Tour a Tiny Boathouse in Connecticut With Outsize Charm

In doing so, Wiggins landed on a subtle color scheme that would dialogue with the house’s features, particularly the natural blue-green hue of the grand stone fireplace that dominates the living room. “I wanted a simple, tight palette,” she says. “It needed to be muted, without a huge amount of contrast or saturation.” She chose shades in a spectrum of greens and off-whites, as well as natural materials like wood and rattan. “The vintage rattan wingback armchair and sofa set were the first purchases of the project, and in a lot of ways, they kicked off the tone,” explains Wiggins. “I thought, This building would have rattan, right?”

The designer expanded the concept by sourcing pieces within the same material palette, including a 1970s bamboo coffee table, an early-20th-century wicker bistro chair, and a minimal George Nelson for Herman Miller daybed upholstered in an olive Pierre Frey mohair jacquard. “I didn’t want to add too many other materials,” she adds. “The stone is doing so much work.”

Throughout the house, Wiggins—who also runs a vintage home decor shop on the North Fork of Long Island—says she sought furniture that felt lived-in and cozy. “We wanted pieces that came with an authentic patina, which is surprisingly hard to find,” she professes. That included a weathered blue chest in the living room she says she’s been hoarding for nearly a decade, just waiting for the perfect home. “I had never found any place worthy of it,” she admits. For the dining room, she sourced a rustic Italian farm table, which she matched with a set of antique dining chairs in an inky shade of dark turquoise. The chairs’ wavy backrests echo the undulating weave of the antique Tuareg carpet underfoot. “I hope it feels like they were casually found, but in reality, they were hunted for,” she says. “They have a very specific relationship.”

While Wiggins may have approached the project with the utmost sophistication, she acknowledges the house’s ultimate purpose is leisure. “It’s playful—it’s not meant to be too serious,” reflects the designer. “It wants to be good-looking, but you can also walk in a little damp and put up your feet. That’s the intersection I tried hard to achieve—and I think we captured it here.”