Elements of Style
This 900-square-foot apartment was carved out of a Gilded Age home in Newport. But in a near-blasphemous reversal of expectation, the space was bland, dark and without focus — a pall for its globetrotting homeowner whose art, antiques and furniture were lost in the mix.
“We saw the bones and it just needed a lot of love,” says Blair Moore, principal of Moore House Design in Tiverton. “We wanted to create a space that felt as elegant as she does.”
The original marble fireplace surround inspired the color palette for a “broody” — that’s “bright” and “moody,” per Moore — renovation and design.
“A lot of her style had Parisian influences as well as tribal influences, and we wanted to layer in those pieces,” says Moore. “We never stick to a singular style; it looks too much like a museum.”
Take the oil painting and Indian cabinet, a vignette the homeowner arranged in the apartment’s previous iteration. The art, once ornamented in a heavy gold frame, competed with the cabinet’s highly detailed woodwork. Off went the gilded weight — repurposed in the bedroom with a lighter work of art — and up went a picture rail for a polished styling that attracts attention for all the right reasons.
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Vintage chairs, the homeowner’s own, were reupholstered in rust-colored velvet with low-set bullion fringe. The coffee table is a repurposed wagon wheel from the Philippines. The Heriz rug is vintage. A custom mirror above the fireplace refracts the room’s one-directional light and adds drama.
Photography by Erin McGinn.
Vintage chairs, the homeowner’s own, were reupholstered in rust-colored velvet with low-set bullion fringe. The coffee table is a repurposed wagon wheel from the Philippines. The Heriz rug is vintage. A custom mirror above the fireplace refracts the room’s one-directional light and adds drama.
Photography by Erin McGinn.
Handkerchief curtains diffuse light while affording privacy in the dining nook. The vintage kidney bean sofa, a Craigslist find, was reupholstered
a la Vladimir Kagan. The designer kept the existing textured wallpaper and added molding; the walls are Benjamin Moore’s Chantilly Lace. The ceiling is Farrow and Ball’s Pavilion Gray.
Photography by Erin McGinn.
Handkerchief curtains diffuse light while affording privacy in the dining nook. The vintage kidney bean sofa, a Craigslist find, was reupholstered
a la Vladimir Kagan. The designer kept the existing textured wallpaper and added molding; the walls are Benjamin Moore’s Chantilly Lace. The ceiling is Farrow and Ball’s Pavilion Gray.
Photography by Erin McGinn.
The Moore House team bumped back a living room wall twenty inches to accommodate a
work nook with more tucked-away storage. Photography by Erin McGinn.
The Moore House team bumped back a living room wall twenty inches to accommodate a
work nook with more tucked-away storage. Photography by Erin McGinn.
The kitchen was updated with a light hand. Upper cabinets were replaced with open shelving, the countertop was stained and re-sealed and lower cabinets were painted in Farrow and Ball’s Down Pipe. The pleated porcelain pendant lights are deVol. The mortar and pestle set is vintage from France.
Photography by Erin McGinn.
The kitchen was updated with a light hand. Upper cabinets were replaced with open shelving, the countertop was stained and re-sealed and lower cabinets were painted in Farrow and Ball’s Down Pipe. The pleated porcelain pendant lights are deVol. The mortar and pestle set is vintage from France.
Photography by Erin McGinn.
The Dutch bed and draped Roman shades are by Moore House Design. The new e-commerce site, moorehousedesign.shop, launches in November. Photography by Erin McGinn.
The Dutch bed and draped Roman shades are by Moore House Design. The new e-commerce site, moorehousedesign.shop, launches in November. Photography by Erin McGinn.
A wicker chair is adorned with Icelandic sheepskin. Photography by Erin McGinn.
Petit Maison
Every room needs a “hero” item, Moore says. In the living room, it’s the applied paneling, which adds texture and complements original millwork on the ceiling. In the bedroom, it’s a custom bed that grounds a diminutive space without weighing it down. And in the bathroom, it’s the sink. The original layout crowded the existing sink into a corner beside the toilet.
“We had to lighten it up. It had to be very crisp and clean,” Moore says. “I also wanted the sink on an opposing wall, but we only had a nine-inch depth.”
Moore says she searched and searched and finally found a hand-carved marble vessel from France that fit the space. The wall-mounted faucet was trimmed so it’d center on the drain. On the walls, Moore deployed concrete plaster and hex marble tile, which runs up the ceiling in a coved curve. Like the rest of the apartment, every inch of the bath’s twenty-three square feet was updated with purpose.
Adds Moore, “The real major takeaway, for me, was creating a functional space that still looks beautiful.”
