Prioritizing Your Space, New Team Members, and Style Picks
Spring 2022 style story
A Note From Jess
Over the past few years of the pandemic, many of us have experienced dramatic lifestyle changes. We’ve moved to new locations to be near family and friends, adapted our spaces to work from home, and invited new people to share our spaces.
The concepts of public and private spaces have become integral to our well-being. How a home is laid out for work, play, and privacy is more important now than ever. As designers, we see families prioritizing these concepts as they adapt to a new and transformed world.
In this issue, you’ll learn about a home that we renovated to be shared by two sisters and their families. Our job was to design a smart, impactful space for two growing families with young children, who would all share a kitchen, bathrooms, and common spaces. In thinking of traffic patterns, storage, and the balance of gathering spaces and private hideaways, we created a beautiful, functional, shared home for two families.
As the world slowly reopens, we continue to think about the delicate balance between gathering spaces and private sanctuaries within the home.
- Jess
From Our Portfolio
Renovating a Victorian for Two
In early 2020 we began working with two sisters on a vision for a Victorian farmhouse they had recently purchased to share as a gathering place. The home had retained some of its original detail, but renovations done in the 80s resulted in a collage of disparate and dated parts. It was clear from the beginning that we had to strip away much of what had been added in. Our aim was to allow its rustic yet refined charm to once again shine through while keeping it playful.
As with many of our clients, our main objective was to create a comfortable and highly-efficient respite. But the unique opportunities and challenges of designing for two sisters, each with young families of their own, began to echo the changing paradigm of how we were all rethinking our spaces during the pandemic. Many of us narrowed our social circles, moved in with family (or had family move in with us), and had to make our spaces function for myriad purposes (living, working, learning, etc.). It forced us to rethink how we organize function, and how we share.
Turns out, designing for pandemic living is not unlike designing for siblings.
The home’s kitchen, with a large but inefficient layout, was completely re-worked. We knew that the space had to be opened up to accommodate two families cooking, serving, and eating together. We removed the large but separated butler’s pantry, downsized an adjacent bath to regain square footage, and redesigned the space into distinct zones…
The range was pulled into its own area and given a prep sink in the expansive work table island, and a large custom stone sink was scaled to allow multiple people to use it at once. The pantry was resized and curated for food storage, and we created a coffee and snack station separate from the main work zones, so guests and kids could serve themselves without interrupting. The island and the custom kitchen table afford enough seating for everyone in their tribe.
The living spaces were also zoned. The great room includes the dining area, with a large table for holidays, a comfortable seating area oriented on the fireplace, and a sitting room for games and puzzles (or school work).
The layout of the second floor also needed to be rethought to maximize bathroom space and bedrooms for everyone. In reworking the floor plan, we were able to create a third guest bath, and significantly enlarge the hall family bath so there was ample storage and room to spread out. The original primary bath was given an entire refresh.
The sisters had a well-aligned set of ideas for the home, which helped us create a cohesive approach. They were also open to going bold, so we let wallpaper take center stage in this project. The palette was built around these organic prints. Where there wasn’t wallpaper, pattern was brought in through hand-painted tile. Layered in were delicate finishes appropriate to the style of home - from cut glass sconces and fluted cabinets, to hammered metal sinks and rich colors.
The marriage of function and style in this house became the bridge between old and new - honoring the original character while carefully curating use so it can successfully support two growing families, no matter what is happening outside its walls.
Rachel Duchesne
new to our team
Rachel brings extensive experience from her long tenure in luxury residential interior and private club design, building on her early experiences in commercial design including daycare, office, medical practice design. During her professional career, Rachel has also enjoyed teaching Interior Design and AutoCAD for RISD in Providence, RI and Capital Community College in Hartford, CT. Rachel earned a BA in English Literature with a Minor in Art and Religion from Bucknell University and her Masters of Science in Interior Design from Drexel University. Born and raised outside of Philadelphia, Rachel has lived most recently in coastal Rhode Island, but her love and knowledge of the Berkshires began long ago.
Senior Designer
Leila Hirvonen
Leila recently relocated to the Berkshires to be closer to her upstate New York roots. With 13 years’ experience at Manhattan design firms, she has worked on a wide range of projects from private renovations through large-scale commercial and residential new construction. Following completion of a master’s program at Pratt Institute, she spent several years designing environmentally focused LEED and WELL certified projects in the city. Influenced by Scandinavian design tradition, she enjoys the process of crafting warm, layered, livable spaces with an eye toward sustainability and longevity.
Senior Project Manager
Grace Mendel
Grace grew up in the Berkshires and attended Grinnell College in Iowa, where she graduated with honors and a BA in English. She has extensive experience in the publishing industry, where she honed her organizational and editorial skills. She supports JCI project managers with a focus on all construction projects.
Design Assistant
Community Partnerships
This year we’ve been so grateful for the experience of working with the team behind Rural Recovery Resources in the heart of GB. Their peer-support recovery center will celebrate its grand opening on June 11, and will help them in their mission of reducing the effects associated with substance use and overdoses in high-risk rural communities of South Berkshire County.
We’ve had the pleasure of working with this dedicated team to re-imagine the center, with the goal of creating a comfortable, accessible space that’s an extension of the important work they are doing in our community.
To learn more about this organization and the center, visit rural-recovery.org
Our Staff Style Picks
Away spaces are ever-important, but certainly more so when we’re facing uncertainty and the occasional system overload. Home should offer sanctuary, and in this newsletter our design team shares how they envision respite within their own spaces…
Benjamin
Project Manager
“My ideal relaxation space would be a greenhouse or solarium where I could unwind, care for plants, and listen to the sounds of moving water. I would love to have a room made of glass where I could totally relax, soak up some sunshine and enjoy limitless gardening throughout the year.”
Rachel
senior designer
All my aspirational spaces center on water or fire as a starting point and frequently involve Alpine influences. I would build a sauna with beautiful textures and a view .
Marie
Senior project manager
“I’ve always dreamed of having a painting studio within my home for my own creative projects. A space to separate my mind from the everyday tasks and chores that bog us all down. In a perfect scenario, there’d be enormous steel-framed windows and doors, lots of color, and if I really got greedy, a big antique clawfoot soaking tub in the corner.”
Jennifer
project manager
“A respite can be found in the most unexpected places. While you may not have a caravan, you will most likely have a small space to call your own. Whether it's a box room, a downstairs WC, or even the inside of a cupboard, WALLPAPER!”
Leila
senior project manager
“Window seats have always been one of my favorite spots in a home, and they offer a perfect mini retreat to enjoy a book and watch the seasons change. Any room with a view can be transformed with a custom built-in nook or with something as simple as a well-placed bench.”
Lauren
senior Designer
“Sometimes all the solace life affords us is during that morning routine, in our bathrooms (hopefully behind a closed door). But that space at our sinks and that space in our brains can be restorative if attention is paid to making your surroundings enveloping - accessing light and views, balance in color and texture, and a tasteful place for everything.”
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