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Sam Whitford offhandedly refers to his home in Ashland's Skidmore Academy Historic District as "the old brown Craftsman." Yet there's nothing dusty or dull about this two-story, 2,000-square-foot house built in 1911.

Original fir floors and richly oiled woodwork encase the formal living room. A ruby-hued Chippendale sofa and stretch of handmade blue Oriental carpeting set the room's palette. Artwork by Eugene Bennett and Judy Morris line the walls between a 1926 Colonial Mfg. Co. grandfather clock, a 1914 baby grand piano and colorful jade Asian accents, the latter inherited from Whitford's mother.

Whitford himself had the coffee table trunk and four nesting tables custom made in Hong Kong when he was on leave from Vietnam in 1968.

"Basically I'm the storage depository for my family's antiques," he says with a chuckle. "I tell people there's a contest, and I know I'm winning: Who can cram as much furniture and knick-knacks into one house?"

The home's parlor is considered the family room, featuring easy chairs, wooden slat blinds for privacy and a painting of the original Red Lion pub in Clovelly, England.

"I'm very much an Anglophile," says Whitford, whose confession is punctuated by two cuckoo clocks dueling for dominance somewhere upstairs. "It's my heritage — I'm English and Scotch. And Kurt is German, which is where our cuckoo clocks come from."

Whitford and his partner, actor Kurt Bernhardt, share their home with two wily whippets. Zélome and Zara enjoy some of the best views in the house, including one from the parlor's luxurious couch.

Ingenious pocket doors open onto a seriously well-appointed dining room. A sterling tea set sits on a sideboard, the china hutch holds centuries of dainty dishes and a plate rail displays Royal Doulton plates.

"I started collecting them at age 15, and they are all the period of the house," Whitford explains. "I really wanted to use them in here, they're so important to me."

One of the dining room's five doors leads to the kitchen. Decorated with vintage fruit labels and an Anaglypta wallpaper ceiling (painted steel blue by Whitford), the galley kitchen could easily be mistaken for a century-old workplace, were it not for cleverly masked modern conveniences. Cabinets along the east wall duplicate the original, glass-fronted, floor-to-ceiling cupboards opposite; honed granite surrounds a reproduction porcelain kitchen sink; and a stainless steel dishwasher is disguised with a front panel matching the cabinets.

"We also had a reproduction ice box made that sits in front of a door that can be opened into the living room, so when people are having cocktails in there, I can pass things through," says Whitford. "An opening like that is more of a modern concept."

Art Deco shades recovered from a 1920s Seattle soda fountain cover the north window above a small table Whitford uses for bill-paying, and an Oriental runner provides padding underfoot.

"It's important to note that when we moved here in 2003, the whole place was white: white wall-to-wall carpet, all the walls were painted white, the kitchen was bright white linoleum and counters," Sam says.

Off the kitchen is a breezy powder room wall-papered with a William Morris "Willow Boughs" pattern.

"It's my favorite wallpaper in the whole house," says Whitford. "I papered and did the wainscoting myself and sewed the lace curtains."

Sconces and a pendant light from Rejuvenation in Portland finish the room.

A heavy wooden staircase leads up to "Kurt's Corner," where an antique painting of a German village and two trumpets that belonged to Bernhardt's father are arranged. Bradbury & Bradbury "Thornberry" wallpaper borders the hallway ceiling; cocoa-colored Anaglypta wainscoting grounds long walls.

The bath serves all three bedrooms, with a walk-through closet offering direct access to the master bedroom. William Morris fabric in cantaloupe and mauve dresses the pencil-post Shaker bed, an Annette Rawlings Art Nouveau painting serves as headboard and an 1860s East Lake Victorian bureau sets the tone for a montage of 1870s prints from tailoring magazines.

"The most interesting architectural aspect of the house is in this room," says Whitford, referring to the original glass closet doors.

"Mother's Room" is across the hall. Furnished with Whitfpord's mother's twin bedroom set, one of her Chinese screens and inherited needlepoint art from both men's grandmothers, the space is an homage to ancestry.

Dark rose walls with a floral border and a huge carved headboard over a sleigh bed make the guest room-cum-office, with east-facing windows, a popular getaway.

"It has the light and the best view," says Sam.

As Sam descends the stairs, he points to a William Morris quote stenciled overhead: "Have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

"That's really how I feel," he says. "I love everything we have in this house. I don't get tired of these things, and I've lived with most of them all my life."

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