Living room

The living room also flows into a formal dining room. Wood paneling lines the walls and ceiling, with an abstract screen and indoor plantings dividing the space from a family room and office.

A look at the spacious living room area, which flows into the kitchen. Built-in shelving runs along one wall, while the back corner offers a brick fireplace and windows overlooking an interior atrium space.

A custom-made shelving unit provides plentiful storage for the family's collection of books.

The interiors of the historic home were completely restored and updated with a modern white color scheme.

When Pablo Pérez Palacios’ Mexico City–based architecture firm PPAA was tasked with building an apartment tower to meet La Colonia Roma's need for additional housing, he faced a problem familiar to developers in historic neighborhoods everywhere. The site was occupied by a dilapidated home that dates to 1925, and local laws required that the facade and part of the structure be maintained. PPAA’s innovative approach was to cut the original three-story home in half, preserving enough of the building to front the street and hold two apartments replete with classic Victorian details like high ceilings and restored millwork. In the back of the lot, they designed a sleek eight-story apartment tower that would hold an additional nine apartments, for a total of 11 units. Not bad for a site that was previously an uninhabited single-family house.

The living room features a built-in sofa with drawers for additional storage, custom-made by Trio Upholstery. The bleached red oak storage cabinets were made by L&Z Specialties, Inc. to match the kitchen cabinets. The wall sconce is from Serge Mouille.

As a former librarian and true book lover, Williams liked the idea of storing her books in the living room. "At first, the built-in shelving we designed was more open, but the exposed books created too much visual clutter, so we added cabinet doors and kept a few open shelves to house a rotating display of our client's collection of quirky and artful artifacts," says Eng-Goetz.

Entry Bench

Built-in Accessories

The four-bed, four-bath home of Peter and Sarah Diamond and their two adult children is uniquely situated in one of the most remote areas of the Berkshires: Mount Washington, Massachusetts.

The master bedroom has 10-foot sliding glass doors which provide views 15 feet above the trees, as well as exceptional cross-ventilation.

A dining area divides the open kitchen from the living room.

Large picture windows in the open living room frame the surrounding forest.

Lightweight, versatile, and even chameleon-like, the Soft Dream sofa is one whose name proclaims its features. With plush goose-down cushions resting on a cowhide-upholstered metal base, this soft encourages relaxation in any space.

Thanks to its timeless “checkerboard” pattern made from woven strips of cowhide, the Cestone sofa makes a strong visual statement, no matter the setting. Designed to be placed at the center of the living room, this sectional easily pairs with wooden coffee tables, which create a delightful textural contrast against the warmth of the sofa.

"The kitchen is like stepping into a time machine, and I love it," says Thomas. "It has such a great energy to it, and it’s truly a pleasure to cook in." This was the first design project in which she didn't remodel the kitchen, though she did create an additional kitchen in the garage for photoshoots.

A new pantry with a frosted glass door, to the left of the fridge, now keeps clutter out of sight. The island is painted in Sherwin Williams "Iron Ore."

The dramatic veining in the quartz slab was carried all the way up to the ceiling.

In the master bedroom, above the Legnoletto by Alias bed, is a photograph by John Huggins. The lamp is from Ikea. “Nothing is painted—all that stripping is about getting to the natural surfaces of the wood, and the concrete block,” Norelius says.