Two Original Fireplaces Anchor a Dramatic Primary Bedroom

Someone had cut this floor into two small bedrooms and two small baths. Under the sheetrock, the house was still there: two original fireplaces and a pair of arched openings that had been walled over.

We took the walls back out. The arches came first, and everything else followed from them.

Uncovered, not invented

We didn’t have to invent the floor’s character, just expose it. The arches were opened as we found them. The new ceiling medallions take their cue from the originals on the parlor floor, and the crown is copied from the parlor too, scaled down slightly for the lower ceilings upstairs.

The arches were there all along. We just stopped hiding them.

Blue stone, old mantels

Both mantels are original. Around them we set honed Explosion Blue, a dark blue stone with real movement, for the surrounds and hearths. Against soft Roman Clay walls, it’s the strongest note in the room and the only loud one.

A bedroom with nothing extra

The bedroom is meant to be calm. One large lantern pendant hangs over the bed, and the furniture stays simple: olive, rust and leather, and not much else. The fireplace and the stone do the talking.

The sitting room next door

Through the arch, the sitting room runs a little darker and more tailored, with a leather lounge chair facing the fire and brass lighting overhead. We chose freestanding armoires over built-in wardrobes so the moldings could run unbroken through both rooms. What was two cramped bedrooms is now one floor with a clear sense of retreat.