Emily Lindberg and Wu Hanyen’s home seems so distinctively their own because, for the most part, they made it themselves. Emily, an interior and architectural designer with a firm in her name, and Wu, a sculpture professor and furniture maker with her own brand, called Work in Use, replaced the nondescript interior of an 1870s Victorian in a historic neighborhood in Providence, Rhode Island, with earthen finishes, eye-catching patterns, and patches of color that reflect the owners’ complementary aesthetics. The rounded wooden furniture is distinctively Wu, while the mix of historic and modern details is right up Emily’s alley. Beyond allowing for creative control, doing the renovation themselves brought down the cost of the project significantly. Working in short bursts while Wu was on breaks from teaching, they spent months living on a construction site, doing dishes in a bathtub and cooking out of an instant pot.

Though the hard stuff was done by Wu, Emily, and, occasionally, contractors, the couple also drew on their designer and artist friends to finish the house. Providence’s creative community was a large part of why Wu and Emily put down roots in Rhode Island. They met in New York, but after living in Brooklyn for several years, they moved to Providence so Wu could get an MFA in furniture design from Emily’s alma mater, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Now, eight years after the couple moved to the city, their local creative community has made its way into the design of their home.

$6,500 Structural	$30,000 Roofing + Exterior	$15,500 Wall Finishes
$2,200 Flooring (Wood)	$1,400 Floor Refinishing	$8,200 Electrical Labor
$5,600 Plumbing Labor	$3,000 Kitchen & Bath Fixtures	$8,300 Lighting Fixtures
$4,000 Countertops	$15,500 Appliances	$5,200 Windows & Glazing
$1,200 Doors	$34,000 Millwork	$6,700 Tilework
$3,800 Tile Installer	$35,000 Furnishings & Decor	$11,000 Gen. Contractor Fee
$96,000 Other Labor
Grand Total: $293,100

Old + New

Emily Lindberg: We’re trying to honor the Victorian style, but we’re not trying to re-create the past. We consider ourselves contemporary designers, but there was something about the spirit of this house that we could feel. Even though it needed some love, I wanted to not go too far away from the [original] style. For the entry tile, I came up with my own pattern. It feels traditional, but the scale and the color bring it into a contemporary space. Another technique that I use is painting the trim and the walls the same color. It’s more modern because you don’t have the busyness of the contrast.

Getting Dirty

Emily: Everything had to be a budget decision. If we hired other people to help us—which we did for the major renovations—we brought down the cost by helping on-site, laying tile or doing finishes. Wu built the vanity, curtain rods, dresser, and nightstands upstairs. I did the plastering, the paint, and all the drawings.

Wu Hanyen: The clay plaster [in the kitchen] was the hardest part.

Emily: It kept peeling off, and it was so much work. We hired some professional plasterers and they walked away from it. They were like, “It’s not working.” When they came back to do other work, they were examining how [we did it].

“We have a pretty aligned vision. We have independent practices, but we’re always collaborating and in conversation.”
—Emily Lindberg, designer and resident

It Takes a Village

Emily: I think about sustainability as multipronged: Am I investing in quality people? Can I hire someone that I really admire? I think about doing it right the first time. We’re trying to make a home that doesn’t need to be renovated. That’s the most sustainable. It’s all natural materials. This is solid ash cabinetry. Real stone. Real wood. So there was no point in this process where we were going to just use Ikea.

Wu: Her mom’s an artist. We reached out to our network of artists and designers.

Emily: Our contacts here are willing to share their time and pieces. Wu has a lot of connections with makers in her shared studio. In Providence, people live well and are able to afford spaces and build their careers. The [kitchen] curtains were designed by my studio mate, Meg Callahan, who traded some of Wu’s custom lamps for them. Our friend [Cassie McGettigan] made the quilted pillows in the living room. A lot of the lighting is from our friends at In Common With. The upstairs bathroom tile was designed by our really good friend Natalie Herrera. I knew even before we bought a house that I would put her tile in somewhere. The sculpture out front is from a former ceramic grad student at RISD. Even our road is really interesting. There are artists and creative people. It’s a nice street.

Project Credits:

Interior Design: Emily Lindberg Design

Furniture: Work In Use

Builder: That Design Build

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Construction Diary: With $293K, Two Designers Make a Rhode Island Victorian Their Own