poppy red all mingle, where midcentury pieces share space with Facebook Marketplace treasures and iridescent Moroccan tiles rub up against Sahara Noir marble, straight onyx shot through with ivory and gold streaks.
And it all works: Every room is a lushly imagined dreamscape, with layers of texture, color and mementos blended together seamlessly.
Dewhirst plucked elements from real homes and drew inspiration from her travels and love of vibrant colors. The Black Iris’ roof is modeled on one near her childhood home; a third-floor balcony mirrors a design from a close friend’ s abode. She’ s been“ hoarding things” for the house since college, storing them in her parents’ basement.
After cutting her teeth on renovating a 1912 home in East Boston( which caught the eye of The Boston Globe Magazine) and starting her own design firm, Mattye Dewhirst Interior Design, she felt the time was right. She bought 2.7 acres of property in 2019, ready to bring her creation to life(“ IRL” for you non-Sims players).
Construction started in February 2023, and the home was completed in May 2025. It’ s already been profiled several times in magazines and newspapers, while some uninspired( read: boring) souls took Dewhirst to task on design-related subreddits, questioning some of her bold design and color choices.
“ I didn’ t really care if they were in or not. You know, when the
time came, that’ s how I felt about all the rooms,” she says.“ I had something in my head for so long that there were times where all of a sudden this color was really popular, and I was like,‘ Everybody stop using it! This is my color for the space,’ and then it would fade out.
“ Now people might say,‘ That looks dated.’ Well, you know what? I planned it twenty years ago,” she says, laughing.
Dewhirst and her husband, Tom Couture, a wedding photographer, got married this past June in the backyard near a meadow she seeded with bergamot and black-eyed Susans and snapdragons grown in her greenhouse. The couple was surrounded by friends and family and one heck of a sunset over the water.
It was a sweet coda to the dream house that rose from Dewhirst’ s imagination to become reality, and now, home. 🆁
THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: A cheery bar features hand-painted Fireclay tile and a Sazerac Stitches Clancy pendant light, with Benjamin Moore’ s Habanero Pepper on the trims, shelves and cabinets; the moody kitchen looks out onto the meadow. Couture refinished the table, a Facebook Marketplace find, himself; a TV room pops with Technicolor hues.
32 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY I OCTOBER 2026