ANTIQUES

EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN ANTIQUE MAP BY D. STOOPENDAAL CIRCA 1710 Available at 1stdibs.com

HAMMERED AND PIERCED ARABESQUE LANTERN Available at 1stdibs.com

EAST MEETS WEST

Rich mosaics, bronze metals and intricate details are trademarks of Middle Eastern furniture and décor.

MIDDLE EASTERN COPPER COFFEE TABLE Available at 1stdibs.com MIDDLE EASTERN MOTHER OF PEARL FOLDING ARMCHAIR Available at 1stdibs.com

PERSIAN SILVER VINTAGE MODEL OF A PEACOCK Available at 1stdibs.com

19th CENTURY SYRIAN INLAID WEDDING CHEST Available at 1stdibs.com TALL BRASS MIDDLE EASTERN VASE Available at 1stdibs.com

86

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1661 Hwy 34 South, Wall, NJ 07719 732.938.5252 njgravelsand.com

A HOUSE THAT SPEAKS SOFTLY

The homeowners had a yen for elegance, and maybe a little glam, but they wanted to avoid anything overly loud. So the designer kept the volume down to comfort level.

TEXT by LESLIE GARISTO PFAFF DESIGN by JENNIFER PACCA PHOTOGRAPHY by MARCO RICCA

The owners of this Upper Saddle River home were looking for a calming palette, and the designer delivered with a pale cream Bernhardt sofa in a chenille performance fabric, a rug from G. Fried in a similar shade and a pair of Bernhardt chairs upholstered in a pale blue chenille. She wove in jolts of darker blue in a series of throw pillows, a throw and the abstract painting that makes a strong statement against the white wainscoting. The metallic cork wallpaper from Kravet adds a touch of glimmer.

IT WAS A BLANK SLATE—A DESIGNER’S DREAM, AND THE

perfect new start for Sean and Jin Xu, their 15-yearold daughter and their 11-year-old son. The Xus bought the new build in Upper Saddle River in 2021 and enlisted Wyckoff-based designer Jennifer Pacca to make it the family home they’d long envisioned. “They wanted a contemporary home that was livable for a young family of four,” says Pacca.

The house’s tabula rasa also lent itself to the “unified design” the Xus were looking for, which Pacca achieved largely through the use of color: a palette of neutrals—whites and soft grays—and blue, used largely as an accent. “We didn’t want it to be too noisy or bright,” says Sean. In the formal living room, for example, the wainscoting is white, but the metallic cork wallpaper above it is a subtle grayish blue. The sofa and rug are a pale cream, and a pair of comfortable armchairs are covered in pale blue chenille. The room might come across as muted, except for the pop of navy and royal blue in the abstract painting above the sofa.

In the family room, gray predominates, both in

In the family room, comfort rules, thanks to a sprawling sectional from Vanguard Furniture and a pair of cozy chairs from Bernhardt in a gray geometric-cut velvet by Fabricut. The curtains from Valcamy Window Treatments were mounted at the ceiling to add visual height to the space.

The breakfast area is part of the open-concept family room, adjacent to the kitchen, but it maintains a sense of place thanks to the striking Currey & Co. chandelier of silver leaf with opaque white recycled glass. The beechwood gray finish of the Redford House table and the gray faux leather upholstery (from Stout Fabrics) on the Bernhardt chairs help maintain a flow and a consistent palette throughout the space.

a large sectional sofa and in two armchairs upholstered in geometric-cut velvet. But even here blue makes an entrance, in the form of an arresting seascape between a pair of large mullioned windows. Soft blues grace the dining room, in the subtly patterned area rug and the upholstered dining chairs.

With a preteen, a teenager and a family dog, the family craved comfort too. The family room, for instance, features an expansive sectional sofa loaded with overstuffed throw pillows; the sofa faces the room’s large fieldstone fireplace, also gray, but enlivened by a clean-lined white mantel. For the Xus, what they call “visual comfort” was as important in the room as physical comfort.

And while the home’s design radiates the calm and the muted elegance that were so important to the Xus, it’s anything but dull. “The clients definitely like a little bit of glam,” Pacca says. She delivered it in the form of sparkle in the wallpaper above the wainscoting in the living room—“it creates a nice dramatic feel,” the designer notes—as well as a similar glint on the dining chairs and a gilded finish on the large rectangular mirror behind the dining table, which, Pacca says, “dresses up the space.” The buffet, too, with its white, shimmer-painted finish, is a little bit trad and a little bit glammy. Even in the family room, glam plays a cameo role,

in the mirrored coffee table—though it’s softened by the incorporation of wood, and the mirror itself is antique glass, with a more subtle reflectiveness.

The chandeliers above both the dining table and the breakfast table also add a dressier feel. They’re at once elegant and contemporary, the first deriving its sparkle from polished nickel and glass, the second from silver leaf and opaque white recycled glass. The breakfast table sits in the middle of a sweeping, openconcept space comprising the family room and the kitchen, and the chandelier, Pacca says, “grounds it,” affording it a sense of having its own boundaries even as it’s part of a greater whole.

When asked, Sean Xu is hard pressed to name a favorite space. “There’s no one room,” he says. “It’s the overall environment, the atmosphere as you walk in.” In fact, the design is all about atmosphere: Entering the house, you can’t help but take in a deep, comforting breath and then—just as Pacca and the family envisioned—let it out and relax.

Though there are sparks of glam throughout the space, the dining room is where it rules, in the gilt mirror from Uttermost, the Arteriors chandelier of polished nickel and glass, the blue Bernhardt chairs that offer a subtle sparkle and the Vanguard buffet with its white shimmer-painted finish. The wallpaper from York Wallcovering adds a subtle contrast to the bright white wainscoting.