This article originally appeared in the February 2007 issue of Architectural Digest.

People make their own luck," runs one old adage. When Michelle and Michael Friezo, a couple living in suburban New Jersey, bought a weekend home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, they knew they were buying a mere shell: a charming 1810 stone farmhouse that was perfect on the outside and perfectly nondescript on the inside. The rooms were small; the windows were irregular; the ceilings were low; and there was little interior architectural detail.

"Although the main building was charming and the setting idyllic, the interior was a series of awkward rooms, with new additions put on at different times," says Penny Drue Baird, the Manhattan interior designer. "The house needed to be rethought so that the rooms flowed into one another. We also had to put back the things that were missing, like moldings and beams."

The Friezos had full confidence in Baird, who years earlier had decorated their first house, room by room, when they were newlyweds. They still happily occupy that house, now with their two teenage children. During the week, Michael Friezo, an investment banker, commutes to Manhattan. On weekends the family enjoys sports: jogging, fishing, hiking and kayaking.

After buying the weekend house, the Friezos presented Baird with a few requests. "We wanted to feel like a family here," Michelle Friezo explains. "I love to cook and to have our relatives visit. We wanted our kids to spend a lot of time outside."

Baird knew what to do: "I wanted the interior to be as charming as the exterior," she recalls. "My work is not that intellectual," she continues. "It's about taking raw space and hearing what people want and then giving it to them."

In fact, what Baird did was magic. The living room, for example, was a designer's nightmare. It's a large room with doors on opposite sides, small windows on two sides, a dark, low ceiling and an off-center fireplace. Baird anchored the room with a two-sided settee, so one group can gather in the middle of the room while others sink into the large, comfortable sofa under the window.

Sophisticated window treatments, a handwoven wool carpet and a few unmatched antiques (a Swedish tall case clock, a chinoiserie low table, a French wrought iron étagère and some English pottery jugs) make for a cozy atmosphere. "I wanted it to be to an elegant yet country-style setting for lively entertaining," Baird says. The room is Michelle Friezo's favorite, "especially in the late-afternoon light," she says.