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

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.

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.

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.

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.