Each of our Homes of the Year winners receives a $500 gift certificate from Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams—Boston/Natick. Thank you to all who entered.

THE FRENCH COUNTRY KITCHEN in the circa 1860 Venetian Gothic town house that Karen Watson and her husband had recently bought had its charms. But Karen, an interior designer, wanted it to reflect the era in which the house was built. “I like to let the house speak, not the date you redo it,” she says, “especially with an old house.”