Step Inside Stylist and Designer Sarah Reid's Heirloom A-frame in New Hampshire

Sarah Reid is the interior designer behind Small Victories Design and the owner of a beautiful A-frame cabin nestled deep in the southern New Hampshire forest. Plus, see how she created a one-of-a-kind chandelier for the A-frame with embroidery hoops and quilt scraps.

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July 14, 2023

By: Beth Braden

Show: HGTV Handmade

Related To:

Shop This Look

Photo By: Kelly McKaskill

Photo By: Ridgelight Studio

Photo By: Kelly McKaskill

Photo By: Ridgelight Studio

Photo By: Kelly McKaskill

Photo By: Ridgelight Studio

Photo By: Kelly McKaskill

Photo By: Ridgelight Studio

Photo By: Kelly McKaskill

Photo By: Ridgelight Studio

Photo By: Kelly McKaskill

The Secret A-frame

Interior designer Sarah Reid, the founder of Small Victories Design, moved into her grandparents' A-frame cabin in 2020 and made it her mission to honor her grandparents' memory while making the space her own. The cabin, built in 1963, sits on 7 acres surrounded by forest land in southern New Hampshire. Sarah, who lives in the New Hampshire A-frame with her husband, Matthew, and their cat, loves that the house tells its story as visitors walk from room to room and through the additions the cabin has seen over the years.

Coming Home

Sarah took ownership of the A-frame — which has been expanded three times over the years — in 2011 after her grandparents died. What she found was a time capsule; her late grandfather's slippers were still by the door, and the toothbrushes were still in their holders in the bathroom. The table where she ate so many meals as a child still stood next to the buffet her grandfather built by hand. "I also knew that I really wanted it to be mine and that we would just carry on the legacy of the A-frame in my own way," she said.

Brighter Days Ahead

When Sarah arrived in New Hampshire in 2020, the rafters were their natural wood color with yellowish insulated panels between them, but Sarah saw something different for the cabin she knew so well. "I know some people hate when we paint wood, but I don't. So I wanted white, so I did that," she explained.

The living room is full of family artifacts; the white sofa was once her grandparents' orange wool couch that Sarah had reupholstered, and the coffee table is a crate that Sarah's mother and uncle traveled with.

The Family Retreat

Sarah's grandparents were in their 40s when they bought the land where the A-frame and a small guest cabin now sit. The '60s-style fireplace is a modern, natural gas fireplace from Malm, and there is plenty of space for part of Sarah and Matthew's extensive book collection.

No Such Thing As Too Many Books

She calls this book display one of her most controversial Instagram posts, but she promises that the books are absolutely fine stacked like that.

In general, the books are sorted by several different criteria. Fiction books are sorted by whether or not they've been read. "Everything else is in categories like: The History of Whaling, Plays, Books Our Friends Have Written, Biographies, Learn Something, etc." Sarah said.

Matthew is the book collector in the family. "He wants to die being crushed by books," she said.

Or Too Many Plants

Sarah, however, wants to meet her end at the hands of her plants. "It's a houseplant-book race," she joked. While Sarah really loves her Monstera plant, her favorite is a small cactus that lives on the windowsill in the bathroom. It is 20 years old and has moved cross-country with her twice.

Old and New

The 8-foot-by-8-foot kitchen is small but efficient as Sarah has made every inch of space usable — don't miss the spice rack on the end of the counter or the shelves between the rafters. The cabinet beneath the skylight is the top half of a Hoosier cabinet Sarah had. The bottom half was repurposed and now holds the A-frame's original kitchen sink.

"I have so many memories of my grandmother at this sink," she said.

Nice to Meet You, Frankie

While the tendency of an interior designer is to make everything cohesive, it's just not possible with the A-frame. Instead, each room has its own personality, and Sarah has embraced the idea that the delightfully weird house will not be unified by paint, thus earning it the nickname of "Frankie" — short for Frankenstein — because of all of its different pieces.

Who Are You?

When Sarah designs a room, she likes to let the spaces speak to her as she decides how to accessorize. "I really like to walk into a space and ask it, 'What do you want to be? What do you need?'" she said. With the A-frame's nooks and crannies, she had plenty of spaces to listen to as she made the house her own.

Adding On

Sarah's sewing room, which doubles as the guest room, was added to the home in 2016 using pine wood from the temporary barn that her father had built for her 2015 wedding. It was important to Sarah to use the angle of the A-frame, which led to a custom sleeping space for guests.

You Can Bunk Here

The guest beds are twin-sized and are reachable by a ladder that leans against the original outside wall of the A-frame.

