New life for old houses.
I’m Paula Packard, an interior designer in Portsmouth. With my daughter and my niece, I bring a modern sensibility to historic New England homes, so they work for the way you live now and still feel like they have always been this way.
A conversation first. No obligation.
Portsmouth, NH
Seacoast · Lakes Region · White Mountains
Modern sensibility. Old bones.
An old house does not need to be preserved under glass, and it does not need to be gutted. It needs someone who can see what it was built to be and bring that forward. Comfortable furniture, better light, rooms that finally make sense, and nothing that looks like it arrived last week. Three of us work on every house, my daughter, my niece, and me, and each of us sees a room a little differently. That is how an old house ends up feeling both right and new.
What I do
Three ways to work together, from a single afternoon to a whole house. Each one starts with the same thing: a conversation about how you live.
01
Design consultation
An afternoon in your home. We walk every room you care about, talk through color, furniture, fabric, and what is not working, and you leave with a clear list of what to do next, whether or not you do it with me.
02
Space planning & furnishing
A room or a floor, planned properly. I measure, draw the layout, choose the pieces, and specify the finishes, so that an old house with odd walls and low ceilings works the way a modern family needs it to.
03
Sourcing & procurement
Finding the right pieces and getting them into the house. I order, track, receive, and install, from established makers to the antique dealers and workrooms I have come to trust along the Seacoast.
“When I am finished with a house, I want people to assume it has always looked this way. That is the highest compliment I know.
Paula Packard, Portsmouth
Where I work
Portsmouth is home. I take projects across the New Hampshire Seacoast and southern Maine, up to the Lakes Region, and into the White Mountains and ski country.
The Seacoast
- PortsmouthHome base
- Rye & New Castle
- Exeter & Stratham
- Kittery & YorkMaine
The Lakes
- Wolfeboro
- Meredith
- Sunapee
- Squam
The Mountains
- North Conway
- Jackson
- Franconia & Sugar Hill
- Waterville Valley
Tell me about the house.
One conversation is enough to know whether we should work together. Send a note about the house, the rooms, and what is bothering you, and one of us will reply.
Contact form
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
By appointment