Some homes dazzle with beautiful paint schemes, gables, and even multicolored slate roofs, but properties like this one, with its understated vertical cedar siding and earth-tone paint, saves the wow factor for the interior.
The first attention-grabber of this home, first constructed in 1954 by a bridge builder, is the vestibule, which has an archway shaped like an orange slice with a single line of paint in that color. Wide-plank golden oak floors draw the eye into the living room and its centerpiece, a barrel-shaped fireplace clad in small squares of light-green ceramic tiles. To the left of the fireplace, curved maple burl-wood panels slide to conceal the TV and its components. The living room offers access to a two-tier paver patio that wraps around the corner and spans the rear of the home. The exterior is illuminated by an array of streetlamps, spotlights, and in-ground fixtures. The lighting inside the house mostly comes from serpentine track lights of varying lengths that dangle from the ceiling.
This curvy motif is carried throughout the home and is particularly evident in the kitchen, where the custom stainless-steel hood above the six-burner gas stove seems deliberately off-plumb from the canting ceiling and the breakfast counter with sink is topped by a plank of bubinga shaped like an apostrophe. All of the appliances are high-end stainless steel, the other counters are a dark granite, and the custom cabinets are pearwood. Off the kitchen, the dining area offers a curved wall of windows with ledge shelving perfect for showing off colored-glass bottles.
Doors off the living room, master suite, and patio access an office where a bird’s-eye-maple and stainless-steel workstation is positioned under custom cabinetry and transom windows.
The master suite offers a large bedroom area; four closets, including a walk-in with custom shelving; and a bath with a terrazzo floor and counter, dual sinks, a frameless-glass shower, and a cast-iron soaking tub. Three bedrooms, 1½ baths, and a mudroom complete this floor.
The walkout lower level offers 2,500 square feet of living space: a roughly 36-by-18-foot family room with a curved wall; an exercise room with mirrors, a rubber layer under the wood floor, and a ballet barre; a kitchenette; an office; a bedroom; walk-in cedar closet; art room/workshop; storage; and laundry room.
The backyard of this 0.61-acre property features a redwood swing set, a half-court basketball setup, a speaker system, and a treehouse with electricity. The home has an attached two-car garage and a circular driveway.
Karen Kennedy and Sandra Lynch of Hammond Residential Real Estate in Chestnut Hill are the listing brokers.
THE DETAILS
$2,425,000
Style: Contemporary
Year built: 1954/late ’90s
Square feet: 5,500
Bedrooms: 5
Baths: 3 full, 1 half
Sewer/water: Public
Taxes: $17,092 (2016)
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