Avon Hill

Avon Hill

Cambridge, MA

Inspired to transform their circa-1992 condo, a Cambridge couple enlisted LDa for a renovation to achieve a more unified overall aesthetic along with increased space-efficient storage, an updated kitchen, and a more spacious and elegant Master Bathroom. Designers themselves, both clients (one an architectural lighting designer and the other a former set designer) were active collaborators in each step of the design and construction process.

While the basic location of the rooms remained, walls, doors, windows and plumbing were reconfigured to capture previously untapped space. An awkward closet became an open Master Bath shower whose bench seat cantilevers over a stairway below, while custom pull-out cabinets follow the rise of the loft stair to house everything from boots to a built-in ironing board and laundry machines.

The all-new kitchen conceals a “secret” bedroom door within its wall of fir-veneer paneling and cabinetry. Powder-coated steel railings provide improved connections between the loft and main living space with its updated lighting scheme, newly-exposed structural elements and contemporary furnishings. Black, white and warm wood are dominant elements of the composition, providing a fundamental theme for the residence that is reinforced in each room to yield a contemporary, yet warm, modern home with a quiet and thoughtful ambiance.

Together, the design team – owners, architect, cabinet designer and general contractor – fully committed to the idea of making more with less, and each challenged both themselves and each other to reconcile the competing goals of the project: to amplify the intensity of activated storage and functional space, while quieting down the visual noise of lines out of alignment and syncopated geometries.  The result yields a home simultaneously more robust and more serene.

Team

Architect: LDa Architecture & Interiors

Interior Design: Kennerknecht Design Group

Builder: Shanks Engineering & Construction, LLC

Cabinetry Designer: Venegas & Company

Photographer: Sean Litchfield Photography

Expand / Collapse Project Details

Let's talk about your upcoming project.