Renovation Nation
The house is full of unusual details that create visual interest. In the living room, a
shelf in one of the built-in bookcases hides a lever and a secret door, behind which lies
a kids’ hideout with four bunk beds. On the floor above, the gallery-style hallway, lined
with cedar shakes, leads from the master suite down to a view of the living room and
echoes the cedar shakes on the outside of the house.
Blair is the oldest of three and came to the United States from Australia with her
family about ten years ago. Her parents were constantly renovating when she was a
child. “We were always living in some place that was undone, and when it was finished,
we’d move.” Her father is a creative visionary, she says, and her mom manages guest
stays at various rental properties, including this one, at moorehousefamily.com. Blair,
who has degrees in marketing and advertising as well as design, oversees construction
and the overall vision of the business. She gently rejects the notion that Quonset huts
are, ahem, ugly. “No way,” she says. “A designer finds and creates beauty in anything.
You want to feel the history of this structure.” �
RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l SEPTEMBER 2020 79