Artsy touches are everywhere. In the main-floor bathroom a seashell-toned backsplash and a graceful sink bowl sitting atop sleek mahogany drawers conjure a Japanese theme, which Wurmbrand accentuated with a hand-painted cherry blossom tree sprawling across the shower wall—“so I would always be reminded of the brightness and happiness of spring.” Even the hallway is plastered with paintings by her six-year-old son Brandon: “Our new art gallery,” she beamed.
Nowhere is Wurmbrand’s stamp more visible than in the kitchen. “I wanted to do a kitchen renovation, but I wanted it to feel as if it’d always been here. I knew I had to use a tile that was kind of artsy, because something that was truly period was not going to work and something truly current was not going to work,” Wurmbrand explained. “Finding the right tiles was really, really challenging because there are just so few things that would’ve been used at the time this house was built,” she added.
Thanks to a recent surge in design awareness manufacturers are producing myriad materials, giving her more resources when working with clients now.
But at the time of her remodel she settled on a tile with a glaze and materials that would’ve been around in the ’60s that would still fit with the newer stainless steel cabinets with back-painted glass and the double-tiered island and snack bar topped by honed Crema Marfil counters. As in the rest of her home, the pairing strikes a balance between modern and midcentury.
Sprinkled throughout is an eclectic mix of vintage furniture styles, but in keeping with the theme of the house much of it is refinished or reimagined. “I like the character the vintage furniture brings, and I feel it helps anchor the room to the period of the house. Had I left the pieces as I had found them, however, the look would have felt dated.”
Today the house nestled at the end of a long driveway is anything but dated. Wurmbrand’s touches straddle styles from the past and present, and the result is timeless.
Published: September 2009
miert ne:)