DESIGN by MARC GOLDBERG, INTERIORS MATTER
PHOTOGRAPHY by VIC WAHBY
TEXT by DONNA ROLANDO
Anyone can dish out a compliment. But for the owners of a Manasquan weekend retreat, actions say it all: They are moving up the sale of their East Brunswick home to elevate their Shore getaway to year-round status. Explains empty nester Laura: “I pretty much make it my full-time home now. That’s how comfortable it is. It does not look like a 25-year-old house; it looks brand-new.”
Hubby Dave has also embraced laid-back life in Manasquan since the design came to fruition in July 2025. And both credit designer Marc Goldberg of Long Valley-based Interiors Matter for a contemporary makeover that’s perfect for gathering with friends and family, including two adult sons.
The couple was so committed to a new vibe that they denied Goldberg a peak at their four-bedroom colonial of some 25 years. “We said, ‘Don’t bother; we don’t want that,’” recalls Dave. Instead the couple favored a modern, comfortable setting. Goldberg was “amused,” but appreciated the blank canvas he found in Manasquan’s five-bedroom colonial and a largely hands-off approach that allowed him to “really spread my wings” for optimum results.
Room by room, Goldberg built drama with black—using it to nail first impressions with the entry foyer’s grand staircase—and found contrast in floors sanded to their natural tones.
Perhaps nowhere did this couple travel further from their comfort zone than in the dining room, where their aversion to wallpaper was overcome with the graphic Harlequin “Sumi.” “It’s like artwork!” Laura says. It’s framed in molding boxes (by contractor Pete Blagden) and paired with Jean-Michel Basquiat graffiti-quality art.
Goldberg extends Sumi’s black-and-white interplay to RH dining chairs inspired by French designer Pierre Jeanneret. Laura likes to cook, hence the 108-inch-long wood table that functions with style. Long admired by Goldberg, a brass, multi-spoked mirror by Century at the black reeded credenza captures the image of nearby rooms. More of a whisper is the black-and-white rug that anchors this space.
For the couple, the supersized brass chandelier by Kelly Wearstler was another daring venture that hit the mark. Goldberg explains his commitment to bountiful and fanciful lighting throughout the home, as in the family room with its midcentury 16-light Phix chandelier by Kichler, joined by a tall floor lamp from Restoration Hardware. Though Laura was initially apprehensive about some of these fixtures, she says, “When they went up, it was gorgeous.”
The former family room with its tiny stained-glass windows, Goldberg says, “really almost looked like a church,” but “we wanted that wall when you walk in to be a wow.” His solution? A modern linear fireplace in black shiplap—bumped out two feet and ceiling high—reflects the home’s love affair with brass with its mantel trim and mosaic-tile facade. Ditto for the room’s accent tables.
Adding to the wall of wow is an “unbelievable bookcase,” which Goldberg designed with cantilever display shelves uneven for effect. When paired with a textured-weave sectional and leather swivels, both by Bassett, the fireplace “sets the stage for the whole room,” he says, its glow reflected in a tiled resin coffee table by CB2. Behind the sectional, a bar features light-illuminating quartzite counters, and a cream-and-black woven rug from Stanton adds to the room’s warmth.
The living room’s high visibility called for a powerful first impression, hence a “spectacular” free-form mirror by John-Richard flanked by framed brass etchings at CB2’s waterfall-edge console. An extensive search yielded York Wallcoverings’s Mayleen grass cloth with just enough black for the “perfect backdrop” to the light linen sofa and 70-inch-wide abstract by Meighan Morrison—these clients love abstracts. “Every piece is special in here,” Goldberg says, pointing next to the bowl-shaped coffee table from CB2 over the chunky weave wool rug.
The design culminated in a big reveal as some surprise elements greeted the couple for the first time and all came together in this life-changing aesthetic. “He saw this vision that I just couldn’t see, and he was like, ‘Trust me,’ and I did, and I love it,” says Laura.