DINING ROOM REDO
home
FIRST FLOODED, THEN FABULOUS
A burst bathroompipe leads to a home design update
WRITTEN BY CINDY SCHWEICHHANDLER PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNE-MARIE CARUSO
BEFORE BEFORE
Julie and Monty Cerf were returning from along Fourth of July weekend in Vermont when they got some very disturbing news: Their housekeeper had just entered their three-story Upper Montclair home and found it flooded with six inches of water. The couple reached out to some close friends, who drove by, turned off the water and threw their upstairs rugs onto the outside deck to dry.
When the Cerfs arrived, they discovered that the culprit was aburst pipe in the third-floor bathroom that caused water to seep all the way down to the basement. Because the flooding occurred over the course of four days, mold was an issue, and much of the furnishings had been destroyed. But with the help of designer Nancy Kautz of Nancy Kautz Interiors; contractor Andrew Koscielniak and his company, A to ZRemodelers of Kinnelon; and the financial support of Chubb, the Cerfs’ insurer, they made the most of their soggy situation, and updated the home’ s traditional style to reflect contemporary elegance.
DINING ROOM REDO
Formerly a dark setting with maroon wallpaper, heavy drapes and a mahogany dining table, the dining room is now light-filled and au courant. Kautz had LED lights installed in the ceiling, and chose cream-colored linen panels from Restoration Hardware as window treatments. The bureau on the left was salvaged, as were the rosewood dining room chairs Julie inherited from her grandmother, though they were reupholstered in a stain-resistant cornflower blue and gold Crypton fabric. The Heritage Collection Crate & Barrel table has extending leaves that don’ t need to be stored. Fortunately, perhaps the most irreplaceable item in the room was spared: A“ spoof” of Renoir’ s“ The Daughters of Catulle Mendès,” onto which the faces of Julie and daughters Olivia and Charlotte were imposed by local artist and Metropolitan Opera scenery-painter Tom Vincent. A picture frame light of antique bronze and brass nail heads provides illumination.
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MAY 2018 MONTCLAIR MAGAZINE
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