Good Design: Contemporary Condo Redo

The project began in mid July with a consultation and was recently finished and unveiled for a feature article in the Baltimore Sun: “Dream Home: Perry Hall Condo is a lofty perch” Sunday, January 1st Dream Home column. My client, Wendy, is planning retirement in a few years and wanted to make her space an amazing place to come home to and feel finished - retirement ready. She has a great appreciation for contemporary lines and simplicity. She wanted to use her existing space better, increase her living room floor plan for a larger entertaining and social area, we also needed to incorporate a larger wall mounted TV into the design, and overall give everything a facelift! As we talked I saw the potential for an amazing tiled focal wall, playing off the third floor condominium's vaulted ceiling. I drew a simple sketch with the wall idea and also showed a floor plan sketch which expanded the living room by pulling chairs off the existing (imaginary) room dividing line. With the idea’s planted we started making plans for the exciting renovation!

Before photos:

The plan was a go! We selected 12” x 24” Travertine Tiles to be placed vertically with a glass accent tile also running vertically two thirds in. With the contractor on board, (Leonardo Guevara of Bantam Contracting, LLC (410) 258-3013 MHIC: 102680) we were ready to roll! Everything went like clockwork!

Furniture was ordered: Sofa, 2 rolling ottomans, accent chair, pillows and side table from Room and Board, Swivel Chairs from Nouveau, Travertine Cocktail table from Crate and Barrel. A sleek dark wood entertainment unit was ordered to perfectly fit the tile wall, and new light fixtures to accent and illuminate the wall! A custom rug was added after furniture was placed.

My design focus was to incorporate a rich variety of textures both tactile and visual and adding warmth and comfort to the space. Pulling in contrasting elements of stone, wood, metal, glass, and textiles with rough, smooth and soft textural attributes. Using contrasting lines by adding a few curves to the rectilinear and angular nature of the interior, while repeating colors to carry your eye throughout the space. Colors were selected for the wall at the new tile/ TV focal: Benjamin Moore: Lenape Trail #1222 which worked perfectly with the exiting house’s soft yellow wall color to add contrast but keep it warm and interesting – accent walls in the right place and color enhance a space.

The wall color was such a hit we didn’t stop there! Adding a dining room accent wall color which continues through the shared dividing wall into the hall was a shade lighter than the living room color Benjamin Moore: Potters Clay #1221. With these color transformations existing light fixtures were looking a little shabby, so we added a new hall light lantern style pendant, dimmer switches on everything we could, and added a beautiful zebra-wood drum pendent in the Dining room! Spectacular!

The Loft was repainted and the original living room furniture replace the older loft furniture. The loft will get a little more attention next year!

In the Master Bedroom we added Benjamin Moore: Richmond Gold HC-41 to the bed wall which warmed the wall, we brought the color into the Master bathroom as well with an accent wall.