House Tour

A Falmouth Farmhouse Balances Style With Small Children

Durable finishes and a laid-back attitude are among Travis and Miranda Jordan’s secrets.

ABOVE Admit it — you kind of want to touch those grooved Cedar & Moss pendant lights too. The Serena & Lily stools young Landon used to reach them made a brief return for our shoot featuring Miranda and 3-year-old Stevie.

TEXT BY SARAH STEBBINS
PHOTOGRAPHED BY JAMES R. SALOMON

Travis and Miranda Jordan’s new West Falmouth home is nearly everything they’d pictured: a deep-gray modern farmhouse with an open plan and wide, woodsy views. They didn’t anticipate having to relocate the kitchen counter stools on account of one of their 18-month-old twins using them to grab at the ceramic pendants overhead. But, like the trim dinged by baby walkers and toys piled in the would-be office, “we’ve let it go,” says Miranda. “We have these fleeting moments with our children.” The Jordans enlisted Portland’s Brush & Hammer Builders and Yarmouth interior designer Samantha Pappas to create their home on 2 acres purchased from Travis’s great-uncle and moved in last year. “It definitely gives us that vibe of happiness and calm,” Miranda says, just as the stool climber hurtles into the room.

EXTERIOR

The Jordans chose this spot to be close to Travis’s parents and extended family, who live on neighboring lots. Falmouth’s Curran Drafting & Design drew up their architectural plans and the couple chose Iron Gray James Hardie fiber-cement cladding. “I love the traditional white farmhouse but wanted something different,” Miranda says.

LIVING ROOM

A low-profile sectional in performance linen helps preserve the connection between the kitchen and living area, which also includes a tiered oak coffee table, a cotton-linen armchair, pillows by Gorham’s Erin Flett, and Loloi rugs. “If you’re having trouble finding that one perfect rug, layering is a good way to add different colors and textures,” Pappas says. A Frances Hynes painting from Falmouth’s Moss Galleries picks up the exterior greens.

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DINING AREA

Ivory and natural tones that reference the surrounding forest prevail in the kitchen-dining space. “We didn’t want anything super-trendy that we’d get sick of,” Miranda says. The couple’s clean-lined furniture includes an oak pedestal table and cane chairs that balance a jute pendant. Schumacher-fabric pillows in geometric and deer prints — a favorite of outdoorsman Travis — enliven the built-in bench.

POWDER ROOM

Located off the side entrance, the powder room continues the exterior palette with Cole & Son’s Moby-Dick–inspired Melville wallpaper, square ceramic tiles, and a concrete sink in inky hues interior designer Samantha Pappas offset with brass accents and a walnut vanity.

BEDROOM

“Being a young, naïve mother, I had a vision of being in this house and everyone sleeping in their own beds,” says Miranda, whose Pottery Barn king-size canopy bed (for better or worse) fits the whole family. Benjamin Moore’s White Dove wall color (used throughout the house) and neutral linens from the couple’s prior home in Windham help establish a calm baseline.

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KIDS' BATH

Sculptural pine Crate & Kids pendants play off Bringing Hexy Back wallpaper by Abnormals Anonymous in a kids’ bath “that is also totally cool enough for guests,” Pappas says. Benjamin Moore’s First Snowfall on the adjacent walls and a quartz-and-rosewood vanity set off the pattern.

TWINS' ROOM

Boho embroidered Urban Outfitters curtains and a leopard-pattern CB2 rug harmonize in Landon and Lola’s room. Pappas made a wall hanging similar to one in her daughter’s room (featured in the May 2019 issue of Down East) from tassels that were once part of an Anthropologie window display. Do they get tugged? “Yup, they’ve started!” Miranda says.