Empty Nesters Refresh Forever Cottage

“We want to make our cottage look like old people don’t live here—to keep it light, airy, and bright,” Judy says, “to give it a youthful vigor, like we had when we first bought it.”

To achieve her design objective, Judy picked a largely neutral taupe palette—“the color of an elephant,” she says, “brown with gray or gray with brown”—with pops of vibrant color through easy-to-switch-out accessories. Orange is a current favorite. Judy also donated of a lot of her furniture, replacing old pieces with new finds. The same approach was taken with books and tchotchkes.