Before & After: A Family of Four Gives a Derelict Catskills Farmhouse a Whimsical Revamp

The MacDougalls use reclaimed materials, found objects, and a sunset-inspired palette to bring the historic property back from the brink.

Jul 20, 2023 - 18:34

Before & After: A Family of Four Gives a Derelict Catskills Farmhouse a Whimsical Revamp

The MacDougalls use reclaimed materials, found objects, and a sunset-inspired palette to bring the historic property back from the brink.

After: A new porch roof, made of metal, completes the updated exterior facade. The home’s doors and the garage door are painted a punchy pink, Benjamin Moore’s Rosewood.

When Geoffrey MacDougall decided to buy a quaint, circa-1815 farmhouse in the Catskills, he was standing in six inches of water in the basement, surrounded by its crumbling stone foundation and rusted-out mechanical systems.

"You could walk in from the outside through the holes in the walls," Geoffrey says with a laugh—but the Canadian-born (now Harlem-based) fundraiser and activist was miraculously undeterred. He and his wife, art dealer and appraiser Powell MacDougall, approached the project with "trepidation" and "massive due diligence," they say.

Before: Front Exterior

Before: The home was in extreme disrepair, but its form appealed to the family. "One of the things I love about it is it’s like how a kid would draw a house. It’s exactly 30' by 30' by 20' with a pitched roof that’s exactly 45% sloped," Geoffrey says. "It’s perfectly symmetrical."
Geoffrey MacDougall

The pair initially planned to purchase land and construct a prefab retreat, but a deal fell through. "Then our real estate agent called us to look at a teardown," he says. Upon first visit, they learned that the foundation was in dire straits—and remarkably, 200 years old. The pair thought, "we can’t tear it down," Geoffrey says. "We fell in love, and it became a restoration effort."