The Hopping House was the first project I ever tackled, it unearthed a passion that has become the foundation of Sanford Collective. Built in 1740, Hopping House is a 17th-century dutch-colonial farmhouse, built by the Hopping family. It was originally an Inn and visited by General Cornwallis during the American Revolution, it was then turned into a turkey farm and stayed in the family for generations. 

 

We relocated from the city to the suburbs of New Jersey shortly after our wedding and fell in love with this unique property for the original charm and character – wide-plank pine floors, dutch doors, 6 fireplaces, wine cellar, and more. But, the historic home needed a lot of rehabbing and renovating, and we were GREEN. As a veteran of the fashion industry, I approached the project with many of the same principles and practices I’d learned from years of closely observing the design process and its runway culmination. I also found that so many of the same skills I used in my work life—like managing and coordinating crucial day-to-day details, timelines, budgets, and schedules—were vital to the process of creating a home.

 

We started with the basics, like updating the space to suit the needs of modern life, because pragmatism should be the basis for everything. With a keen understanding of scale, proportion, and spatial awareness, and the basic tenets of design -- form, color, texture, and movement, I set out to design a home that had a distinct point-of-view and respected the narrative and history set by the space itself. By juxtaposing the past with the future, the 20th-century version of the Hopping House felt timeworn, authentic, intentional, and modern.