How one Cape Cod home kept its faded glory

A year after John Derian moved into his Greek Revival home in New England, one of his brothers came to stay. He told Derian to take his time with the project. "I didn't have the heart to tell him that I'd already renovated," says Derian. "I just wanted it to be as it was."

Derian is a découpage artist and the founder of John Derian Company Inc, a homeware store that opened in New York's East Village in 1989. There are now four John Derian stores in New York and one in Provincetown. His products – from handmade plates to ceramics, fabrics and furniture – are stocked in more than 600 shops worldwide. In the UK, you'll find them in the Conran Shop and Liberty.

The images Derian sets behind glass are from a collection of antique prints he has amassed over three decades. They come largely from 18th and 19th-century educational resources and depict everything from impossibly vibrant fruit and vegetables and flowers to a scene from a seance or a hyper-real blowfish. Two years ago Derian published the John Derian Picture Book showcasing around 300 images from his collection. "I always tell people to buy a couple of copies," he says. "One to keep, and one to tear apart and put up on their walls!"

I ask him what filters he applies to his search for imagery: "I don't specifically look for anything," he explains. "I find things. I let things happen." It's an approach that appears to work for property, as well as pictures.

As a child, Derian spent his holidays on Cape Cod. In 2006, he returned to Provincetown with a friend. "I wasn't even looking to buy a house, but it was love at first sight," he recalls. "There was something about this house just sitting here, a little bit abandoned-looking. Plus, I'm a sucker for a column…"

The house he fell in love with was built for a sea captain in 1789. When Derian first saw the property, he took a video of the exterior and called the estate agent, only to be told it was under offer. Back in New York, a technical glitch on his phone meant the video kept replaying. A few months later, he was idly searching online for properties in Provincetown and the sea captain's house resurfaced. The original offer had fallen through: Derian could go ahead with the purchase.