DESIGN by KATE JACOBOWITZ, KATE SUSANNAH HOME
PHOTOGRAPHY by SHANNON DUPRE/DD-REPS
TEXT by DONNA ROLANDO
When the stork had come a-calling three times, a Livingston couple realized it was time for action. Their original four-bedroom ranch was now a full house, falling short on functionality for family life and the parties they love to host. Already prepared for this moment, they had two aces in the hole: a spacious attic just waiting to be reimagined and a good friend in the design business, Kate Jacobowitz of Livingston’s Kate Susannah Home.
“We really love our street, we love our neighborhood, and we love the home,” says homeowner Sarah Schonfeld. “We bought the house six weeks before COVID and paid a really great price for it. We just didn’t want to move.”
So Schonfeld and her high school sweetheart, aka husband Evan, turned to Plan B, making full use of their huge attic, now transformed into three kids’ bedrooms, a playroom and two full baths. The impact on the main floor was equally magical, as it added a full floor of living space, with the gem being a bar room “people love hanging out in,” Schonfeld says. Many existing spaces, like the dining and living rooms, also saw redesigns, and the project, completed in summer 2025, raised the bedroom count to five.
Making full use of what Schonfeld calls her friend’s “amazing eye,” the project team from the get-go welcomed Jacobowitz, along with Parsippany’s Express General Contractors and Livingston’s SIH Architectural Design. Their goal? “We wanted the rooms to be great for entertaining but also fine for when the kids have all their friends over,” says their designer. (In other words, more entertaining.)
Of course, friendship with a designer is no guarantee of simpatico design thinking. But Jacobowitz says she knew what her clients wanted without a word. She sums it up as “a bridge between contemporary, young and fun” on the one hand and “classic” on the other. “They wanted it to feel unique and special to them, as opposed to a cookie-cutter house.”
For that distinctive edge, the couple was willing to be nudged outside their comfort zone, which for Schonfeld, gravitates to gray. Jacobowitz’s shining success in that regard is the bar room, which joins two former bedrooms for what Schonfeld calls “a fun, easy space to entertain in.”
The full workhorse bar reflects the sun, with bronze-finish ribbed tiles under a distinctive arch—something the couple might never have imagined, says Jacobowitz. Flanked by custom, gray-wash oak cabinets—one a wine fridge, the other for decorative bottles—the bar is the “nucleus of the room,” equipped with everything from icemaker to dishwasher, she adds.
“Amazing” to Sarah Schonfeld is how her friend divided the bar room into two distinct sitting areas. One lounge area features a curved, gray-velvet sofa with brass legs by Interior Define, black boucle chairs (Safavieh) and a kidney-shaped nesting table by West Elm. The other boasts a velvet sofa “you can really sink into,” the designer says, as well as two textured-fabric swivel chairs, all Safavieh, and a Four Hands natural-wood table for a playful touch.
In one spot, wood panels evoke a library charm—to Evan’s delight— and is ideal for relaxing with whiskey. Yet the room is also fun, which Jacobowitz underscores with colorful pillows and abstract art augmented by gilded-finish sconces from Hudson Valley.
Jacobowitz confides that the large, rectangular space with loads of open ceiling was a challenge to tame. But she cut it down to size with grids of surface-mount lighting like a “jewel” on the charcoal paint. A matte-black shade chandelier from Visual Comfort adorns the entrance over a marble serving/game table from CB2. Another distinctive feature is the metal-and-glass partition door that frames the entrance.
Originally the dining room said “ho-hum” with white walls, but Jacobowitz warmed it up with Phillip Jeffries’s faux wood grain, which made the millwork and coffered ceiling “really pop.” A pedestal oak table is generous with guests but also comfortable for family, with its velvet chairs, all by Vanguard. An oversized mirror makes a “cool” companion, she says, for Four Hands’s linen-wrapped black console. For modernity, a Regina Andrew bronze stick chandelier helps elevate this entry-area room’s first impression.
In the redesigned living room, Jacobowitz sent white another wakeup call, preserving the stone fireplace, but infusing drama into the built-in shelves with a burnt charcoal, faux-wood wallcovering, also Phillip Jeffries. The extremely functional, L-shaped sectional by Crate & Barrel follows suit with its ochre yellow and rust pillows for a “nice, earthy tone,” the designer adds. Completing the scene are an ottoman in Kravet’s vinyl shagreen, a custom oak coffee table, the client’s abstract art and woven curtains for texture. Off-white walls with gray undertones harmonize with the kitchen, which shares this open space.
“I wouldn’t have done any of this,” confesses Schonfeld, who calls herself “very boring” in terms of design instincts. Her friend the designer, she says, “appropriately pushed us, and working with her was great.”
This homeowner is pleased to report that “we’re still friends.”