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Blake & Dane

A Garden City Home, Gathered Around the Table

A Garden City home renovated around its dining room: dark custom millwork, brass screening and layered light, made for evenings no one wants to end.

Dining room in a Garden City home, with a round wood table, upholstered chairs and a hydrangea arrangement beneath a brass drum pendant, and dark custom built-ins with brass mesh doors, brass and glass shelving and window seats between two windows.

Location

Garden City, Long Island

Scope

Full Renovation

Pillar

The Experience of the Home

The house was dark. There were no overhead lights in the dining room or the primary bedroom, belongings had nowhere to go, and the primary bath, a generous room, held the smallest of showers. Nothing sat in proportion.

The brief was a list of rooms. What the family described in conversation was a dining room people would not want to leave, where dinner runs long because nobody moves to end it. That became the measure for every decision that followed, and the clients' trust in the process gave the studio the freedom to pursue it down to the finest detail.

The work began with the plan. In the primary bath, our design team redrew the layout and worked with the general contractor to relocate the plumbing, moving the toilet, the shower and the sink so the room finally holds its proportions. On the first floor, the powder room gained a shower and became a full bath. Storage arrived through custom millwork, dark in the dining room and white oak in the primary bedroom, built so it never announces itself.

Textiles from several mills carry through the house. In the primary bedroom, the fabric on the vanity chair returns on the bed pillows. In the daughter's bath, a floral pattern was reworked as a performance wallpaper so it can live with steam.

In the dining room, the table came first. The family loved the base of their old rectangular table, but the top no longer worked, so the studio kept the base and had a round top made for it. A round table keeps everyone in the same conversation, and that was the point of the room. Around it, dark millwork meets brass: mesh screening on the cabinetry, brass hardware, and custom brass and glass shelving rising from a buffet topped in Calacatta Vagli marble. A paperweave covers the walls and continues across the ceiling. Light comes in layers, overhead fixtures, sconces and lamps working together, so the room has mood and texture rather than a single level of brightness. Sit down at the round table as the lamps come up and the brass catches the light. The evening has no reason to end.

What we heard

Nobody said it in so many words, but the dining room had to be the kind of place where people sit down at the table and simply never get up.

Dark dining room cabinet doors with diamond-pattern brass mesh panels and long brass pulls.
White oak window seat with a blue cushion, a houndstooth pillow and a pale blue throw, framed by built-in cabinets and a brass sconce.
Built-in white oak vanity alcove with a marble top, a round brass mirror and a skirted upholstered chair, set into blue branch wallpaper.
Wall of white oak built-ins in a primary bedroom, with tall cabinets, drawers and two cushioned window seats beneath brass sconces.
Blue upholstered headboard with patterned pillows beside a woven nightstand and a gilded table lamp against blue branch wallpaper.
White dresser with a scalloped base and rope knobs beneath a striped-frame mirror, with dahlias in a white vase.
Primary bath with blue patterned wallpaper, a white oak vanity with brass knobs, a scalloped mirror between two brass sconces and a glass shower.
Bath vanity beneath watercolor floral wallpaper, with a scalloped mirror, a ribbed glass sconce and brass faucet.
Bath with a white oak double vanity, two scalloped mirrors, floral wallpaper above white tile wainscoting and a marble mosaic floor.
First floor bath with patterned wallpaper, a dark wood vanity with brass fittings, a mosaic tile floor and an arched shower opening.
Arched opening to a tiled shower with a glass door, brass fixtures and a mosaic floor.
No items found.

Materials

Custom millwork, white oak built-ins, Calacatta Vagli marble, brass mesh cabinet screening, brass hardware, custom brass and glass shelving, paperweave wallcovering on walls and ceiling, performance wallpaper, textiles from several mills, lamps and sconces, original table base with a custom round top

In print

Rue Magazine: How Blake & Dane Reinvented the Oyster Bay Carriage HouseHomes & Gardens: Explore a Renovated Carriage House

What we heard

Nobody said it in so many words, but the dining room had to be the kind of place where people sit down at the table and simply never get up.

The house was dark. There were no overhead lights in the dining room or the primary bedroom, belongings had nowhere to go, and the primary bath, a generous room, held the smallest of showers. Nothing sat in proportion.

The brief was a list of rooms. What the family described in conversation was a dining room people would not want to leave, where dinner runs long because nobody moves to end it. That became the measure for every decision that followed, and the clients' trust in the process gave the studio the freedom to pursue it down to the finest detail.

The work began with the plan. In the primary bath, our design team redrew the layout and worked with the general contractor to relocate the plumbing, moving the toilet, the shower and the sink so the room finally holds its proportions. On the first floor, the powder room gained a shower and became a full bath. Storage arrived through custom millwork, dark in the dining room and white oak in the primary bedroom, built so it never announces itself.

Textiles from several mills carry through the house. In the primary bedroom, the fabric on the vanity chair returns on the bed pillows. In the daughter's bath, a floral pattern was reworked as a performance wallpaper so it can live with steam.

In the dining room, the table came first. The family loved the base of their old rectangular table, but the top no longer worked, so the studio kept the base and had a round top made for it. A round table keeps everyone in the same conversation, and that was the point of the room. Around it, dark millwork meets brass: mesh screening on the cabinetry, brass hardware, and custom brass and glass shelving rising from a buffet topped in Calacatta Vagli marble. A paperweave covers the walls and continues across the ceiling. Light comes in layers, overhead fixtures, sconces and lamps working together, so the room has mood and texture rather than a single level of brightness. Sit down at the round table as the lamps come up and the brass catches the light. The evening has no reason to end.

Materials

Custom millwork, white oak built-ins, Calacatta Vagli marble, brass mesh cabinet screening, brass hardware, custom brass and glass shelving, paperweave wallcovering on walls and ceiling, performance wallpaper, textiles from several mills, lamps and sconces, original table base with a custom round top

Corner of a dining room buffet with a Calacatta Vagli marble top, brass shelf posts, dark painted drawers with brass hardware and a patterned linen pillow beside it.
Dark dining room cabinet doors with diamond-pattern brass mesh panels and long brass pulls.
White oak window seat with a blue cushion, a houndstooth pillow and a pale blue throw, framed by built-in cabinets and a brass sconce.
Built-in white oak vanity alcove with a marble top, a round brass mirror and a skirted upholstered chair, set into blue branch wallpaper.
Wall of white oak built-ins in a primary bedroom, with tall cabinets, drawers and two cushioned window seats beneath brass sconces.
Blue upholstered headboard with patterned pillows beside a woven nightstand and a gilded table lamp against blue branch wallpaper.
White dresser with a scalloped base and rope knobs beneath a striped-frame mirror, with dahlias in a white vase.
Primary bath with blue patterned wallpaper, a white oak vanity with brass knobs, a scalloped mirror between two brass sconces and a glass shower.
Bath vanity beneath watercolor floral wallpaper, with a scalloped mirror, a ribbed glass sconce and brass faucet.
Bath with a white oak double vanity, two scalloped mirrors, floral wallpaper above white tile wainscoting and a marble mosaic floor.
First floor bath with patterned wallpaper, a dark wood vanity with brass fittings, a mosaic tile floor and an arched shower opening.
Arched opening to a tiled shower with a glass door, brass fixtures and a mosaic floor.
No items found.

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