SCOPE:  While repairing the ceiling and pulling up the carpet, etc., to reveal gorgeous oak floors with their original finish intact, we explored the possibility of replacing the room’s existing closet with a reading alcove, a preservation question none of us took lightly. We decided the pros of gaining more usable space plus historic molding that could be recycled to trim out the altered window outweighed the cons. We restored the operability of the other (unaltered) window with brass sash chain that we also used to hang art from a new, eminently functional picture rail. We chose Audubon Russet, a glowing terra-cotta color by Benjamin Moore, one of the showhouse sponsors, for the walls and designed a decorative paint “cornice” to draw the eye upward and highlight the interesting shape of the room. Over a dozen local artists and makers contributed furnishings and accessories.