A Suburban Boston Home Gets a Modern Makeover

Designer Leslie Fine changed the palette’s earthy neutrals to pale grays and plums for a more modern look. Holly Hunt sofas and chairs form a seating area illuminated by a Jonathan Browning chandelier. The large oil painting by Allen Bentley adds motion and color to the space.

The bar is a focal point in the family room, with its dark oak, stainless-steel inlay, and glamorous glass tile.

Textured wallpaper in a smoky-plum hue gives the dining room drama.

The foyer’s striking table is as much a work of art as the Harry Moody painting, April Wagner glass sculpture, and Thomas Osika bronze.

Architect Marcus Gleysteen devised a new oak top to turn the island in the existing Poggenpohl kitchen into a casual dining spot.

The informal dining room sports a Cliff Young table surrounded by Artistic Frame chairs covered with an easy-care vinyl.

The dining room sets an elegant scene for entertaining.

The living room is designed for fun, with a cantilevered pool table of oak and stainless steel. The Holly Hunt chairs swivel to watch the game or face the dramatic fireplace. “The art takes the home to another level,” says Fine about works like the Harry Moody oil painting and a silver-leaf-and-acrylic piece by Massachusetts artist Jessica Feldheim.

The curves of the new vaulted ceiling add to the cocoon-like feel of the primary bedroom; the wall behind the bed is a sumptuous expanse of suede tile.

A monolithic stone slab from Cumar forms the vanity counter in the husband’s bath.

A Plexi-Craft desk adds a light touch to the husband’s office.

When designer Leslie Fine and architect Marcus Gleysteen got together to renovate a clients’ home, Gleysteen already had more than a passing familiarity with the house. He had, in fact, designed the Weston, Massachusetts, dwelling just a decade earlier. Classic on the outside with gray shingles and white trim, the house took a contemporary turn within, with high ceilings, an easy-flowing floorplan, and streamlined architectural details. In the sleek, quiet interiors the new homeowners saw the perfect canvas for their own vision. Who better to make it happen, they imagined, than the architect who created that canvas?

Fine and Gleysteen worked closely from the get-go. “Leslie and I had a dynamic relationship,” Gleysteen recounts. “We designed everything together. We didn’t always agree, but we always managed to reach a consensus.” Marc Kaplan, whose Sanford Custom Builders was the contractor on the original house, joined the team early on, too.

Although everyone involved calls it a substantial renovation, sometimes requiring walls to be taken down to the studs, the essential geometry of the spaces didn’t change. Instead, the home’s transformation comes from the addition of lots of architectural details and an abundance of materials, from stone to metal to glass, that lend texture, sparkle, and a frequent “wow” factor. “The finishes are extraordinary,” says Kaplan. “The design is highly detailed and highly complex, and putting it all together, integrating the many different materials, required a huge amount of thinking and planning.”

In the family room, Gleysteen reworked the recessed ceiling, adding a grid pattern of soffits. Fine refinished the framing around the recess, giving the light oak a dark, almost-black stain. What was a serviceable black fireplace set into a white wall is now a show- stopper wrapped in stone with muted stripes of grays, plum, and blues. As arresting as the fireplace is, the room’s true marvel is the dark-stained oak bar inset with stainless steel and a backsplash of round glass tiles with a silvery, prismatic effect. “The tile is very elegant, very beautiful,” Fine says. “It really pops.”

Eye-catching details abound, from the living room’s cantilevered pool table of dark oak and stainless steel, to the acrylic desk in an office, to the knockout ten-foot-long Jonathan Browning light fixture in the Poggenpohl kitchen.

The color scheme throughout is a mix of warm grays and plums splashed with bright color in the form of a collection of paintings and sculptures the owners chose with the help of Jacqueline Becker Fine Arts Consulting Services. In some places, like the kitchen and the casual dining area, the gray is a light, airy version that feels elegant and clean. In the living room and formal dining room, the hues deepen to a more dramatic pewter and smoky plum. The palette moves another shade darker in the primary bedroom, where three walls of deep plum and a fourth that’s a sumptuous expanse of suede tiles create a cocoon-like space.

Fine and her clients strove for livability as well as beauty; much of the furniture, stylish as it is, wears durable fabrics like Ultrasuede and vinyl for easy maintenance. “The rooms are amazing and elegant, but they’re also approachable,” the designer says.
All three pros applaud their clients for their great taste, their deep involvement, and their bold vision. “This is one of the most creative and detail-focused projects we’ve ever done,” Gleysteen says. “We love it when clients let us draw cool stuff, then let us do it.”

Project Team
Architecture: Marcus Gleysteen, Lauren O’Halloran, Marcus Gleysteen Architects
Interior design: Leslie Fine, Leslie Fine Interiors
Builder: Marc Kaplan, Sanford Custom Builders