Caroline Diani and Jeffrey Doornbos, Southern California transplants (she was born in Nairobi and grew up in the north of England, he’s from the Midwest), have an idyllic life in Santa Barbara. Yet something was geographically lacking: “A couple of years ago, we decided we wanted to be bicoastal; to have a base on the East Coast,” according to Caroline, the owner of Santa Barbara interiors shop Diani Living. “I grew up in the north of England, in an old stone farmhouse, with an Aga in the kitchen and winters spent indoors reading. And Jeffrey, who’s an actor and founding Blue Man Group member, wanted to be closer to the theater world in NYC.
“I started Googling ‘old stone farm house’ and a listing popped up in Germantown, NY, just a couple of hours north of NYC. We flew out for a weekend to see the place, and within seconds we were convinced. We went after it hard; there were swarms of potential buyers at the open house. We wrote a letter to the owners telling them how committed we were to retaining the original character of the place, which was built in 1752 and hadn’t been altered much, aside from a 1950s kitchen addition.”
Caroline and Jeffrey have been slowly restoring the interiors (“Jeffrey’s become a big DIYer,” Caroline says), taking care to preserve the original character and filling the space with vintage and antique finds sourced locally. Join us for a tour:
Photography by Marili Forastieri; produced and styled by Zio & Sons.
![diani doornbos stone house 3](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/diani-doornbos-stone-house-3-733x1100.jpg)
![diani doornbos stone house 11](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/diani-doornbos-stone-house-11-733x488.jpg)
In the dining area, Caroline and Jeffrey removed a partition wall to create an open space and had a specialist repoint the fireplace using antique bricks. “Jeffrey is on the quest for the perfect dining room light fixture,” Caroline says. “He created a placeholder by draping a couple of simple bulb fixtures on a vintage herb dryer.”
![diani doornbos stone house 4](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/diani-doornbos-stone-house-4-733x488.jpg)
![diani doornbos stone house 14](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/diani-doornbos-stone-house-14-733x1027.jpg)
![diani doornbos stone house 13](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/diani-doornbos-stone-house-13-733x489.jpg)
![diani doornbos stone house 15](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/diani-doornbos-stone-house-15-733x1027.jpg)
![diani doornbos stone house 12](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/diani-doornbos-stone-house-12-733x1049.jpg)
![diani doornbos stone house 6](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/diani-doornbos-stone-house-6-733x488.jpg)
![diani doornbos stone house 2](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/diani-doornbos-stone-house-2-733x1027.jpg)
![diani doornbos stone house 1](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/diani-doornbos-stone-house-1-733x1100.jpg)
![diani doornbos stone house 8](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/diani-doornbos-stone-house-8-733x1100.jpg)
![diani doornbos stone house 16](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/diani-doornbos-stone-house-16-733x587.jpg)
![diani doornbos stone house 9](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/diani-doornbos-stone-house-9-733x1027.jpg)
Many of the pieces in the house are from local antiques shop Red Chair; take a tour of owner Jocelyn Sinauer’s house here:
A Historical Hudson, NY, Home Reimagined (European Antiques Included)
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