A Historic Greek Revival in Maine Decks the Halls With Cozy Christmas Charm

By Marni Katz

“Everyone in town knows this house, so we felt some pressure about decorating it for the holidays,” Zachary Violette says of the Greek Revival residence he owns with his husband, Sean Litchfield, in Lovell, Maine. But the couple—and the home—have risen to the occasion. Wreaths with buxom red velvet ribbons punctuate windows aglow with candlelight, and locally foraged evergreen garlands entwined with fairy lights festoon porch columns.

Violette, an architectural historian turned carpenter, and Litchfield, an architecture and interiors photographer, purchased the home four years ago. Built by timber magnate James Walker in the late 1830s, it had been restored by the previous owner, Grosvenor Newcomb. A longtime carpenter with an affinity for old homes needing lots of love, Newcomb was drawn to the property’s original features.

“I was particularly intrigued by the moldings,” Newcomb says. “It was clear that a craftsman took a lot of time to create them.”

After the upkeep required by a former apartment in an 1880s Brooklyn brownstone, Litchfield was relieved not to take on a fixer-upper. Instead, he could focus on furnishing the home’s 10 well-proportioned rooms. Violette, in turn, could hone his carpentry skills by making the raw space on the second floor of the home’s ell habitable. It’s now a chic short-term rental suite with boutique-hotel vibes.

Like many New Englanders, the couple come and go through the mudroom, to which they added beadboard and peg rails. The $20 rug the pair found at Hathaway Mill Antiques in Waterville holds up nicely against wet, muddy paws; Lily, a golden retriever, and Otis, a German shorthaired pointer, live here, too. “Zach brings the dogs hiking at first light every morning,” Litchfield says.

A door painted the same blackened blue as the beadboard opens to reveal a pair of overstuffed leather chairs sitting in front of a fire that beckons throughout the winter months. This cozy corner of the large, sunny kitchen and dining space is the heart of the home, where the couple host numerous gatherings, from community meetings to birthday parties (most recently, Zach’s 40th).

At holiday time, Litchfield hangs monogrammed stockings from the mantel, including one each for Lily and Otis, and drapes red wooden beads on the chandelier over the dining table. “Christmas decorations are ephemeral, so I have fun with them,” he says. Underneath the chandelier, a rumpled red-striped tablecloth with a French-country feel covers the farmhouse table that the couple made themselves using floorboards from the home’s original kitchen, now the pantry/bar. “It was the first project we did together when we moved in,” Litchfield recalls.

Ladder-back dining chairs with Shaker tape seats were plucked from an estate sale in Parsonsfield. “It took living in the house for a bit to understand what furniture styles work best,” Litchfield says. “Our Eames chairs salvaged from a New York City public school were not the right vibe.” He finds that simple pieces with clean lines complement the home’s understated moldings. “I didn’t quite appreciate a Shaker aesthetic until I lived here,” he adds.

Litchfield used a mix of furniture styles in the front-facing double parlors, where tall windows with fluted casings and pediments let in light from three sides. A trio of cognac-colored leather safari chairs scored for $50 from a yard sale surround a marble-topped tulip table repurposed from the couple’s Brooklyn home. “I made Zach pull over when I spied them on the side of the road,” Litchfield says. “He said, ‘Those?’ and I was like, yes, they’re amazing!”

Christmas-morning festivities unfold in the west parlor, where a sparse but utterly charming Charlie Brown tree scavenged from the yard fills a corner without blocking the period architecture. Piles of wrapped presents for the dogs nestle under its branches. Last year’s highlight? A giant box of tennis balls. “My folks really spoil the dogs at Christmas,” Litchfield says with a laugh.

Upstairs, an antique jacquard coverlet stretches across the couple’s Maine-made canopy bed that Litchfield discovered on Facebook Marketplace. One of his clients, Jenny Morrison of Morrison Design House in Windham, gifted him the Huey sconces with pleated ceramic shades and introduced him to Alexander Donatelle of Donatelle & Co., who custom-made the extra-skinny nightstands.

But Violette deems the guest bedroom with the red four-poster bed dressed in L.L. Bean pinstripes the prettiest room in the house. “Red, white, and blue looks good in summer and winter,” he says. “The whole house looks great in the wintertime.”