Personality Plus
March 3, 2016
A Boston townhouse is bright, lively, and playfulâjust like the young family that calls it home.
Text by Robert Keiner   Photography by Michael J. Lee   Produced by Kyle Hoepner
Designer Carl DâAquino smiles as he remembers how his clients, both Boston professionals, briefed him on their hopes for the redesign of their newly acquired Back Bay townhouse.âThey wanted something joyful, Âcomfortable, youthful, colorful, and stylish,â he recalls. âAnd most of all, they asked for something different. They did not want the traditional, restored Boston townhouse. They told me they wanted to smile every time they opened the front door.â
The four-story townhouse was built around 1870 and converted into apartments in the early 1960s. To accommodate its new owners and their three young children, it was recently completely gutted, reconfigured, and rebuilt. Stairways were altered, walls and hallways were removed, support beams were installed, and a new top-floor family room and patio were added. As Middleton, Massachusetts-based contractor Paul Jackson explains, âWe took the home back to its bare walls and rebuilt it.â
Everyone involved in the redesign of this 7,500-square-foot house stresses that it was a uniquely collaborative effort. DâAquino and architect Francine Monaco, partners in the Manhattan firm DâAquino Monaco, worked closely with the homeowner and a team of subcontractors from the very beginning. âBecause so many elements of architecture are design-focused, having an architect and designer working together is critical,â explains the homeowner.
To help communicate her vision, the homeowner brought a âbinder of ideasâ to the designers and asked that they incorporate some special pieces, such as a collection of glazed ceramics that includes sculptural works by Ruth Douzinas, to give the design a personal touch. Other items, such as the coupleâs Oriental carpets, also provided inspiration to the design team.
Although renovations and reconfigurations over the years had stripped the interior of much of its architectural interest, both DâAquino and Monaco included an appreciation for history in their design. Says Monaco, âOur approach to the design of the house was with a contemporary sensibility, but not without regard for the rich history of the Boston townhouse typology.â Features such as patterned ceilings, textured walls, and handcrafted ironwork show the designer and architectâs admiration for traditional detailing.
That admiration, a sort of nod to the past, is evident right from the entry. DâAquino kept some of the vestibuleâs original oak wainscoting, but added a Âcontemporary hammered-metal console, a French mirror, and a mother-of-pearl tiled wall. âWe wanted to retain some of the formalityâthe idea of being receivedâhere,â he explains.
Beyond the entry, the house is a symphony of color and light. High ceilings, generous bay windows, creamy Venetian-plaster walls, stained white-oak floors, and an open plan give each of the homeâs floors a feeling of spaciousness.
The living roomâs custom-made multicolored carpet sets the tone for the entire house. It contains every color the designers used throughout. âLike other elements on this floor, such as the stairway runners and the metal railings, the carpet draws, or pulls, you through the house,â DâAquino says. âI like to use color as a way to invite you into the house.â
One of the homeownerâs requests was for a large, comfortable eat-in kitchen (âwhere we can all hang out,â she says) with a breakfast room and a fireplace. She got all that and more. The new light-filled, first-floor kitchen runs the entire width of the townhouse and boasts a circular alcove window thatâs the perfect shape for a custom breakfast table.
âItâs unusual to have enough width in a brownstone to have room for cabinets, an island, a table, and a fireplace,â says Rosemary Porto, senior designer at Poggenpohl Boston. âIt feels like the comfortable kitchen of a much bigger house.â
Details matter to DâAquino and his design associate Fani Budic. Design elements echo through the house and help create a totally organic scheme. The Moroccan tiles that cover the kitchenâs new chimney breast are repeated in the backsplash on the opposite wall. The breakfast alcoveâs built-in bookcase recalls the cerused finish of the kitchen cabinets. Custom metalwork is everywhere, from the entrance vestibuleâs console to the coffee table bases in the living room to the stair railings that wrap, uninterrupted, through all four stories of the home.
Even hallways are impeccably designed. Says Budic, âHalls and stairs are not just mere passing spaces but are able to hold their own with a unique character and function.â For example, the colors of the carpet runners on the upper landings are coordinated to the color schemes of the bedrooms they lead to. The master bedroom has a soft gray-blue design palette, so the landing carpet outside it is blue. âWe are pulling you through the house, but we are also teasing you,â explains DâAquino. âThe carpet colors give you a hint of what is to come in the next room or on the next floor.â
Because the three children are so young, the homeowners wanted their bedrooms to be on the same floor as the master suite. In the hallway outside the kidsâ rooms is a reading nook that is backed by a collage of wallpapers. âThese are all strips of the same wallpapers we used in the childrenâs bedrooms,â says Greg Kahler, of PHD: Paper Hanging and Design, in Lynn, Massachusetts. âI think itâs a really playful way of saying, âThis is our space.ââ
If the family has a favorite spot, it has to be the new family room. The breezy room, which has broad sliders that open to a spacious outdoor patio, boasts a piano, work desks for the parents and the children, comfy furniture, a flat-screen television, lots of bookcases, and, best of all, a sculptural swing. The homeowners asked for a joyful, youthful design, and this room delivers. DâAquino calls the swing âa floating daybed,â and reports that the family loves clambering into it. âItâs just fun.â
Do the homeowners agree? The wife says, âI wanted a home that felt happy, calm, beautiful, elegant, and fun all at the same time. That was what we got. My sister described our home in a way I really like. She called it the perfect balance of glamour and Zen.ââ˘
Design and interior architecture: Carl DâAquino, Francine Monaco, and Fani Budic, DâAquino Monaco
Builder: Paul Jackson, Jackson General Carpentry
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