Permanence and Preciousness
McDonough and MacKean have focused most of their
attention on the interior, although they have begun to
dabble outside. Last summer they planted smoke bushes,
some ornamental grasses and a few flowers. “We want it
to feel haphazard but beautiful,” says McDonough.
The house itself is red brick with stately granite sills; it
looks its age in a good way.
Everything McDonough and MacKean have done — and
still may do — to the house considers its past and purpose. To
them, permanence and preciousness matter.
McDonough, co-founder and creative director of Lotuff
Leather in Providence, is sensitive to the property’s
significance as a maker space. “It’s a work/live studio, so
using materials like plywood, like soapstone — things that
are robust in a way and not precious — was part of the
design that we wanted. We wanted to use things that could
function in a studio or in a house. We didn’t want to turn
it into something that it’s not,” she says.
And, says MacKean, they were careful to honor its
history.
“We were pretty careful not to destroy anything that had
historic value,” he says. “To some extent, we built everything
inside so that in twenty years if someone really wants to
take it out, nothing structural is really affected. They could
take out the loft and everything that we built and you’d
still have the same original structure.”
Built in 1886, the building was
originally used as a polling place
and meeting hall. The newly
configured stairs provide Tux,
the couple’s Boston terrier, a
view through the high arched
windows to the street.
RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY
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