September 28, 2026 · INSABELLADESIGN
Downsizing without starting over: the Princeton renovation
A Princeton renovation that reupholstered and kept selected furniture, combining familiar pieces with clean lines and contemporary finishes.
Downsizing usually means deciding what to keep. In this Princeton renovation the answer was to keep a good deal of the furniture and reupholster it, then set it against new finishes and clean lines.
The project page calls the result transitional: new and old-world elements together, a modern but classic look, contemporary finishes with details that will not date. A palette of textures and finishes was chosen so the retained pieces and the new ones read as one house.
What the project shows
Keeping furniture is a design decision, not a compromise. It sets the scale and the character of the rooms before anything new is chosen, and it is the approach the firm takes whenever a client wants to keep what they own.