Suburban Style: Across the Great Divide
March 17, 2014
Text by Louis Postel   Photography by Michael J. Lee
Moving from the city doesnât have to mean giving up sophistication, as this home outside Boston proves.
For a certain stylish crowd, the phrase âmoved to the suburbsâ may as well mean âmoved to Vladivostok.â The fun couple everyone used to hang out with is now gone, lost to malls and endless car-pooling. But that mind-set is changing. It turns out you can have comfort, some acreage, a kid-friendly house, plus a whole lot of styleâand do it in the âburbs. You just have to know the right designer.
Jeff and Meghan Swenson knew the right designerâMarc Langlois. A year after they met him while he was working for neighbors at the Ritz-Carlton in downtown Boston, where they lived at the time, they called him to help them with their new home outside the city.
âIt was daunting for these clients to move from a clean-lined, minimalist home to an 1894 Victorian in Wellesley,â says Langlois. âAt first, Meghan wanted a contemporary look, everything white. I said, âYou know, contemporary scares me.â Think of the dirt coming in with three kids.â
Langlois thought a transitional dĂŠcor would complement the house and be more family-friendly. âMany of the Âoriginal architectural details were exquisiteâthe leaded glass windows welcoming you inside, the hand-carved banister post with antique gold lights overhead, heavy pocket doors, and beautiful millwork everywhere,â he explains. âI said, âLetâs think transitional, mixing old and new, high and low, while keeping that open feeling that you had at the Ritzâmonochromatic with a touch of color, wherein every room flows naturally into the next.ââ
Meghan and Jeff agreed, and Langlois set to work. Walk into the completed project and itâs clear youâre not in Vladivostok. From the entry, the eye immediately travels a long way back to the dining roomâs âanchor wall,â as Langlois calls it, the wall that stylistically holds up the rest of the space. A pair of white lacquer mirrors above twin mirrored buffet tables flank a window draped with simple pleated panels, gently holding the eye and framing the scene.
Langloisâs ânatural flowâ leads guests through pocket doors into the sitting room for cocktails before dinner, drawn to the carved mahogany fireplace the designer painted white, a transitional âNew Victorianâ statement or, more precisely, understatement. A left turn leads to the more informal family room, dressed for comfort with shag carpet, bamboo shades, faux furâcovered ottoman, and Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams sofa. A nook surrounded by windows holds a curved banquette, casual dining table, and Chippendale-style faux-bamboo chairs Langlois bought at auction and had spray-painted white. A deeply coffered ceiling helps prevent this lovely array of laid-back from sliding into sloppy.
âItâs all about composition,â says Langlois, who, after graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design, became a photographer before launching his design career twenty years ago. âWhen I look at a room, I still see it as I learned to see through a lens, how to fill out a certain look,â he says. âComposition is still key, devoting time to figuring out the foundation before going on to furnishings. I would sketch this composition right on the spot for Meghan and then blue tape it to show Jeff when he came home from work. I always have to find out first where the anchor will be, the focus, the flow, and balance. I also need to work out how these forms I create will follow functionâhow my composition will work for my clientsâ lifestyle.â
The master bedroom shows how all these elements come together. The charcoal-and-white Imperial Trellis wallpaper by Kelly Wearstler behind the bed is something of a masterstroke. âI knew Meghan really didnât like patterns, but I need to push clients out of their comfort zones now and then, and this time it worked,â says Langlois. âShe loved this geometric design.â
The color of the painted wallsâa tonal match with Wearstlerâs charcoalâis decidedly urban chic, as is the sleek upholstered bed and the pale gray carpet.
Langlois has closed the urban-suburban divide as smoothly as those pocket doors downstairs. Urbanites take note. â˘
Interior design: Marc Langlois
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