My favorite detail in Helen Dealtry and Dan Barry’s 1830 house in Claverack, New York: two delicate, oval-shaped pieces of honeycomb in a small pink bowl. When I moved the honeycomb into the light, in front of a window, for a shot, my hands came away sticky. Photographer Alison Engstrom and I had taken the morning train north, from New York to Hudson, to capture the couple’s eclectic house and gardens; the honeycomb, they told me, was from their neighbor, a landscape designer who had designed their own back garden—with its small reflecting pool, gravel courtyard, and summer dining room—long before they came along. The house is full of unexpected moments like this: small works of art hung up high, almost to the ceiling; a dried, oversized leaf propped in a window; and outdoor guidebooks from the seventies.
Much of the house was in place when Dealtry and Barry found it online in the fall of 2016, before they moved up full-time from Brooklyn: The kitchen was painted dark, the entryway walls upholstered in burlap, and the original windows had been preserved. The previous owner, a creative director at a fashion line, had “also designed retail interiors, and had tons of artwork that he had collected during his time in London and Paris,” says Dealtry, a painter herself. When he moved out, he left much of the antiques he’d collected in place; Dealtry and Barry bought the left-behind pieces; they added Dealtry’s own watercolors and an eclectic mix of artwork, as well as finds that have been cast off by friends or, like the honeycomb, gifted by neighbors. (The day we were there, Barry was fixing up three cane-seat chairs given to the couple by friends: “They had them in their Brooklyn apartment, but didn’t have room to keep them, so they gave them to us for free,” Dealtry says.) Otherwise, much of the interior remains the same. “We have some projects we may do down the line, but love it as-is,” they say.
Take a look inside (and take a tour of the gardens over on Gardenista).
Photography by Alison Engstrom for Remodelista.
![the house dates to \1830 and sits behind a neat, square row of hedges in claver 17](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/exterior-dealtry-barry-hudson-alison-engstrom-733x1161.jpg)
![the front door opens into a central stairway, painted dark, in benjamin moore&a 18](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/dining-room-entryway-dealtry-barry-hudson-alison-engstrom-733x489.jpg)
![the dining room gets late morning light and feels almost like a gallery. the lo 19](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/dining-room-dealtry-barry-hudson-alison-engstrom-733x1099.jpg)
![in the dining room, white walls contrast with the black trim on the paned windo 20](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/dining-room-vignette-dealtry-barry-hudson-alison-engstrom-733x1122.jpg)
![the honeycomb, set in a low bowl by lail design. 21](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/dining-room-detail-dealtry-barry-hudson-alison-engstrom-733x604.jpg)
![among the art on display throughout the house: works by artist victor wang, etc 22](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/dining-room-window-dealtry-barry-hudson-alison-engstrom-733x1139.jpg)
![a rock serves as doorstop. 23](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/dining-room-door-dealtry-barry-hudson-alison-engstrom-733x1100.jpg)
![across the entryway is the living room, with an eclectic mix: sheepskin, a ligh 24](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/living-room-dealtry-barry-hudson-alison-engstrom-733x489.jpg)
![dried flowers and one of the stone lamps in a window. 25](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/living-room-2-dealtry-barry-hudson-alison-engstrom-733x489.jpg)
![above the mantel, a small painting hung unexpectedly high creates a vignette wi 26](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/mantel-dealtry-barry-hudson-alison-engstrom-733x1099.jpg)
![one of the couple’s vintage books. 27](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/book-dealtry-barry-hudson-alison-engstrom-733x1100.jpg)
![through the dining room is the kitchen, also painted in benjamin moore\2 30](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/kitchen-dealtry-barry-hudson-alison-engstrom-733x475.jpg)
The ceramics are a mix of antiques, Ikea, and New York–based ceramicist Bailey Doesn’t Bark. On the counter are small strawberries from Chatham Berry Farm (“our favorite local farm store,” Dealtry says), and glass jars that hold dry goods and “full moon water,” which Dealtry describes to me as having captured the spirit of the full moon, for watering favorite plants with.
![another moment of unexpected art: “captured and free bird” by dan 31](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/kitchen-mantel-dealtry-barry-hudson-alison-engstrom-e1531596496869-733x984.jpg)
![perhaps the most unusual room is the downstairs powder room which, the couple s 34](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/powder-room-dealtry-barry-hudson-alison-engstrom-733x1142.jpg)
![a corner room with small casement windows serves as a potting area for planting 35](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/potting-room-dealtry-barry-hudson-alison-engstrom-733x489.jpg)
![in the front entryway: one of the caned chairs and a newly hung piece of art. 36](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/stairway-dining-room-dealtry-barry-hudson-alison-engstrom-733x1099.jpg)
![upstairs, a narrow, white painted hallway leads to one of the house’ 37](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/bedroom-dealtry-barry-hudson-alison-engstrom-733x1100.jpg)
![the summer bed, with a vintage lamp and cuttings from the garden. 38](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/bed-dealtry-barry-hudson-alison-engstrom-733x1100.jpg)
![a dresser with one of dealtry’s own watercolors. the floors were already 39](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/dresser-dealtry-barry-hudson-alison-engstrom-733x1100.jpg)
![the bedroom gets summer light and a good breeze. 40](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/bedroom-2-dealtry-barry-hudson-alison-engstrom-733x489.jpg)
![the back of the house—viewed from the steps of a small, screened outbuil 43](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/exterior-2-dealtry-barry-hudson-alison-engstrom-733x1099.jpg)
More homes in and near Hudson:
- Living Above the Shop: Ceramic Artist Paula Greif in Hudson, NY
- House Call: At Home in the Hudson Valley with Designer Deborah Ehrlich
- Saved from Abandonment: A Historic Hudson Valley Farmhouse Receives the Ultimate Makeunder
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