Luxury Living at One Dalton

Frosted-glass French doors, the frames painted Sherwin-Williams Raisin, connect an entry hallway lit by Hector Finch pendants with a rotunda in this Boston high-rise apartment.

The mauve Roman Thomas hide-parchment cabinet in the rotunda helped inspire the home’s purply palette. The rug is from Kyle Bunting.

The homeowners originally intended to decorate with existing artwork, but they changed course, and the team at Heather Wells wound up sourcing nearly all the artwork, including this Nicole Chesney piece commissioned through Gallery NAGA in Boston.

Narrow-planked stained-oak floors in a herringbone pattern anchor the home with a traditional touch. The artwork on the grasscloth-covered walls is by Miya Ando.

Royal blue changes the color conversation in the primary bedroom, where the design team reupholstered the clients’ existing Paul Mathieu bench. A soft Holly Hunt alpaca fabric wraps the bed, and a Steven King mohair-and-cashmere rug adds another layer of texture.

Senior designer Lily Heil incorporated copious amounts of texture, seen here in the Toyine upholstery on the Christian Liaigre sofa in the living area. Simes Studios created the slick eglomise back on the built-in bar.

In order to get as close to the panoramic views as possible, the design team collaborated with upholsterer McLaughlin on a taupe boucle sofa that hugs the living area’s curved wall of windows. Low backs provide comfort without obstructing the sights

In the office, grasscloth sets off Opaline Iris by Sarah C. Ferguson while a Ted Abramczyk for Ralph Pucci fixture adds glitz.

High-rise living tends to skew sleek and neutral both inside and out, and when a pair of empty nesters reached out to the team at Heather Wells, they did indeed want something modern for their Boston pied-à-terre—just not too modern. “With buildings like One Dalton, there’s a tendency for the apartments to feel light and airy,” says senior designer Lily Heil, “but our goal was to make the space feel significant. Through interior architecture, textures, and colors, we were able to set this unit apart from others while nodding to the building’s modernity.”

Initially, the clients requested that classic neutral palette—a stark contrast from the end result. A living room rug and a rotunda cabinet in shades of mauve wound up sparking an entirely different color scheme: variations of pink, purple, and mauve with subtle veins of blue—most notably in the two bedrooms—throughout. “There are so many versions of mauve,” says Heil. “It’s not overly feminine, and we used the handsomeness of the furniture to balance out the color.”

Metallic accents in the form of light fixtures, hardware, and, in the living area, a built-in bar with a striated eglomise backsplash glam it up a bit. In the entry hallway and the rotunda, which features access to the bedrooms, living area, and laundry, silk wallpaper on the walls and on the rotunda’s coffered ceiling adds richness to a part of the home that initially read as sterile. The addition of white pilasters goes a long way in cozying up the hallway, too.

“The entire residence is elegant but with so much charm,” says Wade Bergeron of F.H. Perry Builder. “When you walk in, the architecture leads you to the living room, where through the windows you can see forty miles in either direction. It could feel like walking out on a ledge, but instead the views come to you, making it feel like a home rather than a perch in the clouds.”

As the project evolved—the pandemic turned it into a three-year-plus process—Heil began to recognize the wife’s personality in the design details, even though the couple was at their primary residence hundreds of miles away. “There’s this serious structure but also some softness and glamour,” Heil explains. “When she arrived for the install, I noticed her mauve nails coordinated with the apartment. It’s always great to see how the design of a home can impact personal style—and vice versa.”

Project Team
Interior design: Heather Wells
Builder: F.H. Perry Builder