has returned to the style for which she is known, often including assemblage with vintage elements, and the home offers numerous areas for its display. There’s a small gallery on the lower level of the connector, just before entering the master bedroom, and climate-controlled storage in the basement.

She likes to have a tub in the studio, Fay says, so she can soak, along with a glass of chardonnay, and ponder her work.

Holman’s ashes were laid to rest in the garden, and one can only imagine him watching over the changes, nodding in approval.