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From Spec to
Spectacular
A designer turns the blank canvas of a spec home into a contemporary work of art
WRITTEN BY CINDY SCHWEICH HANDLER PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF DANIEL WANG PHOTOGRAPHY
T
he young family of four
was moving back to the
east coast from Texas,
and were drawn to the
location and space
available in the high-
end Short Hills spec home. But they
didn’t go for its conventional colonial
look. “They wanted to integrate their
art collection, and for the home to
have a New York feel, but they also
wanted it to be a comfortable,” says
Satomi Yoshida-Katz, a residential
designer who, with her husband Todd
Katz, operates Yoshida + Zanon
Design Atrium in Montclair. The
Short Hills residence that she
designed for her clients not only
reflects their modern, artistic aesthet-
ic, but her own fondness for clean
lines and eye-catching, yet practical,
features.
INVITING
ENTRYWAY
The homeowners’ pop art
image of Karl Lagerfeld set
the color scheme for the
foyer, which Yoshida-Katz
enhanced with a rug she designed
made using yarn from Nepal. The cube bench-
es tucked beneath the console are covered
in Italian wool felt, and add pops of color.
To make the entryway walls more visually
interesting, she had glazed ceramic pieces
hand-made in the United Kingdom, and
affixed them to the wall above the console.
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FALL 2017 MILLBURN & SHORT HILLS MAGAZINE