A family transforms their historic home to mimic the vibe of an edgy boutique hotel.
The grand foyer mimics a boutique hotel lobby but is truly lived-in like a home.
THE PRIORITY
The close-knit family wanted to create a home as welcoming, fun, and friendly as they are, with the look and feel of an edgy boutique hotel. They wanted to make sure that the new vibe wouldn’t come at a cost to the original details, so whenever possible, those would remain but with tweaks to give them a new point of view.
The chandelier in the Blue Room is original to the house.
THE CHALLENGE
The house was built in 1882 and the stair railing was low on the upper levels and the design was quite generic. The primary bath and closets were extremely compartmentalized, so in order to create something more open and functional, the entire space had to be gutted.
The newly fabricated stair railing
THE DETAILS
Designer Eric Roseff (ericroseffdesigns.com) used a super-charged color palette to match the energy and high voltage personality of his client. The Blue Room was saturated in cobalt, ultramarine—almost like a Yves Klein blue—while other rooms relied on classic black and white with pops of color. In order to preserve the original book-matched burl wood panels in the Blue Room a substrate was applied on top prior to lacquering the space.
A view into the Blue Room
THE OUTCOME
To create a taller and more visually appealing stair railing, Roseff drew a sketch on a napkin of a design with mirror-polished stainless steel and glass. Fabricator Ty Crowley brought the design to life by single-handedly installing the entire thing which married beautifully to the existing space.
Roseff designed the skull on the shower floor and the design was engraved by a jeweler onto all of the shower hardware.
The project, on a fast track from day one, was finished in just over a year. The end result successfully embodies the essence of a hip boutique hotel, but the space is lived-in like a home. No space is off-limits to the young children and nothing is too precious. Some nights, the clients get dressed up and have date nights in the Blue Room, imagining they are on vacation for a moment, before heading upstairs to bed.
The foyer could be mistaken for the lobby of a hip boutique hotel.
DESIGN DETAILS
TYPE
Single-family home
LOCATION
Back Bay
ARCHITECTURE
Flavin Architects
flavinarchitects.com
BUILDER
Cafco Construction
cafcoconstruction.com
INTERIOR DESIGN
Eric Roseff Designs
Ericroseffdesigns.com
The contemporary interior is a fun departure from the exterior architecture of the historic building.
Skulls are meaningful to the client who equates them with the circle of life.
Classic shades of black and white in the kitchen ground the space and nod to the building’s antiquity.
Lip art by Rosef
Patterns in the bedroom and bath
