GETTING AWAY FROM IT ALL
Four couples get the serene space they were seeking through a variety of innovative design makeovers
In today’s frenetic society, the rooms of our houses multitask as well. People are answering email in the kitchen, watching TV while in the bathtub, turning dining rooms into homework stations and family rooms into home theatres. Sometimes, even at home, you want to get away.
If you’re seeking inspiration for spaces that encourage closeness and serenity rather than commotion and screens, take a look at rooms designed to be enjoyed with a book, some conversation and maybe a box of matches.
Janet Berls has always been a lover of books, but she didn’t have a space in which to enjoy them. The living room in her 1970s-era townhouse “was fake Colonial with no authenticity,” says Berls. “It was a very dark and gloomy room, very depressing to be in.”
About 10 years ago, Berls, who is 79, saw a project designed by architect Reena Racki and asked her to redo the living room.
Racki started with a piece Berls already owned — a Saarinen “womb chair” — and the memory of a visit to the famed Notre Dame du Haut. The Roman Catholic chapel in Ron- champ, France, is known for its sculptural qualities and use of light.
Mimicking the chapel’s walls, Racki built a wall inside a wall to create deep-set windows that reflect light off the wells. She punctured the interior walls to channel more light from an existing skylight. The ceiling was lowered, providing space to hide cove lighting and illuminate a barn wood accent wall. More lights hide inside floor-mounted egglike fixtures. A Saarinen table complements the vintage chair.
Open-faced cherry cabinets along the walls provide storage. The fireplace was surrounded by chiselled grey basalt. Challenges included getting the builder on board with some of the unconventional elements, but everybody loves the result. Berls’ book club meets there, a sacred space for the printed word.
“It has the religious feel of a church,” says Berls. “At night, it is especially spiritual.”
In 2013, when Eva and Brett Esber decided to update the living room in the front of their house, they also decided they could use a working fireplace, after all.
The couple had bought the brick Colonial in 1994 from a builder who had included a fireplace they didn’t want. A deal was struck, and the fireplace stayed — a non-vented focal point that functioned as decor rather than as a heat source.
The Esbers tapped interior designer Andrea Houck to lead them to a family-friendly, quiet space, which would include upgrading the fireplace.
“We didn’t want it to be overly formal,” says Eva, who is 56 and a retired partner at a law firm. Her husband, Brett, is 57; their children are now 22 and 25.
“We wanted something the kids could be comfortable in, someplace we could do Christmas or just read by the fireplace,” she adds.
With the fireplace providing a warm gathering place, Houck went transitional, softening the room’s edges and calming the mood by bringing in a curvaceous Eton sofa, chairs with gently sloping arms from Hickory Chair and a geometric rug with a soft, arcing pattern from Kravet Couture Rugs. The glass-topped oval-shaped Crawford coffee table came from Michael James, who also provided the fireplace screen. Elegant window treatments including the sheers were sourced from Zoffany. The walls were painted with warm whites and butter creams.
“We wanted a living room that would be a quiet getaway,” says Eva Esber.
Steven Butler and Rose Lee, who are both in their 60s, lived in Japan for 10 years and brought back some Eastern design sensibility to a split-level they purchased in 2000.
“We were interested in a Japanese-style kitchen and a Western lifestyle,” says Lee.
The house had an awkward addition and an undersized kitchen that was half a level up from the back yard. While searching for answers, the couple won a free design consultation with Racki at a silent auction. She advised demolishing the addition and proposed using the space to move the kitchen to the ground level and expand it.
The family gave the project a green light and moved to a rental for eight months of construction. The kitchen and dining room moved downstairs, and a master suite was added above.
Custom steel framework supports the wall of windows in the garden room off the kitchen, offering unobstructed views of the landscaped yard.
The connection to nature is close to the space. “There’s a life of fireflies that nobody knows anything about,” says Lee. “Every year, it’s an amazing show.”
When Barbara Freedman and Craig Lussi downsized to an 1,800-square-foot condominium, they needed help making the living room “a place where we could lie on the sofa and read a book or have a cocktail party,” says Freedman, 73.
“We don’t really watch a lot of TV,” says Lussi, who is 80 ( both are retired). “I think new technology is all positive, but I’d rather do something than watch something.”
Interior designer Kelly Proxmire says the owners of the condo “wanted to reconfigure the living area and incorporate as much of their existing furniture as possible.”
Proxmire widened the doorway to the kitchen and curated a lifetime’s worth of furniture and art.
Lussi participated in the 1960 Winter Olympics in the Nordic combined event, and his father coached Olympic skaters.
An oil painting of a Norwegian fiord took centre stage.
A sofa, antique buffet, bachelor’s chest, two side chairs and two lounge chairs made the cut.
Proxmire also salvaged a glass dining room table and cut it to fit the new space. The table can be used as a sideboard for parties or pulled into the middle of the room for seating.
Furniture was chosen for comfort, but also for size; rooms in the condo are smaller than in the couple’s former five-bedroom home up the street.
The lounge chairs were recovered with a floral pattern and the side chairs were livened with a wheat-coloured fabric.
Proxmire also plucked vintage Vanity Fair “Spy” prints from the pile of the couple’s art collection.
Proxmire describes the feel and theme of the room with her design catchphrase “polished prep.”