At a Brunswick Inn, a Designer and Her Husband Marry Streamlined and 19th-Century Styles
The 1819 structure was the home of Captain Daniel Stone and his daughter, Narcissa, an unheard-of-for-her-time entrepreneur and real-estate developer.
ABOVE Among the visual delights in Brunswick’s new hotel, The Federal: the lobby’s 20-foot-tall oak bookshelf and petrified-wood table. Photograph by Nicole Wolf.
TEXT BY MICHAELA CAVALLARO
Despite decades in complementary careers, Portland interior designer Annie Kiladjian and her husband, hotel manager Gerard, had never collaborated professionally. That was until last year, when new owners hired Annie to design The Federal, in Brunswick, formerly The Daniel and the Captain Daniel Stone Inn. When they needed a manager, she introduced Gerard, who ran the Portland Harbor Hotel and the city’s Inn at Diamond Cove.
ABOVE 1) Exterior of the new Brunswick inn, photographed by Benjamin Williamson. 2) A sumptuous performance-velvet guest-room bed, photographed by Nicole Wolf.
Annie specified a sophisticated nautical palette of dark teal, black, and cream for the 1819 Federal-style structure — former home of businessman Stone and his daughter, Narcissa, an unheard-of-for-her-time entrepreneur and real-estate developer — and its 1980s addition. Textural performance-velvet and oak-caned beds are juxtaposed with original carved-marble and tile fireplaces and fluted moldings in the old building, while existing dark-wood furnishings add patina to the crisp new color scheme in the addition. In the lobby, a white-oak bookshelf displaying sculptural vessels, decorative propellers and anchors, and a portrait of Narcissa climbs alongside a 20-foot-high wall of windows.
When Gerard came on board and the couple became the property’s managing partners, they refined the design, with him visualizing how guests might flow through a space (wanting to move from a meeting room to the mezzanine for lunch, for example) and Annie finding the pieces to make it happen (teak sideboards, caned tables and chairs). “We respect each other’s expertise,” Gerard says. “I might question a few things she does, but at the end of the day, I trust it’s the right decision.”
ABOVE A restaurant mural by South Portland’s Tessa Greene O’Brien, photographed by Nicole Wolf.
There was no question when it came to luring Steve and Michelle Corry, owners of Portland’s Petit Jacqueline and, formerly, 555 restaurants, to open 555 North here. Annie set a modern- rustic scene with industrial metal-cage pendants, white-oak tables, and an enchanting fern-and-wildflower mural by South Portland’s Tessa Greene O’Brien. The Kiladjians say locals are particularly excited about the addition of a leathered-black-granite bar with seating for two dozen. For their part, the couple is eager to continue making the place their own. “I design it, he runs it, we own it with our partners,” Annie says. “This has always been our wish.”
