Designers sometimes compare renovating a historic home to searching for buried treasure. They scan interiors for special architectural details buried beneath old coats of paint and carpet. In one Manhattan brownstone, this metaphor became literal.
The Upper West Side gothic townhouse in question was initially built as a church in the 1890s. When its new residents, a couple with two children, reached out to designer Jenna Chused, of Chused & Co on Instagram, they were were looking for a swift refresh on a condensed timeline: three months, start to finish. They wanted to open up the space, making it amenable to hosting large dinner parties without it feeling cavernous during family meals.
Chused began quickly, hunting down and ordering furniture before touching the actual house. Once she and her team started lifting up the painted wood entryway floor planks to replace them, they were met with a surprise: a multicoloured mosaic, hidden for an untold number of years, in solid condition. She decided to run with it.
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‘It was already there from the original build, and we polished it, and it’s beautiful,’ Chused says. And, like magic, the (mostly antique Italian) furniture that Chused had already ordered matched the mosaic perfectly.
The dining room involved less serendipity and more intricate planning. Chused needed to make the space work for both intimate dinners and large events. Part of her solution involved a dining table with custom attachments – a piece that ended up becoming the designer’s favourite in the home. She got a 1940s Paolo Buffa dining table in Italy that seats eight people. Then, she designed two side tables in the same wood — for large parties, they perfectly slot into the dining table, expanding it to seat 16.
‘I always love when I do a piece of furniture that has multiple uses,’ Chused says. ‘Design is about problem-solving. That’s a part I love about the process.’
Above the table, Chused searched for the right lighting fixture to suit the room’s high ceilings. She found the ‘Dahlia’ chandelier by Max Ingrand for Fontana Arte at auction, getting it for a lower price than standard and staying within the clients’ budget. ‘I wanted it to be super luxurious so I hunted for some of these pieces from obscure places,’ Chused says.
The emerald green Chused and the client chose for the walls (after going through several samples) ended up ‘informing the rest of the house,’ Chused says. All of the home’s other rooms are in conversation with that showstopper space.
‘The dining room is the star of the house,’ she adds. ‘That was the most important room.’
Take the full tour of this historic New York townhouse
She and the clients chose the patterned wallpaper in the office because it included the dining room’s emerald green. The living room became a warm, enveloping space to contrast with the ‘midnight jewel box’ hues of its neighbouring room. And, even upstairs, the bedrooms pull in similar cosy, rich tones, like an emerald armchair in the otherwise neutral primary.
In total, from start to finish, the project ended up taking a mere five months. Now, between the paints, wallpapers, mosaic, and fabrics, the gothic home’s interiors are surprisingly joyful. ‘I really think this is a love letter to colour,’ Chused says. ‘Trying different colours, wrapping the room in colour, but nothing too dramatic that it shocks you. It feels like a hug.’ chusedandco.com
