A Brilliant Piece of Advice from Ralph Lauren Helped This Homeowner Design Her Coastal Cottage

When Ralph Lauren dishes out design advice, you listen. Nora Murphy knew as much while working for the famous purveyor of prep in the 1980s as Polo Ralph Lauren’s design project manager of furniture. “He said, ‘When you walk into a room, no one should have to explain it to you,’ ” Nora recalls. “I still use that.”

Today, Nora’s narrative begins at her doorstep with a plaque bestowed by the National Register of Historic Places that her Federal-style Connecticut house wears like a badge. Inside, the story unfolds with coastal country collectibles that reflect a lifetime of treasure hunting and memory keeping. Everywhere you turn, an interesting item or a compelling vignette catches your eye—there are pieces of coral, nautical art, beach find-filled cloches, and more.

In addition to writing design books (most recently Country House Living), Nora owns The Little Shop in Chester, Connecticut, just a four-minute ferry ride from her home.

Five years ago, when Nora (@noramurphycountryhouse) and her husband, Rick, decided to downsize and relocate from Newtown, Connecticut, to the hamlet of Hadlyme, she crossed her fingers that her most treasured pieces would fit in the 2,200-square-foot house. Low, slanted ceilings and uneven floorboards were part of both the charm and the challenge.

As luck—and determination—would have it, Nora did manage to carve out corners for her favorite finds, including an 18th- century cabinet that fits like a puzzle piece into a corner of the living room. The Murphys’ now-grown son, Conor, frequently made his own additions to this cabinet of curiosities when the family lived in Newtown. “Once in a while I’d find a little something he’d dropped in there,” Nora says, adding, “The cabinet has a lot of memories. Nothing in this home is too precious, but it’s all very precious to me.”

The same can be said of the entire historic cottage, where the story continues to evolve as Nora makes a home for new pieces alongside the old ones. Perhaps Ralph said it best: “I always feel like I have to keep going. You can sit back and say, ‘Maybe I can stop.’ But then you’re yesterday, and I love tomorrow.”

Tour More of Nora’s Home Below:

Coastal Cues

A gallery wall of 18th-century French engravings by Francois Martinet can be seen downstairs in the home’s foyer. Nora painted the floorboards in a checkerboard pattern, another homage to a detail from her previous home.

Coastal Curiosities

Nora Murphy Connecticut House Living Room

“Most of my favorite collections are in this room,” says Nora of the living space. The corner cabinet holds a rotating roster of natural and beachcombed treasures, while an antique model sailboat atop a demilune anchors another corner. Slipcovered in white denim and topped with blue-and-white ticking stripe pillows, the 20-year-old sofa by Ethan Allen—“the best napping sofa ever,” she says—recalls the years Nora worked as a top style executive for the furniture brand. And, of course, no coastal home is complete without at least one piece of worn-in wicker.

Shipshape Accents

Nora Murphy Connecticut House Kitchen

The focal point of the eat-in kitchen is a massive wood-burning fireplace, one of four in the house, with a pair of brass anchors, formerly used as andirons, flanking an antique sailboat diorama on the mantel. The Irish pine table is complemented by black-painted Windsor chairs and a long bench. (“We call that bench the ‘do-nothing seat’ because you get kind of stuck in there, so other people have to take care of you when you’re sitting there,” Nora says.) A hanging cluster of oyster shells and the hand-painted lid of an old sailor’s box near the window offer a sense of seaside history.

Near the stove, open shelves keep favorite ingredients handy in the hardworking kitchen. A sweet landscape painting by Kolene Spicher serves up a pastoral view.

The small walk-in pantry houses a coffee bar along with providing storage for glasses, dishes, serving pieces, and small appliances. “I love that there’s a window in here; it keeps it so light and bright,” Nora says. “It’s a wonderful little space.”

Natural Textures

Nora Murphy Connecticut House Dining Room

Once a mix of beige and brown, the dining room got a top-to-bottom brightening courtesy of white paint on the walls and floors (as well as on the formerly red chandelier), a move that allows the pine furniture and the black coral–filled wall shelf to pack more visual punch. To soften the room’s square shape, Nora paired a round pedestal table found on Facebook Marketplace with hand-carved chairs. (The branch motif is a nod to the woods that surround the house.) The whale above the mantel was handcrafted by Mike Tenk of New Milford, Connecticut: “It has just the right scale and boldness for the fireplace wall,” Nora says.

Nora found the dining room’s tall pine Ralph Lauren Home hutch at Home Goods and layered in a mix of new and old ironstone. The lamps add ambience come evening. In one corner, a shapely primitive black wall shelf holds Nora’s overflowing coral collection, which adds textural depth to the room above a demilune table.

Breezy Bedrooms

Nora Murphy Connecticut House Guest Room

The first antique the couple bought after they were married—a hand-painted early-18th-century French cupboard—has pride of place in a corner of the guest room (above). “We walked that up to the fifth floor of our co-op building in Port Chester, New York,” Nora recalls. The room’s walls feature several of Nora’s pastel drawings intermingled with sailboat photographs and a vintage Cape Cod flag above the wicker headboard. “I love sailboats, and now that we’re on the Connecticut River, you see one going by every so often. I have to stop what I’m doing and just watch,” says Nora.

In the primary bedroom, the headboard of the handcrafted turned-post bed is topped with a driftwood whale made by artist Andy Teran of Clinton, Connecticut. On another wall a collection of stoneware plates from a Connecticut flea market surrounds the Federal-style mirror hung above the heirloom dresser. “They are hand-thrown and weigh a ton,” she says. “I got them from this person called the Chicken Lady. She stamps two chicken feet on the back of the dishes.”

Nautical Nods

Nora Murphy Connecticut House Powder Room

Nora found the powder room mirror at a barn sale near her home with its original mirror intact and added a small anchor flag at the top. “I picked off the remaining chipped veneer and gave it a good waxing. I couldn’t believe it fit the space perfectly,” she says. The walls were an ideal spot to display her collection of vintage black and white sailboat photography. “These photographs are usually very inexpensive, but it makes a difference when you group things,” she adds. “I love how they take me back to an earlier time in Connecticut, when you’d go on out on your boat during the weekend and come back and have your cocktails. It’s a very romantic thing for me.”

Al Fresco Dining

During the summer months, meals move to the patio garden hedged in mature boxwoods and a perennial garden the couple planted. Nora likes to set a casual table on the faux wicker patio set from Ethan Allen that she’s had for years. “Summer is my favorite season and it’s all about entertaining outside,” says Nora. “We love to grill and have cookouts, and there’s nothing like coming home with fresh vegetables and fruit from the farmer’s market.”

Nora Murphy Connecticut House Fence Gate

Nora transplanted fairy rose bushes from her former house near the garden gate.