One of the most rewarding things about our work is getting to give our clients the lifestyle they've been dreaming of. In our Queen Village Contemporary project, our clients were motivated not only by the changing needs of their family as their children grew older, but by the deep desire for their home to be a gathering space again. "Of course, we're doing this for our family," they said, but with the hope of getting back to a pre-pandemic lifestyle of entertaining and being social. With that spirit in mind, we embarked upon designing a sophisticated place for welcoming friends and loved ones back in.
In theory, this was the perfect home for the family's stated objective of hosting gatherings. The sprawling open-concept first floor gave us a lot of room to create zones for entertaining - it was just a matter of optimizing each space and making them feel harmonious, yet distinct. The more heavily-trafficked areas in the middle - the powder room, entry/raised hallway, and living room - were a particular challenge. We needed to make them uncluttered but still functional for a family of four, and being in the center of the space meant they needed to feel stylistically connected to the nearby rooms.
Functional for a young family, but swanky enough for parties - challenge accepted!
First up was the living room: a heavily used family space, often utilized for movie and tv watching snuggled on the sofa.
ROOM BOARD: We imagined a sophisticated organic modern space,
pulling green and earth tones from the kitchen while adding more pattern with black and white contrast
The living room worked fine as the regular family hang-out space, but we could identify several areas for improvement, both functionally and from a style perspective. Each member of the family loved to lounge with their feet up - this meant that their sectional sofa was often oriented like a giant bed to accommodate lots of loungers. We wanted this space to embrace its coziness while becoming more inclusive to the entire family - all the while, "growing up" into the sophisticated vibe our clients were craving.
BEFORE: The view into the living room, dining room, and playroom.
As it happens with many families, the TV watching had become the centerpiece to the living space.
(The left photo is the "ideal" furniture arrangement - for coziness purposes it usually looked like the right!)
The dining room had long ago been decorated by another designer, who added interest to the rear wall via a variegated grey surface treatment. To unite it with the kitchen, we used a limewashed partition, but as for the living room? The neutral wall felt forgotten, unintentional, and uninspired - too similar to the dining room wall to make an impact, and lacking any visual interest. A "big white nothing" wall. The family had avoided doing anything here because it was their main tv-watching area - a projector mounted on the ceiling cast their shows on the blank wall.
To remedy this, we worked with an AV specialist to rotate the screen 90°. We were able to drop the screen from the ceiling in the space between the living room & lounge, embracing the natural division between the rooms. This change meant that the tv was now viewable from the kitchen, allowing whoever was playing chef to be more involved in the fun.
A relatively invisible decision, but it made room for the most impactful style change in this space:
the wood slat wall.
AFTER: Freeing this wall from its function as TV screen allowed it to become a statement moment
Stained maple slats carry the warm wood of the ceiling down onto the wall of the living room, adding both natural interest and a clear division between the spaces. The rear wall is the first one see when entering the condo; rather than remaining blank and utilitarian, now this wall is an impactful modern moment that sets the tone for the rest of the spaces. The textures and colors invite you to hang out in this now-cozy room.
Moving the projector screen to the space between the lounge and living room also changed the orientation of the furniture. The sofa is now perpendicular to the slat wall. This opens up access to the space from the raised entrance and creates a more uncluttered sightline. Plus, anyone in the kitchen can view the TV over the shoulders of the couch-dwellers, and the new kitchen's proximity means snacks are just a short trip away.
AFTER: You can really see our arched motif at play here
between the curved footstools and rounded cabinet panels
Underneath the new projector screen, we added in the essential storage that families need, by way of a custom maple built-in cabinet with stylish leather pulls and adjustable interior shelving. Modern footstools do double duty, serving both as ottomans for the matching side chairs and as a place for guests to perch.
Everyone in this family likes to put their feet up; now between the ottomans and chaise, they all can do so at the same time! And, as we like to do, we selected durable, cleanable fabrics that would hold up to wear and tear from both their young family and any future parties. Now they have a space that can very easily be a beautiful entertaining room but also flex to be the main TV watching space.
The view from the other side of the room was vastly improved with some impactful storage solutions
and some thoughtful style tweaks.
BEFORE: The hallway was a drop zone for the entry and was cluttered with coats and shoes
AFTER: We improved the view from both sides of the room, opting for a cooler wall treatment for the hall
Storage - is there ever enough of it? Certainly not for this family, with two children and a husband with an extensive shoe collection! The hallway drop zone adjacent to the living room was cluttered with coat racks, backpacks, shoes, etc. - totally contrary to our clients' goals of sophisticated minimalism. We completely reworked the condo entrance around the corner to create 11 feet of customized closets for these items, all detailed by our on-staff custom organizer!
BEFORE: An extra wall in the entry hallway made getting in and out more challenging. Storage was limited, and outdoor items spilled into the raised area next to the living room.
AFTER: A render of the new closet wall and clear path from back door.
It starts with an inventory of the family's items, which becomes a hand drawing...
...and then a 3D rendering!
Adding storage via the new closets opened up the raised hallway significantly. This area was not explicitly in our scope of work for decorating, but in an open space, this zone felt unfinished. We really wanted this area to visually connect with the rest of the condo.
During Construction
The one empty wall gave us room for a single moment of soft color, and we found an abstract landscape & had it blown up as a custom mural to fill out the space. The wall treatment makes that area feel more finished - a destination, even, despite it being more of a pass-through area.
AFTER: The blown-up mural becomes a soft, diffused wash of blues and greys.
The entry hall is also home to a small powder room. A windowless space, the challenge with the powder room was to make it feel like a cozy destination rather than a dark closet.
We achieved this with luxe finishes and materials that made the space feel special, despite its size.
BEFORE: A tight series of corners made this powder room challenging to access.
The wall pictured on the left was removed during renovation to open up the entry.
AFTER: We embraced the darkness of this windowless space with a moody wallpaper and sexy finishes
In such a small space, we wanted to pay attention to all surfaces, so every plane is thoughtfully selected. The floors are a matte greige porcelain tile with deco brass inlay; the walls in a durable, wipeable vinyl in a subtle geometric pattern. Even the ceiling was considered - rather than a stark white surface, a metallic foil wallpaper gives a luxe effect and bounces light around the room.
The vanity mirror mirrors (get it?) the pill-shaped kitchen island, and we selected hand-blown sconces made in the UK that echo the glass color of the kitchen pendant lights. We designed a custom single-drawer floating vanity in medium stained maple, and we pulled the wood up the wall as a backsplash to highlight the vanity area. Hardware in luxe gold adds a little extra sparkle to this sophisticated space.
Much like the kitchen renovation, thoughtful tweaks to the entry and living room allowed us to create better flow and harmony in the open space. These adjustments not only allowed for more sophisticated aesthetics but made the space far more functional for the family. Better still, each change had a ripple effect on the adjoining spaces: improving the entry storage allowed better flow to the powder and living rooms, and moving the living room's projector screen allowed the kitchen to feel more connected to the space.
We'll see in our final chapter how this ripple effect moved into the last two underutilized spaces -
the lounge and bar - and helped transform them into a hub of swanky entertaining!
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