Boston Home
Taking cues from their art collection, Rene Rodriguez and Jerry Slater decided to overhaul their longtime home’s interior with glorious results.
Ismail Acar painted the portrait of an Ottoman sultan that hangs above the living room’s plush green velvet upholstered settee. / Photo by Sean Litchfield
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Initially, Rene Rodriguez planned to buy a new car to commemorate his 50th birthday. But he pivoted, shifting his focus to the dining room of the Second Empire Victorian he shares with his husband, Jerry Slater. “I was going to splurge on a fancy, ridiculous car. But I’m so glad I didn’t,” Rodriguez recalls. “I realized that I’d much rather do the dining room over instead.”
Rodriguez and Slater had lived in their Jamaica Plain home since 2006. Built in the 1890s and renovated shortly before they moved in, the couple decorated over time, filling the home with furnishings and artwork. After Rodriguez gave Slater a striking large-scale photograph of a Napolean portrait that they hung in the dining room—a space that had never felt done—they started to feel that its aesthetic wasn’t on par with the art.
Creating an aesthetic that lived up to the striking photograph by Robert Polidori inspired the homeowners’ desire to redo the dining room. Drapes are made from Holland & Sherry linen in “Alona Mist,” and the grasscloth wallcovering is Phillip Jeffries’s “Nomadic Feather.” / Photo by Sean Litchfield
Drawn to the designs of Evolve Residential, helmed by Thomas Henry Egan and Josh Linder, the couple tapped the firm to reimagine the dining room. “We love that they aren’t afraid of saturated color. They aren’t minimalists, and neither are we,” Slater says. To Egan and Linder, the couple were dream clients: “They have great taste and had done a wonderful job of designing the house within their limits of capability, so we had a great foundation to start,” Linder says.
As discussions about the dining room progressed, it became clear that the living room also needed attention. “The project just grew and grew. We realized the whole first floor needed to be done, and then we decided to do the second floor and the third,” Slater says.
A new rug from Landry & Arcari is paired with Kravet chairs upholstered in Pierre Frey “Tutti Frutti” fabric. Above, the French starburst light fixture is from the 1930s. Walls are painted in Benjamin Moore’s “Sweet Bluette,” while the ceiling is coated with the brand’s “Polar Sky.”
The archway is painted in Benjamin Moore’s “Washington Blue.” / Photo by Sean Litchfield
While most of the project focused on interior design, a key element was the creation of a curved archway between the living and dining rooms. “As with many homes of the era, the main floor is a series of formal rooms, each one disconnected from the next,” Linder says. A coat closet, awkwardly located in the living room, was removed to accommodate the archway, which connects the two rooms and establishes a circular flow around the first floor. For the design, Egan took cues from the home’s original plaster moldings, so the archway, which is fitted with interior panels that house AV equipment, feels architecturally relevant.
A chair and ottoman nestled in a sitting area off the primary bedroom are upholstered in Schumacher’s “Chiang Mai Dragon.” The watercolor painting is by artist Joseph Solman. / Photo by Sean Litchfield
Much of Slater and Rodriguez’s furniture was incorporated into the freshly designed scheme, which included new upholstered pieces and fresh wallcoverings and paint, all of which were intended to complement the home’s gracious authentic character—the marble fireplace surrounds, the antique wood floors, the 19th-century double front door. While specific hues vary from room to room, a cohesive palette connects all of the main-level spaces. The living room has abundant natural light and pale blue walls, and the dining room is moodier with darker blue-painted trim and a textural printed grasscloth wallcovering. A curved banquette on one side of the dining table adds coziness and versatility to the space. “The idea was to make the room comfortable when they are entertaining as well as when it’s just the two of them,” says Egan, noting that the setup enables Rodriguez and Slater to use the room at various times of day, not just for meals. An Italian light fixture featuring handblown colored glass and LED lights scored on 1stDibs evokes the appeal of a circus trapeze. “Nothing about it reads as a traditional chandelier,” Linder says. “It feels like a big piece of abstract art hanging in the room, setting the tone that this is a playful, enjoyable, artful space.”
Dramatic light fixtures sparkle and glint like jewels throughout, including the 1930s starburst in the living room, which immediately draws the eye up. While several furnishings are antique, curved forms bring in contemporary appeal, including the rich green settee in the living room. Patterns were introduced in key places to infuse spaces with more dimension, but always while keeping the origin of the architecture in mind. The foyer’s wallcovering, for example, is an updated archival Pierre Frey print depicting a chinoiserie motif featuring bold pink and yellow. “It has wild colors and a blown-up scale; it’s very dramatic,” Egan says. “But you can almost envision it being in the house when it was built.”
The existing kitchen cabinets were enlivened by painting them Benjamin Moore’s “Marine Blue.” The ceiling, from which Jonathan Adler Giant Sputnik chandeliers are strung, is sheathed with a faux-shagreen Donghia wallcovering with purple undertones. / Photo by Sean Litchfield
Photo by Sean Litchfield
Found Space
While the new curved archway enhanced the home’s circulation, removing the closet from the living room meant that the home no longer had a place to stash coats on the first floor. Egan and Linder, however, found a solution by creating a closet out of unused open space under the stairs. Appealing panels painted in Benjamin Moore’s “Courtyard Green” conceal a significant amount of storage. “The way they put the closet under the stairs was really impressive. Relocating the closet completely changed how we use the living room—it’s a huge improvement,” Rodriguez says.
Architect and Interior Designer Evolve Residential
Builder Centurion Construction
Painter ZK Painting
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