File photo The exterior of the historic Frank E. Anderson House, 90 Concord St., was photographed before work began on its yard, part of a project that will culminate in a Designer Showhouse benefit in August.

For when Hodge, now a Boston resident and proprietor of F. D. Hodge Interiors, puts the finishing touches on his project sometime next month, the room will have a whole new look as it prepares to greet visitors come August.

Hodge is one of about 20 designers plying their respective trades and skills in various rooms and spaces and on terraces and porches of the classic, Beaux Arts style mansion built in 1906 by Anderson, the owner and president of the vast Estabrook-Anderson Shoe Company of Nashua.

Once their work is done, the designers will turn the transformed mansion over to the owners, Merrimack-based Thomas More College of Liberal Arts, and their Designer Showhouse partners, Home Health & Hospice Care, who will open the house to the public by hosting a month-long series of tours beginning Aug. 2.

See accompanying box for information on tickets and other details. Included also is a list of the participating designers.

Staff photo by Dean Shalhoup Seen through a window in a French door, interior designer Frank Hodge paints an area near the ceiling of the library in the Frank Anderson House Tuesday.

Hodge, who adopted a first-floor corner room referred to as the library, worked from a makeshift scaffolding Tuesday morning, getting as close as he could to the surface he was painting.

With one foot on a ladder and the other on a table, Hodge carefully drew his paint brush along the edge of a narrow white space that separates dark-wood coffer work from the ornate trim that runs along the edge of the ceiling.

Hodge said he had finished stripping the walls of the old wallpaper, and plans to prep the surface and begin layering on the white Venetian plaster he chose for the walls.

On the other side of a set of original French doors, Peter Brousseau and his son, Judah, 16, were busy prepping and hanging wallpaper in a hallway-like space just off the main foyer.

Brousseau, who owns Integrity Painting and Wallpaper in Merrimack, is working with Hollis interior designer Meredith Bohn, who has charge not only of the foyers and main stairway, but the dining room as well.

Staff photo by Dean Shalhoup Wood carvings of the Greek god Pan flank the fireplace in the library of the Frank Anderson House, where interior designer Frank Hodge was working Tuesday

“It’s a fun project,” Peter Brousseau said, adding that his son joined him in a sort of apprentice role – the same way his grandfather taught his father the trade a generation ago.

Planning for the unique fundraiser, whose full name is “A New Hampshire Designer Showhouse,” got underway nearly two years ago, under the guidance of Tina Andrade, the director of development for Home Health & Hospice Care.

A longtime home-showcase enthusiast who for years organized the Friends of the Nashua Symphony’s Holiday House Tour, Andrade said she rounded up a committee of organizers and began searching for an appropriate venue.

Finding that Thomas More College had recently bought the Anderson House from the Rhode Island-based Sisters of Mercy, Andrade saw a win-win situation: The chance for her agency to host a unique fundraiser, which would leave the college with a complementary, top-to-bottom professional restoration of its prized property.

For Hodge, meanwhile, this is his eighth showcase, having participated in such events as the former Museums of Old York’s Decorators Showhouse in Maine and the Junior League of Boston Designer Show House.

File photo The curious looking contraption in one of the bathrooms of the Frank Anderson House is actually a “needle shower,” so named because jets of water spray from needle-size holes in the pipes that surround the user.

When he isn’t taking part in showhouse projects, Hodge brings his expertise into homes, mainly high-end ones in wealthy Boston suburbs like Weston and Newton, he said.

But he’s also taken jobs in a New Hampshire beach house and upscale apartments in New York City, according to his Website, which describes him as a “hands-on creator of elegant, comfortable interior spaces that often contain a subtle sense of humor.”

Dean Shalhoup can be reached at 594-1256, dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com or @Telegraph_DeanS.

Designers

A list of the designers chosen for the Frank Anderson House renovation project, and the rooms or spaces they are assigned, follow.

Staff photo by Dean Shalhoup Frank Hodge, a Nashua native now a professional interior designer in Boston, uses a ladder and a table to reach the area he was painting Tuesday in the library of the Frank Anderson House.

 Meditation porch: Lisa Law, of Lisa Law Lifestyle Designs, Nashua.

 Dining room, foyers and stairway: Meredith Bohn, of Meredith Bohn Interior Design, Hollis.

 Music room: Christian Boyer, of Boyer Interior Design, Manchester.

 Library: Frank Hodge, of F. D. Hodge Interiors, Boston.

 Gentlemen’s lair: Michaele Boehm and Kacey Graham, of Boehm Graham Interior Design, Bedford.

Staff photo by Dean Shalhoup Judah Brousseau, who worked with his father, Peter, at the Frank Anderson House Tuesday, trims newly-applied wallpaper in one of the first-floor foyers. The two are helping out designer Meredith Bohn, one of about 20 designers working at the house.

 Downstairs porch: Kerri Durkee, of Better Than Before Homes, Atkinson.

 Outside back terrace and upstairs wet bar: Beth Kane, of Artichokes & Delphinium, Nashua.

 Office: Denyne Sanville and Paula Kifer, of Denyne Designs, Dunstable, Mass.

 South bedroom: Dianna Normanton, of Dianna Normanton Interior Design, Litchfield.

 Southeast bedroom: Marcia Fletcher, of Marcia Fletcher Interior Design, Concord.

 Sitting room: Emma Carole and Kimberly Carole, of Impeccable Nest Design, Bedford.

 North bedroom: Christine Chapin and Jody Johnson, of Company C, Concord.

 West bedroom and bath: Lynda Lyons, of Clifton Lyons Design, Wenham, Mass.

 Nanny’s room: Andrea Paquette, of Staging Concepts & Design, Pelham.

 Upstairs hallway, downstairs pass-through: Cheryl O’Donnell, of COD Decorative Painting, Brookline.

 Downstairs powder room: Deb McLaughlin and Brenda Baron, of Deb’s Decor, Home Staging & Interior Design, Bedford.

 Front terrace: Erica Moncada, of Sunflower Jean Garden Consultant, Nashua.

 Needle shower bathroom: Melissa Swidler, of SWI Designs, Nashua.

If You Go

Nearly 20 designers and contractors from Nashua and throughout the region are currently renovating their assigned rooms or spaces in the historic Frank Anderson house in preparation for August’s public tours.

The tours begin Aug. 2 and run through Aug. 31. Tickets are now on sale for $25 each; to purchase, go to www.hhhc.org, click on the poster then on “tickets.” The price increases to $35 each beginning Aug. 2.

The months-long project is a partnership of Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, which owns the house, and Home Health & Hospice Care, whose employees and volunteers are coordinating the project.

For more information, contact Tina Andrade at HHHC, 689-2936 or tina.andrade@hhhc.org.