Modern Take on a Victorian Revival

A 150-year-old Victorian home neighboring Harvard University lived a dull existence for decades as a condo conversion for the transient residents of Cambridge. In a town where rentals are few and renters are plenty, such stories are not uncommon.

"About 40 years earlier, the owners divided the interior of the house into three or four apartments," according to Adolfo Perez, a Newton, Massachusetts-based architect. The students in the area drive a constant demand for rentals, and the couple probably saw it as a great opportunity.

When a local couple discovered the long-lost beauty for sale, they set to reclaim the one-family Victorian it once was: a project that would entail major interior and exterior renovations. Not only had the inside been subdivided, the exterior was stripped of its Victorian details and the clapboards were covered with stucco. Along with Bensley Construction of Cambridge, Perez worked just over a year completing the renovation, which in the end consisted of only half the original structure.

"The entire project revolved around trying to stay truthful to the spirit of the original house, taking as many clues from it as I saw fit, but inventing where necessary," says Perez. This objective would not come easy when he learned the entire back piece of the house would have to be removed and rebuilt. "The previously existing back wing was entirely torn down and replaced with new construction — from the basement up," he says. The interiors were dark, and the spatial divisions were not appropriate for a family of four. The homeowners wanted to add Victorian attributes, increase natural light to the interior, and create the illusion of a taller house, which was accomplished by lowering the basement level and deepening the windows.

One of the rooms most affected by the reconstruction was the kitchen. "We were trying to get as much light into the kitchen as possible," notes Perez. Next to the kitchen area they built an octagon-shaped tower, where the family enjoys their morning meal in a breakfast room. This tower, a trademark of the Victorian house style, also provides a well-lit space for the son's bedroom upstairs.

French doors on this north-facing side of the house access a newly built terrace. "We rebuilt the front and side porches, as they had rotted over time. And we also added some porches to the old house that were not original," says Perez. The new upstairs "hers" bathroom is tucked into the house interior but graciously looks out into the private greenhouse off the master bedroom.

Possibly one of the most unique additions to the house is a roof deck that is hidden away in a North European style roofline. The deck is accessible from two attic offices. This pseudo third floor also houses a library and the "his" bathroom and dressing room.

While the new construction primarily affected the back wing and exterior, no room was left untouched in the 10,000 square ft. house. The remaining interiors were completely gutted. "We installed all new plumbing, lighting, electrical, and mechanical," Perez says. New doors and windows were necessary to replace the "energy-inefficient" originals.

Even the cabinetry was newly designed and custom made for each particular space. The very large kitchen called for two-tone flat panel cabinetry and a center island topped with soapstone. Likewise, new Edwardian-style fixtures from Waterworks complement the bathroom's white, flat-panel cabinetry.

"We wanted everything to look like it was already there," says Perez. The trim casings and baseboards were all custom made, giving the pieces "alittle more personality." In the old section of the house, they added some new plaster moldings and completed minor patching and staining of the 150-year-old oak wood flooring. The one entirely new addition was an elaborate spiral staircase leading from the back hall to the second floor.

Color selection was one of the final steps to completing the interior design. "There was no set, overall strategy for the house colors, other than to make each room different," says Perez. The owners hired a color consultant, who helped them select subtle, two-color decorative rag finishes for the walls, typically with a white undercoat. Often times, the owners would find a fabric pattern or color that they liked in their furniture, and then establish a color scheme and decide what room it would look best in.

"The house photographed so well because the owners owned great things. All of the pieces are theirs," says Perez. Originally from Sweden, the wife had many antiques originating from Viennese furniture designer Josef Frank. His designs are typically Craftsman in style with an elegant, slim profile reminiscent of Asian designs. The china cabinet and table in the dining room are some of his work, dating back to the 1930s and '40s.

The textiles of Svenskt Tenn, a Scandinavian fabric designer, are a great complement to the Josef Frank pieces. Tenn's fabric designs came to be known as a model for a style called Swedish Modern, which can be identified throughout the house. The window treatments in the dining room are a Tenn design, and the mixing of colors and patterns seen in the first floor office are a trademark of her style.

Although Perez focuses mainly on contemporary projects, he states that this renovation was appealing to him: "I'm not stylistically driven. I just wanted to make it their home."

Credits

Text
Robyn Lorusso