Charles Spada Curates a Sophisticated Boston Home

The homeowner’s impressive art collection rivals the stunning views of Boston from the living room. Interior designer Charles Spada positioned an eighteenth-century French fauteuil and a chaise longue upholstered in fabric from George Spencer Design in a windowed corner.

The living room showcases a vast collection of antique English creamware and artwork by Milton Avery (far left, bottom) and Jackson Pollock (above the oak writing desk). The Kathryn Ireland sofa and chairs surround a Mies van der Rohe coffee table.

An intimate breakfast nook/dining area in the kitchen features a Kartell dining table and Philippe Starck Ghost chairs. Artwork by Willem de Kooning hangs above a floating shelf. A George Segal bust perches on a pedestal.

A hallway showcases works by Marsden Hartley (mountains and cabins), Jackson Pollock (center), and Roy Lichtenstein (to the right of the Pollock).

An eighteenth-century worktable from the Charles Spada Collection serves as an ideal surface for a variety of objects, including an antique crystal-and-silver perfume bottle and a framed work by Henri Matisse.

he primary bedroom is furnished with a pair of gilded table lamps set on nightstands from the Charles Spada Collection.

Even a powder room becomes a gallery of sorts: seen here is a framed Sol LeWitt and, reflected in the mirror, a Joan Miró.

Two kinds of artwork fill this Boston apartment. There is the collection of mostly black-and-white prints and drawings by some of the twentieth century’s greatest talent, and there is the other full-color “artwork” visible through the twenty-ninth-floor windows that reveal Boston Harbor, the downtown skyline, and the Blue Hills undulating in the distance.

“Every time I come back inside,” says homeowner Phyllis Adelson, who has lived in this two-bedroom apartment for a year and a half, “and walk down my hallway and see the views, I am astounded.” She remains astounded, too, by the work of interior designer Charles Spada. “I gave Charles carte blanche to do as he wished because, well, he’s better at it than I am.”

Spada had designed Adelson and her late husband’s Back Bay apartment, and both designer and homeowner were determined to repurpose as many elements as possible in the new home. “We worked very, very hard and moved dozens and dozens of pieces around to get it all to fit,” says Spada, referencing, in particular, the artwork. “I wanted to use all of the pieces and the furnishings—and, down to the last, we placed it all, even though windows take up lots of wall space.”

So meticulous is Spada that he not only configured the shelving to hold the homeowner’s array of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English creamware, but he also hand placed each tea caddy and plate, candlestick and figurine for maximum effect. He bathed rooms in Benjamin Moore Decorator’s White and kept furnishings the same hue, conceding that the “art is the main feature.”

As he often does with his projects, Spada juxtaposed old and new—here centuries-old porcelain and other decidedly antique elements, like the living room’s circa-1900 Venetian mirror, live with contemporary works by the likes of Jean Dubuffet and Roy Lichtenstein.

But Spada also took his inspiration from his earliest impressions of Adelson and her late husband, David. “He was, and she still is, what I first loved about them—people who love art, who are really ‘into’ it, not for effect, but because of a real passion.”

Project Team
Interior design: Charles Spada Interiors
Builder: AJP Contract Services