In April 2021, the night before Terese and Dennis Barous were scheduled to fly back to Boston from Florida, their Ipswich home burned to the ground. “We had lived in the house since we got married over 50 years ago,” Terese says. “Luckily, we were not there because it was a horrific fire.”

On the recommendation of a neighbor, the couple contracted Windward Shaw, a Newburyport-based construction company that had built several homes on Great Neck, to build a new home on their property. The firm tapped Kate Daskalakis of Newburyport-based KSD Designs, to meet with the couple about the interior.

Daskalakis showed up to the presentation with a swatch of a large-scale plaid wallpaper that she felt captures a modern take on a traditional aesthetic, a look she thought might resonate with the couple. Terese was wearing a plaid shirt. “We both like a moody New England vibe that mixes modern with vintage pieces,” the designer says. The Barouses brought Daskalakis on board, along with the plaid wallpaper, which ended up in the powder room.

The couple also love modern farmhouse style. Daskalakis specified eight-inch-wide nickel gap boards for the walls and ceilings in select locations throughout the home to dress things up. It’s all painted in Farrow & Ball’s Wimborne White, a just-off-white that reads bright, thanks to copious natural light, but still feels warm.

The treatment happens right up front in the entry-mudroom where Daskalakis also introduces other design devices she employs in the house, including mixing various metals and wood tones. For instance, a rich walnut bench hovers above white oak floors, and the built-ins’ quarter-sawn white-oak doors have a whitewash finish and black metal mesh screens (a material repeated on the lower-level bar).