The exterior finish for our home at Eden Hill was heavily inspired by Clermont, a historic home only a few miles away that is finished in a creamy white fine stucco — or what the Brits often call Render. Whereas American stucco is often highly textured, render is closer to an interior plaster finish, but on the exterior of a home.
The river side southern corner of Clermont.
Clermont was built originally around 1740 by Robert Livingston, but was burnt down during the Revolutionary War (1777) when a group of British soldiers dispatched upriver decided to punish the Livingston family for being rebels. The mansion was rebuilt by the family not long after, and remanded in Livingston hands until being turned over to New York State in 1962 to become a historical site. In the interim, the house had been added onto and adjusted to fit more modern ways of life as time marched on. One of the most distinctive features, to us, is the exterior render on the house. This is not typical of the area, but is historical to the house, and it appears on a small number of grand houses — far grander in scale then ours, to be sure. But that was not to be a deterrent!
Another grand rendered home in Pippa's family, Andalusia, is now a museum.
Another other place we had seen render up close is further away — Pippa’s family home in Dover, Delaware. The Ridgely House (1726) is partially finished in a white render over brick, and has worn that finish for at least 100 years. Facing the private walled garden, the render feels warm, inviting, and historical. It speaks to time, without being married to it. There’s a sense of a fresh outlook, even in the time-earned cracks.
The garden side of the Ridgely House, Pippa's family home.
Render itself is really what American’s are more apt to call stucco, but with a finer grain than the Southwestern variety. Rather than have a distinct texture, or even troweled finish, render looks more like an interior plaster wall. It is also generally a different material than stucco, which is cement-based. Render is lime-based. It’s known for being breathable, allowing homes to self-regulate moisture. This was important to us, in particular, because there is no interior finish on the exterior walls — it’s plaster directly over the AAC block on the inside.
For a time, we considered adding some decorative detailed to the render. Ashlar beading had our attention longest, carved in lines suggesting blocks of stone. The problem, we found, was scale. Our home is modeled after much larger houses, but itself is fairly modest at about 2000 sq feet. If we drew on ashlar beading to the scale we liked on Clermont, where we could see it up close, it would look comical. And if we drew it to scale with the structure it would look like cement block. Neither, we decided, was a good idea.
An example of a detail on exterior render, as we saw in the Czech Republic (Feb 2025)
So, we are keeping it crisp and a creamy warm white. However, we added a detail for the windows that we hadn’t originally planned. Each window now has an exterior limestone sill, further grounding the new structure and pulling it into conversation with the historic structures that served as inspiration as we worked with our architect, Christie Billeci.
Render in progress at Eden Hill in July 2025.
The limestone is then echoed along the footing, serving as a cap for the local stone and reclaimed brick foundation.
As we dreamt up our home for Eden Hill, we looked to English and French country homes, late 18th century Hudson Valley vernacular architecture, the Ridgely House, and Andalusia. We made a soup of ideas and inspiration, and watched to see what would coalesce. We listened to advice, but only so far as it felt true to us. We prefer, after all, singularity above the familiar and personality above what is popular.
