A beloved restaurateur turned a white home into an over-the-top pink-and-green paradise that found a buyer in just 6 days after a bidding war. See inside.
Jordan Pandy
- Upstairs on the Square restaurateur Deborah Hughes just listed her Victorian house for $1.4 million.
- Hughes decorated the three-bedroom with neon colors, lively patterns, and fun details over 21 years.
Whoever said subduing bright colors makes your home sell faster hasn't seen this newly listed house in Massachusetts.
Located in Somerville, a smaller city four miles outside of Boston, the three-bedroom house decorated in a riot of colors and patterns hit the market for $1.475 million on May 3. It drew 100 prospective buyers and curious neighbors during a weekend open house, attracted the attention of Zillow Gone Wild and a viral TikTok, then received multiple offers after being listed for just six days.
The person behind the vibrant decor: seller Deborah Hughes. Hughes is known locally as the co-owner of Upstairs on the Square, a beloved, fancifully decorated, and now-closed restaurant in nearby Harvard Square.
Hughes bought the 1860-built Victorian in 2002 for $400,000, according to Compass, but it didn't always have the Barbiecore aesthetic that it does today.
"The house was completely white," the listing agent, Shannah Hall Franckum, told Insider. "A pure white canvas, a perfect display for an artist to commence."
Hughes started revamping the home right away, according to Franckum, and made upgrades constantly over two decades — from putting down cheetah print floors to adding pink lightbulbs in the closets.
Franckum said on Wednesday that Hughes had "accepted an excellent offer."
Everyone else entranced by the property? They can just dream. Take a look inside the colorful home.
The 2,137-square-foot home was all white when Hughes bought it in 2002, according to Franckum. Almost immediately, Hughes decided to add her personal touch.
"There's pinks and greens and corals and lavender and all sorts of hues that all blend together and look beautiful," Franckum said. "The whole house just glows. It's a real work of art."
The lot itself is 8,137 square feet and boasts a spacious backyard with a garden.
"She's an avid gardener herself and has these amazing perennial gardens in the back and was always working on these gorgeous flowers," Franckum said. "She brought the outside natural world inside."
The whimsical details of the home start on the front porch. Purple and green columns give you a sneak peek of the cacophony to come.
The door-knocker, like most of the house, is also untraditional. It's a leg that kicks rather than knocks on the door.
"When you are first entering the home, there's this little knocker — there's a little leg sticking out," Franckum said. "It's sort of foreshadowing the events to come when you walk into the other room."
Once you enter the home, you're greeted by a patterned floor and stairs painted in a cheetah pattern.
Hughes commissioned artists of her choosing to paint floors throughout the house.
"When you come into the house, the first thing that you see is very brilliant, dark hues of pink and coral," Franckum said. "She basically hired two artists to paint flowers and poppies on the floor, and plaid patterns."
In the living room, the artists' work also adorns the pink-and-gold walls.
Gold is one of Hughes' favorite accent colors.
"There's beautiful stripes on the wall with gold leaf and copper leaf," Franckum said.
Even the gas fireplace in the living room has coats of multicolored paint.
"It literally fills your heart with joy the minute you walk in that house," Franckum said. "Everyone that you see who comes in the house, their jaws drop, and they're just filled with joy. You can just see it."
The walls and decor change dramatically in the next room.
Most of the rooms are brightly painted — except for a half-bathroom on the first floor, which is painted a surprisingly subdued shade of white.
"Every single room is unique," Franckum said. "Every single room is painted in some beautiful shades of pinks, or, greens, or corals."
There are also hidden details in each room: The longer you look, the more likely you are to see something new.
"It's very joyful and playful," Franckum said. "Very much Alice in Wonderland."
The sun room towards the back of the house has black-and white-tiles that contrast the pink walls and window casings.
The dining room has a regal look to it, with a shimmery chandelier at the center.
"The standout rooms are likely the dining room and the living room, because there's gold leaf and copper leaf for the stripes on the walls," Franckum said.
With its exposed white beams, the kitchen evokes a farmhouse style.
The bright pink and green accents, however, remind you that you're still in Hughes' fantasyland.
The green cabinets sport pink trim and pink doorknobs that carry on the house's overall theme.
The colorful walls and cabinets even extend to the laundry room.
Upstairs, one of the three bedrooms has a more low-key color scheme.
The next bedroom is back to form, with pink and green shades. Hughes, an avid gardener, likes colors that resemble flowers, Franckum said.
"Those are the colors that make her heart sing," Franckum said. "She is just so in love with the colors — pink, gold, silvers, and the colors of flowers."
Hughes' home resembles her now-closed Harvard Square restaurant Upstairs on the Square — the pink and green tones being an obvious giveaway.
"It's very much of the ilk of Upstairs on the Square," Franckum said. "She had carpeting in there that was zebra carpeting and leopard carpeting."
The cheetah-print floor from the entrance hall returns in the third bedroom.
"There are accessory carpets here and there, but when you look underneath and around, all of the floors are painted," Franckum said.
The ceilings throughout the house are so shiny that they're almost reflective — and this is intentional.
"All of the paint is a super high gloss and many layers of it," Franckum said. "She even paints the ceiling in high gloss."
"There's no matte or satin paint anywhere," she added.
Hughes' dressing room sits off the primary bedroom.
"It has two mirrored closets," Franckum said. "There's not as much sunlight in that particular room, so the colors read even more."
Hughes wanted each closet to be unique, so she either painted the insides or added colored light bulbs, Franckum said.
"Every single closet has paint inside — some wonderful colors." Franckum said. "So there's a surprise wherever you go."
About 100 people flocked to the first open house, held just a few days after it hit the market. Franckum was surprised at how many people loved the house and received multiple offers when bids were due a week after listing. She said an offer has already been picked to proceed to the next stage of the sale.
She intentionally listed the house without staging it or erasing any of the unique details — and it paid off, with 100 people flocking to the first and only open houses and multiple bids submitted by the May 9 deadline.
"I could never change a thing at this house," Franckum said. "It would just be sacrilege to change any of the paint. I just wanted everything the same. There were a couple of little repairs or little touchups here and there, but it never occurred to me to paint everything to white or to bring it all to neutral."
Franckum and Hughes have already selected a buyer from the offers received to proceed to the next stage of the sale. But don't worry, most people want to keep the property just the way it is.
"It was interesting to hear people say they would just keep it the same," she added. "Or maybe change one little thing."
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