DESIGN by BRITTANY WURZAK HAKIMFAR, FAR STUDIO
PHOTOGRAPHY by BRIAN WETZEL
TEXT by DONNA ROLANDO
It was just what the doctor ordered—two doctors, to be exact. The medical husband-and-wife team found an oasis in their Burlington County new build only after kicking it up to reflect elevated tastes. They knew the cure for builder’s blahs in Moorestown would be a complete revamp and called in the experts at Far Studio, based in Bryn Mawr, PA.
Launching the reno shortly after the spring 2021 purchase, the couple assigned the job to Far Studio founder and CEO Brittany Wurzak Hakimfar. These thirtysomethings were not disappointed.
“They are busy with their careers, and so they really wanted someone to come in and take control and take the house to a level where it felt warm and inviting, but also exciting, with a couple pops of color,” Hakimfar explains.
What’s a sure way to elevate cookie-cutter? The couple is “super happy” with their transitional modern style, which Hakimfar pumped up with “some really contemporary pieces” and artwork. “We really leaned into white and black accents,” she says, starting with the basics, bright white walls and light oak floors that dominate the six-bedroom home.
Hakimfar relied on millwork her team designed to be a superstar in the dining room, the husband’s office and beyond. An eclectic mix with an unexpected vintage touch keeps the home’s overall style fresh.
The pressure was on to dazzle with the office, which greets guests from the home’s immense entrance doors. Hakimfar met that challenge by playing up black and white in the oval, panda-marble desk and the wall-wide shelving created by Far Studio’s millworker and showcasing artifacts from world travels. For a setting that’s both masculine and moody, Hakimfar enveloped the room in Benjamin Moore’s Kendall Charcoal and grounded it with a soft, black-and-gray rug. “I loved the look of this panda marble,” says Hakimfar, who added Pierre Jeanneret stools, a leather-strapped bouclé daybed and abstract art, set aglow by black-and-brass floating discs.
Since even busy doctors like to entertain, the couple wanted “the home to always feel ready,” recalls Hakimfar. With 11 feet in length to welcome one and all, the solid black-oak Nuevo table is “simplistic and beautiful,” she says, with navy leatherette chairs by Rove Concepts. Other attention-getters are the swooping, hand-blown glass light fixture by Apparatus Studio and the thick marble wall unit/bar. As it extends fancy all the way to the ceiling, the brass-and-glass shelving “definitely is a showpiece,” she adds.
After dinner, guests can unwind before a crackling fire in the great room, also visible from the entry of this open-concept home. No boxy sectional for this large space. Instead Hakimfar highlighted the open atmosphere with a curved sofa in a light-gray boucle, accompanied by olive mohair chairs, camel-tone leather ottomans and bleached-oak coffee tables. Even the fireplace, flanked by oak shelves, got a fresh vibe with ledger stone the couple applauds for “really great texture”—a quality also seen in the mohair-and-wool Loloi rug. High ceilings crave dimension, so Hakimfar introduced Apparatus Arrow pendants, simple like the lighting over the CB2 blackened-plaster entry table.
The couple’s oasis at day’s end is the master bedroom, with soothing elements such as the muted green of Benjamin Moore’s Oil Cloth and a plush wool-and-silk rug so large it had to be custom-made. High ceilings influenced the choice of the linen-upholstered canopy bed—framed in blackened oak by Maiden Home—and floor-to-ceiling linen draperies.
There’s also “fun and funky” metal lighting, a leather ottoman and twin nubby fabric chairs, which swivel for the view. Black porcelain lamps complement Noir double-shelf nightstands in another vintage moment.
In the master bath, marble elevates, in both the Carrara tile floor and the creamy Namibian atop the dual sink vanity, which crosses a makeup zone off the wish list. To get even eyeliner just right, there’s Kelly Wearstler brass-and-glass sconces and blackened metal oval mirrors by Rejuvenation. As promised, black and white (seen in Benjamin Moore’s Chantilly Lace) wow with contrasts, which Hakimfar warms with natural wood.
If the powder room resembles a work of art with its hand-painted, textured-plaster walls, that’s just what the designer ordered. Hakimfar explains that it took an artist nearly a week to layer the walls in a deep purple tone that nods to the veins in the vanity’s Calacatta Viola marble. For glam, she chose a vintage Gio Ponti brass mirror, which plays nicely with black-and-metal Mitzi sconces. “We love our designs to be very eclectic, to create a layered look mixed with many different design elements,” she explains.
Though the homeowners wanted a designer to take charge, they still needed an occasional nudge, as with the master bedroom palette. In this case, the designer seemed to know best. Hakimfar credits the green shade with making “the bedroom special and warm,” and today it’s the occupants’ favorite room.
Says designer Hakimfar: “It was definitely very basic before we came in, and we took over the whole house and made it a home.”