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RIGHT: The blue Lacanche range and gray lacquered cabinets provide a subtle Deco touch in the kitchen. BELOW: Sunlight streams into a breakfast area outfitted with an Edward Ferrell + Lewis Mittman table. FACING PAGE: A custom-designed mirror gleams behind an antique sideboard in the dining room; the Seguso chandelier and sconces echo the light fixtures in the adjoining living room.
the redesign. Besides the signature staircase, other original elements that were considered sacrosanct included a concave foyer wall with a small, arched doorway leading to a room once used as a waiting room for servants, beautiful parquet flooring, sturdy doors (each carved from a single piece of wood), and period fireplace moldings with distinctive Deco flair. Retaining those elements was accomplished in the face of a gut renovation. For builder Charlie Howard, the home’s unusually sturdy construction posed a particular challenge. “The house was built like a fortress, with precast concrete floors,” he says, leaving no obvious space to place pipes, electrical lines, and mechanical elements. The scope of the eighteen-month project was significant, including carving out a new hallway from the foyer to the kitchen; raising the roofline of an existing garage three feet and converting it into a family room; building an addition to hold an oversize garage for Lew’s collection of Ferraris; and adding a new pool house for entertaining. The house’s original slate roof was also restored, and a brick parking area added in the front. Before the Cohens bought the house, Ruderman, a friend of Karon’s for more than three decades, took a look and began to form her vision of playing up the Deco angle while ensuring comfort and livability. Classic Art Deco design, she notes—particularly the later Streamline Moderne style—“uses very cool tones, so we warmed it up to make it more modern and livable.” In the living room, for example, she May–June 2017 | New England Home 123
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