Inside a Luxury Penthouse at Boston’s Mandarin Oriental

In the penthouse’s formal living room, a graphic Porta Romana chandelier from Boston’s Studio 534 illuminates a sofa and coffee table from Holly Hunt. The gas fireplace is surrounded by stone trimmed in the unit’s original curly maple, and the artwork is from Galerie d’Orsay.

In the formal dining room, a Gregorius Pineo table can expand to seat fourteen, while plinths in the window corner display sculptures. The large painting is by Boston-based Susan Gheyssari.

he Alexander Lamont lamp on the foyer’s console is etched with messages of love, says interior designer Nicole Hogarty. “There are several hidden moments like that throughout the home.”

Hogarty added inset leather blotters to the existing built-in desk in the husband’s office; the artwork was sourced through Holly Hunt.

Adjacent to the kitchen, the family room’s bronze grasscloth shimmers after the sun goes down.

Sconces from Magni illuminate the powder room’s blue-onyx quartz vanity.

The balcony off the primary bedroom features a mini garden to bring a bit of nature to the fourteenth floor. The wife likes to start her day with her dog on the Holly Hunt sofa and chairs.

Hogarty dressed the grounded, monochromatic bedroom in shades of wheat.

The husband’s bathroom is a showcase of stone with its White Wood marble on the walls and floor and Fior di Bosco marble on the vanity.

The family dog, Hoops, takes his dinner in the pantry, which also houses a pull-out rack for drying delicates; the artwork is from Galerie d’Orsay.

Nicole Hogarty Designs a Luxury Boston Home

Though not small by any stretch of the imagination, the 3,700-square-foot penthouse on the fourteenth floor of Boston’s Mandarin Oriental nonetheless required some thoughtful practicalities to make it home for a couple who wanted a place to hang their hats while visiting area family and friends. For instance, how can the dog get some fresh air without taking an elevator ride? And where in the world do you line dry your delicates?

Enter interior designer Nicole Hogarty, who had the answers—and the aesthetic. “Our role was to interpret how this particular family lives with ease,” says Hogarty. “That translated to extreme personalization and an elevation of key spaces.”

Custom Design and CleverStorage Solutions

Those spaces included three bathrooms, a powder room, and the pantry, all of which were gutted. The husband’s bath now wears White Wood marble on the walls and floor and in the shower. A vanity mirror with an embedded TV allows him to get ready for a night out and catch up on the news at the same time. In the wife’s bath, a vanity (topped in Taj Mahal quartzite) and custom mirror are positioned for applying makeup while simultaneously enjoying views of the Charles River.

The use of stone continues in the powder room with its blue-onyx-quartz-topped vanity. “If Nicole has a hidden talent, it’s in the way she designs baths,” says the husband, who grew up in the Boston area and attended Northeastern University. “She offered all this unique insight into the design and layout, right down to where we hang our towels.”

Pocket doors conceal that other utilitarian of spaces, the pantry, from the adjacent kitchen. The workhorse space houses a stackable washer and dryer,
refrigerated drawers for storing dog food, a doggie feeding station, and a clever pullout for line drying clothes. “It’s really a space that’s meant to hide the rituals of life, but if the doors are open, it acts as an extension of the kitchen,” says Hogarty.

Sophisticated Interiors with River Views

The homeowners chose to restore rather than replace the unit’s original curly maple trim, seen prominently in the foyer and the husband’s office. Hogarty outfitted the rooms with a mix of masculine and feminine furnishings in restrained colors that encourage the eye to stay focused on the city and river views.

In the living and dining rooms, twin structured plaster chandeliers reference the building’s architecture. The monochromatic primary bedroom is cocooned in suede-covered walls, and a sculptural bench sits at the end of the leather-wrapped bed. “It wasn’t about filling up the room, but rather editing and bringing in artistic moments, like the suede bench,” says Hogarty.

The penthouse features balconies off the primary bedroom—where the wife likes to begin her day, pup by her side, coffee in hand—and family room. There’s also a private roof deck where the couple and their college-age son have a bird’s-eye view of the Charles River Esplanade’s Fourth of July fireworks…that is, when they can tear themselves away from their summer home on Martha’s Vineyard, which Hogarty simultaneously designed. Now she’s working on the couple’s permanent home in West Palm Beach.

The homeowners were referred to Hogarty by their group of friends, many who have collaborated with the designer on multiple homes. “We become their advisors, their editors,” says Hogarty, “and we get to have the privilege of witnessing the different seasons of their lives. It’s quite extraordinary.”

Project Team
Interior design: Nicole Hogarty Designs
Builder: JW Construction
Landscape design: Perennial Gardens