The challenge in a Paramus house: adding new touches judiciously and not changing what was already working.
Text by Donna Rolando
Design by Susan Barbieri
Photography by David Nelson
People have high expectations for their forever home, and a Paramus couple was no different. They wanted a house that could easily accommodate big holiday gatherings, stand up under their two active children—even if they jumped on the sofa—and hold their interest through their retirement years.
That was a tall order, but that wasn’t all. They also hoped to achieve a fresh new look—farmhouse and modern—without gutting the place.
Sometimes a clean sweep, a start-all-over job, is the right answer. Not this time. This time the challenge was to mix and match with existing décor. The homeowner says the last owners built a new addition and remodeled the whole house in 2006; she couldn’t imagine doing a complete renovation so soon.
“I just wanted to freshen it up and make it my own,” she says of her goals for the project.
The couple called upon Susan Barbieri of the eponymous Hawthorne design firm, and found she had a knack for giv-ing new life to existing features.
“My philosophy is ‘Less is more,’” says Barbieri, who started her design work with the kitchen, family room and office a year and a half ago and is now remodeling the entire house. “I don’t like to destroy things. It’s bad for the environment.
“The first thing we did was enhance all the molding and replace all the hardware and doorknobs throughout the house,” she continues. Custom window treatments also went a long way to elevating the look without a big renovation.
In the kitchen, the couple held onto the cherry cabinets, along with the ceramic flooring and all the appliances, but stripped off the wallpaper and spray-painted the island black “to give it a modern farmhouse feeling,” says Barbieri.
The homeowner was amazed at how something as simple as new lighting (a trio of pendant lights and chandelier, both in dark bronze) could work such wonders for the kitchen. “What they had was brass and dated,” Barbieri explains. “One of the easiest fixes you can do is lighting.”
The near-necessity in this kitchen was the new dining table, large enough to handle big family gatherings and comfortable with custom-made upholstered chairs. That it’s rustic with a distressed wood finish to complement the cherry cabinets was almost an afterthought. “We host almost all the holidays for our family, and that means about 20 people,” says the homeowner. Antiques, vintage shutters alongside the gingham check drapes and a chalkboard for the kids deliver country charm.
Comfort for the whole clan was key to the family room’s new design. So was durability; there are, after all, two boys, ages 5 and 7, ready to put it all to the test. The two gray sofas are of soft distressed leather, “which works well in a family with two boys who like to jump on them—there’s nothing to worry about,” the designer says. “And the chairs swivel so they can be turned if you’re watching TV.” The black paint for the once light-oak media center and mantel created a modern vibe, just as black did in the kitchen. The couple loves to travel and made the mantel a showcase for their photos.
Think white lambswool benches would never hold up in this environment? Think again. According to Barbieri, natural materials like that can come clean with a little soap and water. Even the gray wool area rug has nature on its side when it comes to upkeep, she adds.
The sky’s the limit when it comes to the gray color scheme, which leaves the couple free to throw any color into the mix simply by switching up the accent pillows. “It’s extremely popular because you don’t have to commit to color on a wall,” says the designer.
The third project, a new office, carries the farmhouse look forward with custom panels and lanterns on the walls, a cowhide rug and leather chairs in whiskey color for a masculine touch, with ottomans for when it’s time to take a break from paperwork. The desk is contained in the wall unit, and with the chair pushed in it becomes part of the décor. The husband can work here and meet with clients in a setting designed to be as comfy as the rest of the house. One room at a time, this forever home is taking shape, and the owners couldn’t be happier. A little bit of change, it turns out, can do a lot.