Once the room was rearranged, Polk added inexpensive accessories: curtains for the windows (“I didn’t want them to make the room feel heavy, so they’re the same light color as the walls, and they’re short”), a small bookshelf, and a cheerfully mod lamp. For the walls, Polk blew up photographs of both children and matted and framed them. The Seidman kids enjoy the portraits and the space, and so does their mom. “I love it so much that I haven’t left the playroom all night,” she admitted one evening after the transformation. “My kids have been asleep for the past two hours, so I’ve been in there by myself.”
PROJECT: Double parlor, Melrose
THE PRO: Tess Jenkins, Ruby Shoes Redesign, Allston
A double parlor in a 102-year-old Victorian certainly sounds elegant – but in reality its awkward floor plan can make family-friendly decorating difficult. Kim and Dave LaFontana and their two young girls, 5 and 3, were using the rear parlor in their Melrose home as a gathering spot for movies, dance performances, and games, and the front one for reading and piano practice. But the layout wasn’t working – a sectional couch blocked most of the archway between the rooms, Kim felt the TV was “too front and center,” and a pretty window was hidden behind toys and furniture. The decor wasn’t clicking, either. “In our other renovations, I’ve gone for a clean, classic look with modern amenities,” says Kim, a health care executive. In the Victorian, however, she wanted to be true to the old house and have rooms that looked like “they could be original from 1909, only better.”
Fixing the flow came first for interior redecorator Tess Jenkins, who removed the chaise section of the sofa and then moved the sofa into the front parlor, by the windows. In the rear parlor, she moved the “front and center” TV to a corner.
