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C116
BEACON HILL
BOSTON, MA
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Like a bespoke
garment that
accentuates
every curve
Channeling the punctuated palette and lush textures of a 1910 Henri Rousseau painting
hanging in MoMA just a short walk away, a 47th-story Manhattan pied-à-terre flaunts its own collection of captivating art in an eclectic setting with enviable views.
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Ten years and two children after our
first partnership, our client called us to help
them ease the family's shifting needs.
We devised a strategy to support their hectic
city lives while conveying their deep affinity for
the outdoors and fearless sense of style.
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Ten years and two children after our
first partnership, our client called us to help
them ease the family's expanding needs with
with a strategy that would support their hectic city lives while
conveying their deep affinity for the woods
and fearless sense of style.
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The reimagined tile-wrapped foyer captures a contemporary, rustic sensibility as counterpoint to the traditional interiors of the historic neighborhood.
Just inside the front door, a reeded glass partition pulls natural light between adjacent spaces and creates a sense of volume in tight quarters. It's transparency irreverently allows glimpses of distorted figures in the new en suite beyond. We selected the enveloping terracotta brick for it's durability and ease of maintence, and to satisfy the client's request for drama and bold color. Just down the stairs, a high-functioning mudroom with a 14' long span of millwork houses a mirrored bench niche, wine storage, an office station, dual utility closets, and even integrated bowls for the dog of the house. Fabricated from recycled rice hulls and inspired by the family's love of the ocean, the sinuous, suspended canopy adds visual texture while disguising the building's shared plumbing and electrical systems.
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We referenced sleeping cabins aboard luxury yachts to inform the layout of the primary bedroom.
In the former nursery, a full suite of smoked oak millwork disguises plumbing pipes and provides strategic storage to capitalize on every available square inch and eliminate the need for freestanding furniture within in the room's limited footprint. The walls of the adjacent en suite are wrapped in a cheeky monkey wallpaper to serve as talisman for good fortune after the flood that prompted the renovation.
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THEY TOOK THE PRESSURE OFF OF ME AND BROUGHT MY VISION OF WANTING SOMETHING BOLD AND DRAMATIC TO LIFE. MARC IS NO ORDINARY DESIGNER. RUN, DON'T WALK, TO WORK WITH HIM!
High Drama
Ideas from a Chic Boston Apartment Makeover
Make Room: Rustic Urbanity
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Dual sitting areas maximize seating around a vintage wood-burning stove in the main living space.
The room's relaxed bohemian mood is rendered in autumnal tones of crimson and camel set against high contrast brick walls and a jet black ceiling. Velvet sofas face a 1940's maple C.H. Hartshorn lounge chair selected it for its exagerrated silhouette and primitive materiality, a nod to the area's rich colonial tradition of woodworking craft. In the opposite corner, vintage chairs from a Belgian school house surround a built-in dining banquette.
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PROJECT DETAILS
• Convert nursery into primary bedroom
• Corral sports equipment, wine collection, pet paraphernalia, craft supplies, linens, shoes and family sundries into a central location
• Add a second bathroom
Situated on a historic thoroughfare near the Nation's oldest public park, this residence deliberately strays from the colonial references of its gas-lamped, cobblestoned neighborhood. After a flood rendered half of the home unlivable, our long-term client engaged us to redesign the space to accommodate the needs (and rapidly expanding piles of 'stuff') of two growing pre-teens and an active family calendar. Our strategic approach included a bedroom swap and conversion of the damaged area into a primary suite with powder room and a high-functioning mudroom that would harmonize with the existing public spaces and allow them to remain more comfortably in the home for the next decade.
In this modestly-sized condominium on the ground floor of a historic building, the allocation to the new primary bedroom was restricted to 8' in width due to immovable shared building services. Yet, storage and sleeping functions for two adults needed to be addressed within the limited footprint while housing steam pipes and HVAC components.
The space also sits below grade with 6'5' ceilings, stifling reliance on traditional plumbing interventions for the requested bathroom and straining comfort for the 6'2' homeowner. Additionally, the only source of natural light in the front half of the home is supplied by a single window set within 100-year-old crumbling plaster walls. Rather than resist these architectural constraints, we enacted a comprehensive design to address them head on.
During demolition, we discovered an additional 3’ of space above a dropped ceiling along with a 5" diameter steam pipe conspicuously bisecting the length of the open hallway. The initial plan to relocate it proved inviable, requiring a pivot from the original design. As a remedy, we conceived an undulating slatted canopy system made from recycled rice hulls to disguise plumbing and electrical systems, uneven brick surfaces and the raw concrete slab ceiling above.
Design: 8 weeks
Implementation & Construction: 12 months
Tile Contractor: Nationwide Tile
Millwork: Schiefer & Co.
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MHLI is a full-service, Black-owned boutique specialized in luxury residential renovations, new builds and comprehensive furnishing projects. Read more