Best Wishes

Instead of having a guestbook at their wedding, Sarah and Matthew asked their friends to sign the walls of the temporary barn. Those wall sections became the framing around the guest beds in the A-frame's sewing room-slash-guest room addition.

Beauty Can be Frugal

"A lot of people don't really live with a lot of beauty in their spaces," Sarah explained. Too often, people think it's going to be expensive to make their homes beautiful, and it's just not so. Sarah likes to be frugal, and she works hard to make sure that the spaces she designs reflect the soul of the person she's designing for.

New Life For Old Textiles

Speaking of frugality and beauty, Sarah designed the chandelier hanging above the A-frame's living room and assembled it using old quilt pieces, embroidery hoops of various sizes, and zip ties to hold it together. The result was an eclectic piece of art that showcases old textiles and honors the tradition of hand stitching.

Make Your Own Fabric Chandelier: Place Your Fabric In the Hoops

To make your own version of Sarah's chandelier, gather an assortment of fabric. It could include old quilt pieces, vintage clothing or leftover fabric from other projects. Place your fabric pieces in differently sized embroidery hoops and then carefully trim the excess fabric using scissors or a craft knife.

Make Your Own Fabric Chandelier: Attach the Hoops to Each Other

Use a craft knife to poke small holes through the fabric and then thread zip ties through the holes. Pull the zip ties just a bit, but don't tighten them all the way so that you can continue to adjust the position and alignment of the pieces. In a later step, you will finish tightening the zip ties and trimming the plastic tails.

Make Your Own Fabric Chandelier: Add the Finishing Touches

Once you have attached all of the fabric hoops together in a line, attach the opposite ends together using the same small hole and zip tie method to give it the circular chandelier structure. Tighten all of the zip ties and trim the tails. To hang the chandelier, use your utility knife to carefully poke holes in the fabric of the top section of embroidery hoops so you can thread ribbon, twine, or slim rope through the holes and then hang it up.

Lofty Dreams

Sarah and Matthew sleep in the upstairs loft that overlooks the living room and fabric chandelier. Until 1980, the loft where Sarah and Matthew sleep now was only accessible by ladder. That year, Sarah's grandparents made several renovations to expand the home, including the addition of the downstairs dining room and staircase leading upstairs to the loft and the dressing room.

Sarah's Favorite Room

Upstairs, Sarah and Matthew's dressing room was her grandparents' bedroom, and it quickly became her favorite room. She purchased shallow, unfinished pine dressers to fit against the wall, painted them in a kind of plaid scheme and paired them with an accent wallpaper. The collage above the dresser is a collection of the things that have been important to Sarah at different points in her life. "This room, probably above all the rooms, is where I feel like I'm inside of myself," she said.

Be Our Guest

The A-frame isn't alone on the 7 acres; there is a nearby cabin that was owned by another family Sarah knew when she was growing up. They offered the cabin to Sarah first when they decided to sell, and Sarah transformed it into a relaxing retreat that she rents to short-term guests.

Relax and Recharge

The cabin is almost completely off the grid. There is no wifi, and cell signal is practically nonexistent. The cabin is heated with a wood stove, and guests use an outhouse and outdoor shower while they enjoy their time away from the hustle and bustle of modern life. The idea behind the cabin is to do quiet activities like reading, writing, playing games and enjoying the surrounding forest.

If These Walls Could Talk

Back at the A-frame, Sarah isn't sure what her grandparents would think of their old cabin now, but she's confident they would be thrilled to know it is still in the family. Sarah loves that she's been able to honor her family's history while still making the space her own.

"I don't really know where my body stops and this house begins. It is so one and the same to me," Sarah said.

You can get design inspiration from Sarah on Instagram @smallvictoriesdesign, see more photos of the A-frame and book your own time at the guest cabin at the Small Victories website.

Step Inside Stylist and Designer Sarah Reid's Heirloom A-frame in New Hampshire

Related To:

Shop This Look

The Secret A-frame

Coming Home

Brighter Days Ahead

The Family Retreat

No Such Thing As Too Many Books

Or Too Many Plants

Old and New

Nice to Meet You, Frankie

Who Are You?

Adding On

You Can Bunk Here

Best Wishes

Beauty Can be Frugal

New Life For Old Textiles

Make Your Own Fabric Chandelier: Place Your Fabric In the Hoops

Make Your Own Fabric Chandelier: Attach the Hoops to Each Other

Make Your Own Fabric Chandelier: Add the Finishing Touches

Lofty Dreams

Sarah's Favorite Room

Be Our Guest

Relax and Recharge

If These Walls Could Talk

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