Friends at Home

There are clients whose homes you design, and then there are clients you grow up with.

I first began working with this client when we were both young mothers with very different lives ahead of us. This latest project is our fourth together. Over the years, I became a more experienced designer, she became a more experienced client, and we learned how to trust each other. By the fourth project, you hit a certain groove.

Her homes have followed the changes in her life: from Princeton to a grand Georgetown townhouse, then, after her late husband passed, to a light-filled Beacon Hill apartment near her son and grandson. More recently, with a new partner and grandchildren nearby, it was time for another chapter—and another home.

The new loft had its quirks: soaring ceilings, exposed brick and plenty of visible pipes and electrical lines. Her wonderful art collection helped animate the walls, while large, boldly patterned rugs grounded the rooms and brought the scale back down to earth.

And then we brought back the old friends.

A Finn Juhl chair. A Sonia Delaunay print. A Vladimir Kagan cocktail table. Pieces we had chosen together years ago found their place once again. That’s the wonderful thing about living with objects for a long time. They travel with you. You remember where they once stood, who sat there, and what your life looked like then.

I’ve always believed that a comfortable home helps buffer life’s inevitable changes. The things we love bring a sense of familiarity, even when everything around them is changing.

Perhaps that’s the real magic of making a home: carrying a little of the past forward while making room for whatever comes next.