“We always start with the vibe,” Alina Wolhardt, founder of Wolf in Sheep Design, says. For this circa 1850 Marblehead home, the vibe was dark and dramatic. “The client was unafraid of going bold, so we fully embraced it,” the designer says. The homeowner, a newly single Google exec with two kids and a hectic travel schedule, let Wolhardt, who has offices in Boston and Los Angeles, work her moody magic. Although he was clear that Wolhardt conjure a scheme that spoke specifically to his taste for striking modern design, he also asked that it be comfortable for his kids.
Wolhardt worked closely with Andrew Brewin, principal of high-end, local builder Modern Heritage, to remake the home. “The client valued craft, quality, and a modern aesthetic, but the bones were bad,” Brewin shares. The team scraped the shell, swapping out plywood door jambs and trim, cleaning up ceiling coffers, refinishing the honey-hued floors in a rich coffee color, and banishing jewel-toned accent walls for a more pared-back presentation.
Family-Friendly Makeover
The home enjoyed changes from top to bottom, front to back. The entry got a family-friendly makeover with built-ins and Pierre Frey wallpaper with black slashes. To the right of the entry, a Lindsey Adelman branch chandelier holds the dining area, nodding to the homeowner’s interest in personal growth, and a new walnut-lined niche of shelves wraps a corner, bridging that space with the living room. Woldhardt also added a linear gas fireplace as the focal point for the sectional.
The sweep of spaces on the other side of the entry begins with the cocktail room, where Wolhardt amps up the chic since this is where the homeowner entertains. A curved Vladamir Kagan sofa upholstered in a dark, mossy green velvet sits catty corner in front of the window walls—the window placement dictated floating the furniture— hugging custom, dual-height marble coffee tables with energetic veining. There’s tiger-meets-tribal upholstery on the chairs, between which an amoeba shaped walnut table offers a perch for drinks.
To keep the area between the cocktail room and kitchen clear, Wolhardt designed a curved banquette that nestles into the bump-out. Beyond, cabinetry painted Benjamin Moore’s Black Beauty anchors the kitchen, a sophisticated upgrade from the former cherry cabinets. Wolhardt stuck with an L-shaped layout. Cabinets reach the ceiling on either side of the range with an expanse of grey-veined marble as the backsplash and countertops. The sink centers on the large window overlooking the backyard and that base counter culminates in a curve that mitigates an awkward intersection with the door casing. The pièce de résistance is the sexy, pillshaped island with a fluted walnut base. “The end panels swing out to reveal hidden storage behind the curves,” Wolhardt says.
Rethinking the Primary
Upstairs, the kids’ bedrooms didn’t need much more than paint, but the primary suite, which stretches along the whole back of the house, required rethinking. “You walked into a vestibule with a bathroom, then had to maneuver around a closet to get to the bed,” Brewin says. “It was a very odd journey.” The fix involved relocating the laundry to the central hall by the other bedrooms and fully demolishing the bathroom to create a perfectly sized sleeping area complete with a settee. Wolhardt wrapped all four walls in black Philip Jeffries grasscloth paper, painted the ceiling in Benjamin Moore’s Dragon’s Breath, and put a vintage Moroccan rug underfoot; the overall effect is at once cozy and sensuous.
Taking down the closet that caused the twists and turns cleared the middle zone which Wolhardt fashioned into an open dressing area. A built-in closet system by Molteni & C fits against the far wall. In addition to storage, the unit’s frosted glass doors provide a portal into the luxurious new bathroom. The starting point for the bath? The marble tile that runs as wainscoting around the space. “Discover Tile had just gotten it in and suggested it, knowing I’d love it,” Worhardt says. To counter its busy-ness, the designer opted for black marble mosaic tile on the floor and as framing details throughout the space “All this black is the palette of my dreams,” she swoons.