{"id":64300,"date":"2022-11-01T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-01T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.themainemag.com\/?p=64300"},"modified":"2022-11-01T09:08:36","modified_gmt":"2022-11-01T13:08:36","slug":"inside-an-interior-designers-renovated-barn-turned-home-in-freeport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themainemag.com\/inside-an-interior-designers-renovated-barn-turned-home-in-freeport\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside an Interior Designer\u2019s Renovated Barn-Turned-Home in Freeport"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In the living area, a fireplace from McVety\u2019s Hearth and Home nestles into the wall beneath four framed Picasso prints that
Gerquest purchased for five dollars from a shop on Exchange Street in Portland in the \u201980s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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This story begins with a rundown cottage on a Maine island in the 1980s. On January 1, 1984, interior designer and painter Heidi Gerquest moved to Maine in the midst of a snowstorm. Gerquest, who hails from a family of artists, was 22 at the time. She had graduated from Hamilton College with a degree in art and was working as a painter specializing in custom wall motifs with big, exaggerated designs. \u201cThey might actually be back in style today,\u201d she says with a laugh. Although the wall-painting business was paying the bills, she was ready for a bigger challenge in her new state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the help of her parents, Gerquest bought a deserted cottage on Peaks Island to test her mettle. \u201cI really wanted to do a whole house,\u201d she says. \u201cI bought the cottage and fixed it up with the idea that I wasn\u2019t going to spend more than 50 bucks on any one piece of furniture.\u201d Along with several friends, Gerquest transformed the abandoned structure into an enviable residence, which she then entered into Metropolitan Home\u2019s<\/em> \u201cHome of the Year\u201d competition. The house not only won one of the competition\u2019s categories but went on to be featured in numerous design-focused publications, pushing Gerquest into the national spotlight. \u201cI just had a career all of a sudden,\u201d she says, \u201cwithout ever really intending to be an interior designer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On the first floor of Heidi Gerquest\u2019s converted barn home\u2014previously a workshop where her father worked on boats\u2014a gallery wall filled with art from family and friends stands where the barn doors were. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Nearly 40 years later, Gerquest, who now lives in Freeport, has worked on projects around the world for clients of all backgrounds. The buzz around that first project on Peaks helped her to land big clients in New York City while still living in Maine, where she was raising her family and continuing to paint, selling her work at Greenhut Galleries in Portland and Leighton Gallery in Blue Hill, among others. During that time, Gerquest\u2019s parents followed her from Riverside, Connecticut, and settled in Freeport, where in 1999 they built a large barn to serve as both a garage and a workshop for Gerquest\u2019s father, who liked to restore wooden boats. When her parents decided to sell the barn in 2018, Gerquest and her partner, chef Johnny Walker, who has worked at venerable Portland establishments Local 188, Sonny\u2019s, and Salvage BBQ, took on the project. The couple sold their home in South Freeport Village and moved into the building, which was considerably smaller than they were used to. \u201cThe downstairs was this big, raw cement space that my dad had used as his workshop. No finishing, no heat,\u201d says Gerquest. \u201cUpstairs was a little studio apartment that they rented out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The couple immediately began renovating the building, putting in an addition with a guest bedroom, a bathroom, and a mudroom. The main room, which had been the workshop, became a joint living room, dining room, and kitchen. They covered the cement floors, installed a gas fireplace, and thanks to Walker\u2019s passion for cooking, equipped the kitchen for professional meal preparation. The upstairs apartment became the main bedroom, which also houses Gerquest\u2019s office and the couple\u2019s exercise bike. When COVID hit in early 2020, Walker, who was ready for a new project, retired from the restaurant business and threw himself into transforming the property\u2019s outdoor space. With the help of Gerquest\u2019s daughter, who was living with the couple for the first few months of the pandemic, Walker turned the dirt lot into lawn and gardens, accessible from the home through two large French doors that open onto a composite cement patio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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During quarantine, Gerquest\u2019s partner, Johnny Walker, completely transformed the property\u2019s outdoor space from a dirt lot to a pleasant place in which to entertain friends and family.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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In the guest bedroom, a painting that Gerquest made in the early \u201990s (which now belongs to her daughter) hangs above the bed; the throw pillows are from West Elm, Les Indiennes, and Muse Textiles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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During the renovation, Gerquest and Walker decided to leave the transom over the barn doors but replace all the other windows. They kept the original structure\u2019s height, accentuated by a large pulley hanging from a steel beam in the ceiling that slides back and forth, which Gerquest\u2019s father had used to lift heavy objects. \u201cWe keep meaning to hang a mobile from it, or something cool like a chair,\u201d she says. \u201cBut then we decided that our kids, and friends who have kids that are pretty wild, might go right through the window on the chair if they have too much fun flying back and forth!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The focal point of the space became the barn doors, which look the same from the outside but no longer function. Instead, they are covered in white shiplap and now serve as a gallery space in the large main room of the home. \u201cWhen I design somebody\u2019s house,\u201d says Gerquest, \u201cif the client doesn\u2019t have a starting place in their own mind, I\u2019ll ask them to find an object that they feel attached to or that they feel reflects them, and we build from there. In my case, the starting point of this home was my art collection as a whole.\u201d The wall, which measures roughly 10 by 12 feet, is filled with artwork from Gerquest\u2019s friends and family. Included in the mix are a sculpture by her grandmother, a painting by her aunt, and works by now-famous artists like Edith Varian Cockroft (who studied painting in France under Matisse) that her grandfather, a ceramicist and an engineer by trade, received while building kilns for members of an artists\u2019 community in Sloatsberg, New York, in the 1930s. Pieces by friends are also nestled into the mix, including photography by Gerquest\u2019s first husband, Tonee Harbert, and works by his partner, Shoshanna White, both of whom Gerquest considers to be dear friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Due to Gerquest\u2019s partner\u2019s background as a chef, the couple\u2019s kitchen is one of the spaces they focused on the most. In the original building, the alcove held a workbench, and the wooden braces, or knees, hung in the corners came from an old ship. The cupboard to the left is adorned with railroad spikes around the top, and to the right there is a painting by Cape Elizabeth artist Isabelle Smiles, with a photo by Gerquest\u2019s son-in-law, Joshua Loring, directly below.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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For Gerquest, her latest home is a reflection of her community in Maine. In addition to the artwork that represents her friends and family, the majority of the work on the home itself was also done by friends, down to the electrical wiring. While Gerquest and Walker didn\u2019t intend to wind up in Freeport, since the majority of their friends are up the coast or in Portland, the couple is happy to stay put for now. Looking to the future, Gerquest and Walker have started a joint design project on a home near Brittany, France. Spending three months on, three months off between Maine and Europe, the couple is slowly working on renovations of this passion project. The ultimate goal is to retire spending half the year in France and, of course, half the year in Maine.<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t

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