The 401
SPACES
BY DANA LAVERTY • PHOTOGRAPHY BY TOM COUTURE PHOTOGRAPHY
Dreaming in Color
Two decades in the making, a Tiverton designer crafts the vibrant home of her dreams.
MATTYE DEWHIRST HAS BEEN DESIGNING her dream home since high school.
It began after discovering The Sims, a life-simulation video game, at a friend’ s house. She didn’ t care about giving the virtual characters traits or jobs or children— Dewhirst just wanted to design their homes. So she kept killing them off, Agatha Christie-style, so she could zhuzh up their living spaces. Her father, seeing her interest, bought her a beginner version of AutoCAD.“ And then I did not hang out with my friends after school ever again,” the interior designer says.“ I just went home and designed houses.”
Including every inch of the one perched on Tiverton’ s Main Road, just past Evelyn’ s Drive-In and overlooking placid Nanaquaket Pond. The soaring home— dubbed The Black Iris— is a vision in ebony, three levels of Second Empire stateliness with a mansard roof, wraparound porch and elaborate architectural details so common in the Victorian era.
But don’ t let the austere facade— squint a little and it may remind you of the home from“ The Addams Family”— fool you. Walk inside and a riot of hues, textures and styles explodes from every direction: It’ s a space where vivid Barbie pink, wasabi green and
THIS PAGE, FROM TOP: The exterior of The Black Iris is a matte black, a shade that makes any landscaping, flowers and exterior decorations pop, says owner Mattye Dewhirst, who’ s been working on the home’ s design since high school; an entry space in the mudroom is done in vivid pink, with pull-out storage under the stairs for shoes, gloves and outerwear.
30 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY I OCTOBER 2026