A Lake Como Toile and Leafy Views Define a Townhouse Solarium

This was a bathroom with frosted windows. Behind the glass, it turned out, were trees.

We swapped the frosted panes for clear ones, and the room changed entirely: leafy branches, the backs of neighboring townhouses and daylight all afternoon. At roughly eight by ten feet, it was never going to be a second sitting room. Its smallness is the point.

Two views

On one side are real trees. On the other is an imagined Italian lake: Lake Como, a blue-and-white toile drawn by Karolina Kroon for Sandberg, wraps the walls in villas and shoreline. The two landscapes play off each other all day.

Some of the best rooms in a house are the smallest.

Dark trim, bright paper

Deep Roman Clay covers the trim, doors and ceiling, framing the paper and the windows the way a mat frames a print. It makes the room feel finished and deliberate, not like space left over.

Made for doing very little

An oversized chaise fills the window end, generous on purpose for one person and a book. A small bookshelf got period-style brass knobs, a pendant hangs overhead, and that’s about it. The furniture stays light so the view stays the focus. What used to be a bathroom is now the quietest room in the house.