Interior Designer, Caroline Burke from Top Rail Interiors and Patrick Ahearn, Architect join together to create a timeless home in West Chop.

In March 2020, the world learned to get things done remotely thanks to a global pandemic. But designer Caroline Burke and one of her clients had already mastered the art of working long distance.

Both women lived in Saratoga Springs, New York, where Burke’s husband is a successful equine veterinarian with a rehabilitation facility, and where Burke has used her background in all aspects of design; project management, architectural drafting and decorating services to launch a thriving interior design business. After studying at Skidmore College, Burke earned a masters degree in interior design from the University of Florida. She and a client became fast friends when Burke helped her renovate a carriage house at her traditional Renaissance Revival home nearby. When that same client told Burke that she and her husband had bought land in Martha’s Vineyard, and that she wanted help building a “new/old” home, Burke was unfazed by the distance between herself and the project.

“We know what we like, and we were so fortunate to have someone like Caroline, who knows the industry so well, understands architecture and history, and has so many amazing ideas,” the homeowner says. 

“We asked her, ‘How do we take something new and make it look like it’s always belonged here?’ She knew just what we were after, and exactly what it would take to make it happen.”

Creating a New England home with a sense of history comes naturally for Burke, who was raised on Cape Ann and now has a summer residence...