Name: Jacquie (Designer/Project Manager)
Location: West Village
Size: 3000 sqft
Favorite: The opportunity to "update and recreate a part of history."
Jacquie was hired to restore a 4 story, 1830's Greek Revival building in the West Village to its original glory. Over the centuries, the building morphed from a single unit to multiple units that were eventually merged, subdivided, and now merged yet again. The current owners want to live on the upper 3 floors, with a rental unit at the garden level, and a club/entertainment area in the cellar.
Jacquie oversaw the demo, the design, the permitting, and the construction of the entire structure. It took about a year from the beginning of the project until the owners moved in last November, but there are still some loose ends on the roof, in the garden, in the rental unit, and in the cellar.
Afforded a lot of design freedom, Jacquie set out to create a space that respected the history of the building with a tastefully modernized classic decor. She wanted to streamline and minimize as much as possible, but also to make it feel homey. For Jacquie, that meant soft edges--rounded archways, and the hand-painted faux-wallpaper in many of the rooms.
At the same time as preserving original features of the building, Jackquie knew her clients would appreciate modern conveniences such as a built in, centralized sound system throughout the house and a remote control gas-log in the fireplace.
In the kitchen, Jacquie says she was "anti-Viking, anti-stainless, anti-sub-zero." Rather than a cold steel kitchen, she opted for all the warmth of all white with a splash of sea blue from the Aga range. The space comes across as sophisticated and beautiful.
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Comments (5)
I don't get it. The house is 1830s, yet the furniture is so Deco 1930s. If you want to nod to an historical period, why such a different one than the original?
Uh, is it just me, or is this a pretty boring house, in terms of the furniture and decor? Other than the dining room walls, I wasn't particularly excited about anything they've done here.
love the architecture and the restoration, the tiles, the marble, and the kitchen (except the frig profile which should be flush with the cabinets).....but not the colors or the furnishings. sorry, but nothing all that original, new, or fresh here. and i agree that some seem off scale.
jacquie clearly knows reno / contracting / planning / permitting /construction. but it looks undone with regard to furniture and art. i appreciate that the owners will grow into it but find it hard to believe that people with the money for this project don't own any nice art or as found pieces.
As somebody who used to work for a government cultural department advising people on how to sensitively restore and update their historic homes, I have to say that a number of the things done here are a no-no.
The renovation is guilty of architectural muddling through the introduction of the arched doorways -- the arches destroy the original bones of the house while introducing a foreign element that does not belong with it, all for a rather weak design "theme of round edges". The worst of it is the way it is done: it is made to look authentic, and not like a 2007 addition. It is a rather permanent element -- subsequent owners will have to re-do the walls to get rid of the arches (hopefully they realize that they are an inauthentic element).
The other things that don't belong are the cheap new coated brass hardware -- if you want to go with brass hardware, get the authentic stuff, uncoated, from an architectural salvage store -- there are lots of sources in N.Y. This isn't as big a transgression, and is easier to fix than the arches.
The bathrooms and kitchen try to reference designs that are at least younger than the house (it really looks silly when the bathroom or kitchen tries to make links with design elements that pre-date the house, a very common occurrence when people try to do a "sensitive" remodel), but it is a disappointment that they do not try to be honestly contemporary, the way the Europeans do it. And those little marble tiles were so trendy, that they seem very dated and tired.
I usually don't speak up when I dislike something, but I really, really dislike how this renovation has been done -- in every way -- the way it has been furnished too (if you're going to go for curvy velvet sofas, go with a Dialogica -- either a Diva or an Elle model).
Sadly, it is a missed opportunity that may not come around again for this building.
Carrara marble in the kitchen is a death sentence: you are always going to be in a panick the second anything falls on it, and you cannot ever totally seal it because those solutions just impregnate the stone, simply giving you more time to wipe any potential stains away.