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House Beautiful profiled a New Canaan, Connecticut, home designed by Ariel Okin for a couple with two young children. The five-bedroom Colonial incorporates the owners’ bird figurine collection and love of nature through wallpaper, fabrics and decor, alongside practical spaces for family life.
House Beautiful has featured a five-bedroom Colonial in New Canaan, Connecticut, where designer Ariel Okin used bird-themed details and nature-inspired patterns to personalize a new-build home for a couple with a toddler and an infant. The project turns the family’s interest in birds and the pastoral landscape around the house into a design that also accounts for young children and everyday use.
Okin, whose practice is based in Connecticut and New York City, said the home felt like an “empty white box” when the project began. The owners wanted the look of the surrounding farmland brought indoors, she told House Beautiful. The house is near a horse farm, and Okin’s palette draws on that setting with floral prints, stripes, airy linens, pale blues and chocolate browns.
The bird theme appears through both the family’s own collection and new design choices. Okin incorporated the owners’ bird figurines and selected bird-motif wallpaper for the dining room. In a first-floor powder room, the report says, a bright green bird-accented wallcovering was designed by Okin in collaboration with The Mural Source. She said the challenge was to include the collection without making the home feel like a museum.
The home’s other rooms balance decorative choices with practical needs. The entry uses vintage and antique pieces, including a settee, while the living room combines pale blue millwork, neutral grasscloth and patterned upholstery. The kitchen remains largely white, with stools and striped window treatments adding texture and color. The nursery and playroom take a more playful direction, with bright primary colors and patterns intended to suit the children as they grow.
Bird Motifs Meet Family Life
The tour offers a concrete example of how a homeowner’s personal collection can shape a room without taking over the entire interior. Here, birds recur in selected wallpaper and objects, while the wider nature theme is carried by florals, colors and materials. The result, as described in House Beautiful, connects the home’s decoration to the owners’ interests and the landscape around their property.
The family’s ages also influenced the design brief. Okin said the children’s rooms were meant to feel exciting for them at the toddler stage while remaining usable as they grow. That practical aim sits alongside the couple’s wish for rooms they could live in and host in over time. Okin described the dining room as a space she imagined the family using for Thanksgiving years into the future; that is her design intention, not a guarantee about how the owners will use the room.
For readers following residential design, the project shows how a new-build can be given a more personal character through furnishings, artwork and surface patterns rather than relying on a single theme in every room. The report does not provide a budget, construction timeline or details about the home’s size beyond its five bedrooms, so the project is best understood as a design feature, not a guide to costs or renovation results.
bird motif wallpaper for dining room
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From White New-Build to Colonial Retreat
The home is described in the report as a classic Colonial with white clapboard, set on a hill near a horse farm in New Canaan. Although its architecture and setting already gave it a New England character, Okin said the interiors initially felt impersonal. The clients’ interest in nature became the organizing idea for the project, expressed through finishes and objects rather than through a major architectural change described in the source.
Okin worked with Mike Cerreta of Cerreta Builders during the project. House Beautiful’s tour also credits the clients’ artwork with shaping the living room and identifies furnishings and materials used in the rooms, including Lewis & Wood dining-room wallpaper, Schumacher window treatments in the kitchen and Borrowed Light paint by Farrow & Ball in the living room. These details are reported as part of the finished design; the source does not describe a broader building or real-estate development.
The article also records Okin’s account of the family’s reaction after moving in. She said they sent her a note of gratitude, which she keeps in her office. That anecdote is her description of the clients’ response, rather than an independently documented assessment of the home.
““It was an empty white box when we started working on it.””
— Ariel Okin, interior designer, speaking to House Beautiful
bird figurine collection display shelves
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Project Details Not Reported
House Beautiful’s report describes the design and names several furnishings, finishes and collaborators, but it does not state when the project was completed, how long the work took or what it cost. It also does not give the family’s names or identify the property’s address. The article’s descriptions of the clients’ preferences and response come through Okin, and the source does not include separate interviews with the homeowners.
The report does not establish whether the family’s bird collection is complete, how many pieces were incorporated or whether the home has since been photographed or altered. No construction problems, permits or sale plans are reported. These points remain outside the information provided, rather than confirmed developments.
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No Further Project Milestone Listed
The source presents the residence as a completed design project and does not announce a sale, renovation phase or other upcoming milestone. Readers can view the House Beautiful home tour for the room-by-room photographs and additional product credits. Any later changes to the property or new information from the owners or design team would need to be reported separately; none is specified in the source material.
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Key Questions
Where is the featured home?
The five-bedroom home is in New Canaan, Connecticut, near a horse farm, according to House Beautiful.
Who designed the interiors?
Ariel Okin, whose practice is based in Connecticut and New York City, designed the interiors. The report says she worked with builder Mike Cerreta of Cerreta Builders.
How does the home reflect the owners’ interest in birds?
The design incorporates the owners’ bird figurine collection, bird motifs in the dining-room wallpaper and bird-accented wallcovering in a first-floor powder room.
Was the home designed for a family with young children?
Yes. House Beautiful describes the clients as a couple with a toddler and an infant. Okin said the nursery and playroom were designed to feel engaging for the children while accommodating their growth.
Does the report give the project’s cost or completion date?
No. The source does not provide a budget, project timeline or completion date.
Source: rss
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