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Start With Art
A collection bridges a wife’s affection for jewel tones with
her husband’s appreciation of clean Midcentury design
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What’s an interior designer to do when a cou- ple is aesthetically divided? That was the question for Phoebe Lovejoy when her clients bought a two-story condo in a brick row house designed by the Grassi Design Group of Bos- ton. The modern structure — which is long on
glass, yet conforms to historic guidelines — was built in 2015 on a rare
vacant lot in Boston’s South End.
At 850 square feet, the condo is compact but bright, thanks to
walls of windows at either end. It was this airiness and light that the
couple fell for, and they asked Lovejoy to help keep it that way. The
challenge for the designer, whose firm, Lovejoy Designs, is in Boston,
was to blend the wife’s love of jewel tones with the husband’s passion
for white, Midcentury Modern design. “So we started with the art,”
says Lovejoy.
Beginning in a central spot between the living area and kitchen,
Lovejoy gave prominent wall space to a Stavros Bouranis painting the
couple purchased during their honeymoon in Santorini, Greece. Its
saturated colors dictate the palette and contemporary tone of many of
the room’s furnishings, such
as an angular chair uphol-
stered in Schumacher velvet
that flirts with the watery
violets of the painting. The
chair’s simple black legs
mimic the painting’s frame,
while the chiseled Bungalow
5 side table repeats modern
trapezoid shapes found in the umbrellas and awnings of the artwork.
A sizable walnut and white lacquer chest by John Strauss Furni-
ture Design anchors the reading area. The grain of the wood imparts
the importance of natural materials to the clients, especially the wife,
who runs a health coaching business called One Beet Wellness.
For the window, the couple had wanted only shades for privacy
or sun, concerned that any other treatment would block the fabulous
light. But Lovejoy persuaded them that curtains would absorb sound
and draw the eye up. She installed stationary panels, which use min-
imal fabric, to frame the nearly floor-to-ceiling living room window.
LIFE EMULATES ART
The room’s palette was
determined by the vivid tones of
the couple’s artwork, such as
the painting from Greece by
Stavros Bouranis ;;;;;;. Chairs
in violet velvet and mustard
leather are by Cisco Brothers.
Across the room ;;;;;;;, the
painting is reflected in the John
Strauss mirror.
INTERIOR DESIGN
LOVEJOY DESIGNS
UNIF YING LINES
The wide black frame of the
Israeli art ;;;;;; is echoed in the
top rails of the custom O&G
Studio bench and chairs, as well
as the circular band of the
chandelier, designed by Ralph
Lauren for Circa Lighting.
