"Nothing Was to Be Too Precious" – Discover How This Home Breaks All the Rules of Minimalism to Feel Warm, Yet Still Polished
Tharon Anderson Design flexed warm minimalism throughout an immense family home that needed to look composed without sacrificing comfort
Harmony is a tall order for any interior, let alone one with 14,500 square feet, six bedrooms, a basketball court, and a basement bar you might as well call a speakeasy. Despite its scale, this family home, 20 minutes outside Boston, finds its rhythm thanks to tailored interiors equally suited for elegant evenings as rowdy gatherings (inevitable with the family’s five energetic children). And did we mention there’s a dog, too?
'The client was very clear from the outset that nothing was to be too precious,' says interior designer Tharon Anderson McEvoy, who joined the project while the blueprints were still being drafted. That early access – working alongside Catalano Architects and Soderholm Custom Builders – allowed the house design to harmonize. Together, the collaborative team thought through the home holistically, from the millwork to materials and furnishings.
The front door opens onto a double-height space with a floating staircase. The entryway doesn’t hide the home’s scale – it couldn’t if it tried. But Tharon and Catalano Architects worked to bring it back down to earth with subtle details that lead your eye around the space: lime-washed walls for texture, chevron-patterned oak Madera floors. As you walk toward the back of the house, you’re drawn into the great room – more intimate than its name suggests.
If maximalist interiors have the tendency to shout, minimalist interiors are quiet, revealing their beauty in between the lines. And those finer details are softly pronounced in the great room, where clean modern lines couple with neutral colors.
Tharon leaned into subtle tones that not only defined the rest of the home’s palette, but ones that would stand the test of time: 'Lots of ivory, grays, taupes, browns, blacks, with some hints of color throughout,' she says of her chosen neutrals. 'That palette is my comfort but also one that you will never tire of.'
Contending with the soaring space, Tharon gravitated towards crisp lines and tailored upholstery that can maintain their composure with minimal effort (even after the owners’ 10-, 13-, and 15-year-olds breeze through the space).
'You won't see any skirts – there's not a lot of things that you have to fluff or straighten,' says Tharon. The large Dmitriy sectional features tight-back cushions. An L-shaped seat along the window and swivel armchairs in front of the fireplace are all upholstered in indoor-outdoor Perennials fabric. 'It feels very tailored but inviting,' she adds. 'You can imagine their dog on the couch.'
Those clean lines were important in such a large space, especially with open sightlines to the kitchen. Visitors only see part of the story: a large back kitchen pockets functional equipment like blenders, and makes use of workhorse materials like Caesarstone. 'That's where the smoothies get made, and it's messy,' says Tharon.
Does that mean the main kitchen is just for show? Not at all. But it allowed Tharon to introduce Arabescato Corchia, from Brooklyn’s Bas Stone, a material requiring a touch more maintenance – and one that lends the kitchen its character. 'The warmth and the activity and the contrast of these slabs are so important to the overall feeling,' says Tharon.
The kitchen flows to a more intimate dining room. Like much of the ground floor, it needed to have a certain duality: casual enough that kids from school could come over for pizza, elevated enough to throw a dinner party for colleagues.
Nodding to the exterior’s black and white palette, a hand-painted Porter Teleo wallpaper wraps the room, providing subtle movement to the walls while softening any stiff formality. Curtains from Rosemary Hallgarten, with black and gray flecks in the textile, respond to the contrasting theme. Subtle wood grains (in the chairs, sideboard, and floors) tie the space together alongside a commissioned painting in soft neutrals by the Brooklyn-based artist Joe Henry Baker.
Extending the home’s material language, a wood-paneled study embraces the same oak found throughout shared spaces – oak case openings in the kitchen, banding in the great room. 'It's such a challenge for the builder, and for the mill workshop, to maintain these hues and stains to have that consistency,' says Tharon. 'It's easier if you veer and have a lot of different stains or tones, but we really wanted to keep this all homogeneous, and they did such a fantastic job.'
An executive desk was an important piece of the puzzle. Crafted by the Canadian woodworker Kate Duncan and sourced from New York's Otras Fromas, the drum is hollow, allowing for all of the ‘technical guts’ of the owner's workstation (wires and chargers) to be hidden away. To create a place to unwind, Tharon custom-designed a sofa – after many deliberations, and several ‘sit tests’ to ensure it was handsome but genuinely comfortable. 'That's sort of a sneaky thread with the great room,' she says of the main floor’s tailored furnishings that still allow them to relax and get cozy.
Downstairs, things take a playful turn. Without abandoning the tailored look of the main floor, Tharon maintained a sophisticated look that tied in a range of recreational spaces – from a sprawling media room to an indoor, full-height basketball court and a golf simulator.
Tucked alongside the media room, behind a keypad, is a space just for grownups: a moody cigar lounge and bar. 'This is not a bar for Tito's,' jokes Tharon. 'We're not displaying everything.'
Instead, the showstopping bar showcases the owner’s prized whiskey collection, backed by a dark and lively stone and surrounded by deep Roman Clay walls, peppered with darker metals across the stools and light fixtures. 'They like to have fun, they're not too serious – they really like to entertain and have people over and enjoy this home that they worked so hard to create,' explains Tharon.
Upstairs, the palette returns to tranquility in the primary suite. It was a small challenge to get it right – with soaring vaulted ceilings and ample floor space. 'Although the height of this room is quite impressive, the furnishings are actually low, and that's meant to be very inviting and accessible and warm,' explains Tharon. Limewashed walls add a certain airiness and warmth to the space, while furniture with larger proportions helps anchor the high ceilings.
A full-width upholstered Charles H. Beckley headboard helps ground the bedroom, but it was trickier than it seems. 'What people overlook is that it's a huge coordination item,' says Tharon, rattling off a laundry list of integrated pieces, from junction boxes for sconces to the sheer weight of the wall-mounted piece. 'It's something that requires a lot of thought to have it be just so.'
The children, naturally, get their own wing on the upper floor. Tucked in between their rooms is a small lounge, which serves as a more casual game room for PlayStation or a movie. 'We didn't do a ton of wallpaper in this house, but this makes it feel panelized without having too much texture,' says Tharon of the wood-grain wallpaper covering every inch of the walls.
Reflecting on the project, the overall cohesion – the way the home’s architecture and interiors flow seamlessly together – is what brings Tharon joy. But that didn’t just apply to the furniture and decor. 'It wasn't one person, it was many,' she says of the architects, builders, and the client. 'It was people who genuinely cared and were doing such a great job.'
She once told the client 'I peaked' after seeing the completed project, something she considers a turning point in her career – but of course, it may just be the beginning.
