Designer at Home: David Boronkay

The side door off the driveway opens into a neat-as-a-pin mudroom. Matte black accents begin here with the Tom Dixon pendant. The flooring is faux bluestone, the same used in the family room and patio. Indigo cabinets and drawers store coats and shoes.

“I’ve always loved black houses, and I just knew it was the right move,” says architectural designer and homeowner David Boronkay, who chose Benjamin Moore Deep Caviar for the home’s exterior.

Boronkay in front of his uniquely modern walnut pivot door; it’s attached to its steel frame at the top and bottom, with no hinges.

The fireplace wall is defined by walnut banding; the bench and mirror have moved with Boronkay several times.

The kitchen countertops are Jet Mist, a honed gray granite that looks like soapstone but is more durable, while the upper cabinets are walnut, and the lowers are white lacquer.

The family room with its indoor/outdoor connection (and radiant heat flooring) is Boronkay’s favorite room in the house.

Boronkay connected the garage (front) and house (back) with a structure that contains a mudroom and kitchen. A wraparound ipe deck ties it all together and provides outdoor living space.

Lighting equals drama—even on the garage. A frosted-glass-and-steel door adds visual interest to the exterior.

Boronkay says the landscaping was inspired by a palette he had in his mind’s eye. “I wanted it to be natural looking and not overly fussy. I was most specific about the colors, variations on tones of green and red. We planted two Japanese maples as an homage to my m

Every imaginable blueprint has crossed David Boronkay’s desk since he launched his architecture and design firm, Slocum Hall Design Group, in 2013—from a 1930s bungalow to a bona fide neoclassical revival mansion. But none has spoken to him like the down-to-the-studs renovation he completed of his own home in Newton, Massachusetts, a year ago.

The reimagined 1860s farmhouse was every inch a labor of love that served as part design lab, part repository for things he loves—including several Tom Dixon matte-black light fixtures he just had to have.

“Stylistically, my taste skews modern, and I was looking for something more midcentury, but when I saw this property, I knew,” says Boronkay. The home had undergone a nondescript renovation in the 1950s, so everything and anything was on the table.

He immediately decided the two existing buildings, the house and a garage with screened porch, had to be connected. The resulting structure contains a mudroom, kitchen, and dining area. It all adds up to a crisp modern farmhouse infused with Boronkay’s aesthetic: a tone-on-tone black-clad exterior and clean-lined interiors he describes as “a little bit Zen and a little bit glam.”

There was no skimping on (minimalist) style. “The common thread between an 1860 farmhouse and a modernist ideology is a lack of ornamentation,” says the designer, “that, and the use of natural, raw materials and a focus on craftsmanship.” To that end, the home’s open plan is sparsely furnished with sophisticated details: walnut cabinetry and cladded walnut beams, black lacquer doors, and intentional pops of indigo throughout. Unexpected touches include a black crocodile-print wallpaper in the powder room and walnut banding on the stairs, which is echoed in the fireplace detail.

Everyone in Boronkay’s Watertown-based firm worked on the project, all taking an active role and designing it in anticipation of the state’s new electrical code. They specified substantial insulation and solar panels to ensure a small carbon footprint for the 3,600-square-foot home. Always up for a new challenge, Boronkay says he wasn’t planning to stay more than a few years but admits he’s in no hurry to leave. “I’m dragging my feet. It’s just so comfortable and peaceful. I really love living here.”

Project Team
Architecture and Interior Design: Slocum Hall Design Group
Builder: Concept Building
Landscape design: Shoplick Landscape Architecture

Photography note: Daniel Nystedt exterior photography and Jared Kuzia’s interior photography.