A Breathtaking 120-Year-Old Family Home on the Maine Coast

For Wendy Prior Fentress, finding extraordinary places is part of the job. A former television producer who began her career as an assistant to the head writer at Saturday Night Live before going on to produce for MTV, Wendy now runs Priority One Productions, a location scouting company she founded in 2022.

Her work has taken her in search of memorable settings for productions including HBO’s The Gilded Age and Hulu’s Life & Beth. At home, she has created a place with just as much story—an inviting 120-year-old house on an island off the coast of Maine that has been part of her family’s life for the past decade.

Wendy and her husband had long admired the house, passing it by boat and imagining what it would be like to own it. When the opportunity finally arose, they bought the property and quickly set about making it their own. Remarkably, they did so without any major construction.

Instead, Wendy worked closely with longtime friend and designer Meg Braff to redecorate nearly every room while preserving the architectural details and historic character that made the house special in the first place.

The home came with an extraordinary collection of original furnishings. The previous owners left behind the grand piano, brass beds, a dining room chest, the vintage kitchen, and countless other story-filled pieces. Other historic details include a historic bell system, enormous fireplaces, travel trunks, a charming linen closet, and a tennis court overlooking the water.

Against this traditional backdrop, Wendy and Meg Braff introduced a distinctly joyful point of view. Blue and green appear throughout the house, joined by palm-tree motifs, tropical prints, colorful lacquered walls, rattan, wicker, and playful patterns. In the living room, chairs original to the house were recovered in a custom fabric by Bob Collins & Sons, while the sunroom combines wicker furniture that came with the property with Meg Braff fabrics and colorful accessories. In Wendy’s bedroom, a minty green custom wallpaper and tropical motifs bring an unexpected sense of warmth to the Maine setting.

The result is a historic Maine home that feels anything but formal. Wendy has filled it with antiques collected at local fairs, artwork by friends and Maine artists, sea glass gathered from the beach, family photographs, and objects that carry memories from years spent on the island. Even the original kitchen, with its soapstone sink, exposed plumbing, wooden cabinets, and vintage stove, was kept intact.

Above all, the house is designed around family and gathering. With children, cousins, friends, grandparents, and guests regularly filling the rooms, evenings often revolve around dinner parties, games, charades, billiards, and time spent by the water. Wendy’s approach to decorating is ultimately less about creating a perfect historic interior than creating a home that feels happy, personal, and lived-in—a place where 120 years of history can comfortably coexist with colorful, collected style.