Habitat: A Light-Filled Home in Jenkintown

All photos by Sam Oberter

I wouldn’t say I don’t like color,” says Anne Flynn, who, along with her husband, Sean, has owned this light-filled home in Jenkintown for 12 years. “I like the color to be in the art.”

It’s a straightforward statement, but one that holds true throughout each of the perfectly, if serendipitously, curated spaces on the home’s first floor. Works from local artists Jimmy Lueders and Martha Madigan as well as iconic street artist Shepard Fairey share wall space with the home’s framed original 1936 blueprints.

The house’s classic features — tall windows with deep sills, the winding main staircase, a sparkling fireplace — remain front and center, but it’s the crisp, light walls that serve to highlight decor that’s new, vintage and, in some cases, found.

The antlers on the sconces in the entry hall, for example, were “picked out of a pile” in a roadside shop in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and only later transformed by Merit Metal Products of Warrington into statement pieces.

“I think it’s true with anyone’s home,” says Anne. “You put in it what you love, and it should work.”

Habitat: Fresh Palette

The fireplace, original to the home, livens up the room with mirrored mosaic tiles. Artwork by Ric Best; Couch from HOST.

The kitchen was renovated in 2013. The center island is large enough that family and friends danced atop its Danby marble counter before installation of a You Make It chandelier kit by Lindsey Adelman Studio.

The original hardwood floors and a beautiful open staircase blend perfectly with those antler sconces, a cowhide rug, a zebra runner hand-loomed by Langhorne Carpet Co., and a custom print from MySubwaySign, the online sign company that Anne co-founded with Kathy Cochet.

This photogram by Martha Madigan features the Flynns’ youngest son. The vintage blue lamp comes from the People’s Store in Lambertville.

The dining room table is a family heirloom, says Anne: “I grew up with that table. My dad grew up with that table. It’s probably my favorite thing in the house.” Papier-mâché chandelier by Anthropologie; artwork at right by Jimmy Lueders.

This article originally appeared in the June 2015 issue of Philadelphia magazine.