Dana is an awesome cook, she’s not someone who needs the showpieces,” Strianese says. “She just wants a really good range that cooks well and has great reviews—but it doesn’t have to be all about the name brand.” The simple lights from Beacon-based Niche Modern, utilizing Edison-style light bulbs, add a pop of color to the room. The dovetails aren’t the house’s only idiosyncratic touches. For the kids’ bathroom (formerly the laundry room), Kraus says, “We wanted to do something that wasn’t going to get boring to them as they grew up. It’s comfortable for them as kids, but they can appreciate it as teens, and we like it as adults.” The bathroom fixtures and the hardware throughout the house are unlacquered brass. “This was in line with [Dana’s] thinking about the genuineness and realness of materials,” Strianese says. “She chose this finish knowing it will patina over time. But that’s fine—that makes it much more real.” The laundry sink in the kids’ bathroom and the cast brass faucets are as durable as they are inexpensive ($30 each, says Strianese). There’s a triple sink to accommodate the three girls at once. The rainbow glass tiles are custom made, and so are the swirly, hand-blown glass lights, made by the Hudson Valley’s Ten Willow Studio. The main bathroom was renovated to keep its pipe work visible, “which the plumbers were freaking out about,” Kraus says, “but I liked the idea of seeing how things work: ‘This is where your water is coming from.’ It puts us in touch with how the house is working.” Using pipes as design elements makes for “a cool look,” Strianese says. “You can see the welds where they’re soldered together. We paired that with a custom-made, modern, super-square cube sink on a walnut vanity.” The graphic pinwheel tile is balanced by plain, white subway tile. In the master bathroom, the faucets are by the Swedish company Vola, not the priciest, but “the pinnacle of design and utility,” Strianese says. The trough sink is meant to look like carved onyx; bleached white oak is used as a backsplash that rises all the way to the ceiling. A small, wood-lined recess makes up for the narrow sink ledge. The bubble glass and metallic Niche Modern lights are a custom design Strianese commissioned for the Roundhouse. 38
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“What Liz was able to do was help us figure out how to indulge that desire for something really eye-catching and quirky—and maybe a little out of our budget—and to make that happen,” Kraus says. “That was a balancing act, and she was able to do that. There’s a balance to the crazy, which also allowed us to afford the crazy.” Rather than continue the kitchen marble up the wall, the Krauses chose less expensive tile that worked with the stone. They added a magnetic blackboard wall in the area between the kitchen and the family room, creating a budget centerpiece. In the guest room, the chevron cabinets look custom but are from CB2. “We wanted something fun and not so precious,” says Kraus. “That makes the room not boring.” “Each space was designed independently and we were able to indulge our different kinds of beautiful,” Kraus says. “They don’t have to go together. We like that. Everything doesn’t have to be fabulous. Some things are not so easy to find and cost more, and you have to pull back a little bit. Liz was able to do that without us feeling like we missed out.”
From top: The tile used in the girls’ bathroom, which features a triple-sized sink, was originally meant to be a manufacturer sample showing all possible colors, but the family liked the bright mix of hues; the guest room/ study/den is bright and airy.