Fireplaces

The home’s living room walls feature a mixed a custom color—a gallery white with a lime wash.

Floor-to-ceiling shelves and storage bookend a cabinet that conceals the television.

The original brick fireplace stands as a reminder of the home’s history.

Crafted from FSC-certified walnut, the Half Moon Dining Chair features channel-tufted cotton velvet upholstery and brass detailing on the back and legs. The Point Dume Game table can be reversed to reveal a chess/checkers board.

In the dining room, the owners started with a sculptural Palais Royal Table, a Swedish design they obtained via StudioTwentySeven. Above it is a Strikha Pendant lamp by Faina, and the leather chairs are by their design team, Klein Agency. “All our pieces are produced locally here in workshops within a radius of 10 miles,” says Maša.

Sometimes all it takes is a little luck. For a young married couple, it came in the form of this rare find: a 19th-century, three-story, single-family home in the heart of Paris. The building was a charmer with good bones, but was in need of some serious care. In a vibrant retrofit by architect Pierre-Louis Gerlier that includes structural reinforcements, the reimagined design is set off with a new floor plan. The lower level now serves as a space for the couple’s children, with the public areas—including an open-plan living/dining room and kitchen—on the floor above. Upstairs, the attic has been transformed into a very large primary bedroom with a green-and-white bathroom suite. The living room (pictured) showcases the firm’s bespoke carpentry work with a beautiful, mossy-green built-in bookcase that frames a new fireplace, and a staircase surrounded by arched doorways that hold hidden storage. “We created visual breakthroughs in order to connect the different spaces,” says Gerlier. “The rounded arches are there to help magnify these moments.”

Mac describes adding the fireplace’s Domingue plaster finish as a real "labor of love." "The end result was a credit to the builder and his team. It really pulled the spaces together, and there is nothing better than the natural light playing with the plaster finish," explains the architect.

Interior designer Heidi Lachapelle chose unfussy furnishings with clean lines. “Nothing should feel decorative or unnecessary,” she says. “We looked for things that would age beautifully to speak to the wabi-sabi concept.” The oak daybed is by Bautier, the indoor/outdoor rug is by Dash & Albert, and the trapezoidal cushions on the concrete bench nod to similar ones that the wife saw at Georgia O’Keefe’s home and studio. The Scandinavian-inspired fireplace throws heat from two sides.

The concept was simple: To create a cabin that is small and sparse yet spatially rich. The 592-square-foot structure, completed in 2016, comprises a large living area, bedroom, ski room, and small annex with a utility space. The home functions off the water and electricity grids.

Berube's starting point was the continuous wall of black millwork clad in a solid matte surface by Fenix. "We decided on a dark palette to work with the exterior,

living

A total of 14 windows punctuate the living room, with half of them overlooking peripheral rooms to give the cabin a house-within-a-house feel.

LED lighting playfully highlights the zig-zag form created where the timber stairs met the wall.

The fireplace and hearth are clad in soapstone, which the team liked for the contrast and movement in the veining. The new window above the sliding door provides "a view of the sky and then just a flood of daylight coming in," says Fowler.

The team preserved the blue and buggy pine paneling, which was important to the owners, and made it more of a feature by bringing in new pieces, all of which highlight the double-height ceilings. "That pine, it's really filled with character," says Fowler.

“There was an art to the renovation. We wanted to bring the house into the 21st century while also paying homage to its history,” says architect Cristina Graff.