When two former Russian scientists, who established their own chemical business in the US 13 years ago, outgrew their apartment and decided to buy a larger one in Chevy Chase, MD, they turned to Deborah Kalkstein to design the renovation of their new home from conception to completion.
“I showed Deborah this apartment in September or October [2005], even though my settlement wasn’t until January [2006], and said, ‘Would you take the project as a whole?’ She’s the only one I can trust completely. She took control of every detail,” says Irene Roth, 52, reached by phone in Kiev, Ukraine, where she and her husband, Alfred, 57, were working at press time. Kalkstein dramatically transformed the Roths’ apartment into a clean-lined, minimalist space with neutral colors, intriguing textures, contemporary furnishings, and art.
“This was the job from heaven. Irene said, ‘You pick, and I’ll go and see,’ ” Kalkstein says.
“Deborah selected 99 percent of what I would have picked if I’d been the architect doing the project. It’s absolutely magic, it’s a perfect match,” Irene says.
Kalkstein, 44, who is Peruvian, practiced with Marcos Kalkstein Architect, her uncle’s firm, after earning her degree in architecture from the Universidad Ricardo Palma in Lima. “I always adored my uncle, who was and still is one of the top contemporary architects in Lima. I used to love to go to his office, sit at his drawing tables, and go with him to construction sites. I was always drawn to interiors,” says Kalkstein, reached in Lima, Peru, where she was visiting her family. “Here, what an architect does is different from in the States. In addition to designing the house, you design everything else, too – the kitchen, closets, and furniture. You design a sofa and have it made for you.”
A Modern Pioneer
After working as an architect for about three years, Kalkstein became director of interior design at Hogar, one of Peru’s largest home furnishing stores, and entertained thoughts of studying industrial design in Italy. “Along the way, I met my husband,” Kalkstein says. She and Carlos Bachrach, 47, an economist, married and settled in Washington, DC in 1991. They have two children, Camille, 14, and Kevin, 12. As Kalkstein concentrated on designing furniture for specific projects and interiors in general during her early years here, she grew frustrated at the lack of sources for luxurious modern European furnishings. Sensing a growing market in Washington, she opened her own furniture store, Contemporaria, in Bethesda in 1999; she moved it to Cady’s Alley at the corner of 33rd Street three years ago.
So when it came time to transform the Roths’ apartment from what had been a closed-off, choppy space with too many walls and doors in the wrong places into an open, clean-lined, smart apartment filled with texture, neutral furnishings, and a wonderful flow, Kalkstein was more than up to the challenge. Irene’s main goal for the renovation was to feel like she and Alfred have a lot of space and room for everything. “I just need space. The name of your magazine is Spaces, I need space,” Irene says.
Kalkstein created that coveted sense of space by opening walls in some cases, eliminating unnecessary doors in others, and taking advantage of the expansive windows and terraces throughout the apartment rather than having them closed off with heavy draperies as they had been formerly. “Irene loves art, so she wanted to gain big walls for big pieces of art, too,” says Kalkstein, who consistently used blacks, grays, and whites throughout the apartment. “My ideal interiors provide a neutral canvas to showcase art,” says the architect, who commissioned dramatic, oversized photographs by Val Prudkii, a Ukrainian-born photographer, for her clients.
The Roths, who both work at home, also wanted to feel that when they are in their home offices, they still feel connected to their whole apartment. Kalkstein transformed what had originally been the dining room into a spacious, pristine office for Irene. The new white office, which has lots of natural light, and holds a large, modern aluminum desk with a glass top by MDF Italia, opens to the minimalist living room through two sliding opaque glass doors that are about 4’ wide each.
Alfred’s large office, which is also clean-lined with a similar aluminum desk, houses the intelligence of the wireless apartment. “There are speakers throughout the apartment. Irene and Alfred can control the volume in rooms independently or through the whole house,” Kalkstein says. They can also control the lighting, temperature, shades, and draperies with the touch of a button on the remote control.
Texture
Kalkstein mixed textures with great confidence, adding depth to her neutral palette. In the living room, for instance, she chose a maple floor stained Sambucca in a custom matte finish to enhance charcoal tweed sectional sofas, cream leather chairs, gray crocodile embossed leather cubes, and a dramatic long wall and fireplace of gray stacked stone.
The unexpected interplay of textures in the kitchen, which was designed by Kalkstein and furnished by Boffi Studio, introduces an intriguing mix, too. Carrara marble countertops, aluminum and white lacquered cabinetry, and a stone floor set the scene. Meanwhile, Kalkstein transformed the former den beside the kitchen into a divine dining room.
Urbane Dining
Sticks, a sculpture by Extremis of straight fiberglass rods clustered like reeds, stylishly divides the dining room from the kitchen. Kalkstein contrasted the straight strokes of Sticks with a dramatic black chandelier that seems to be made of torn pieces of curled iron and long hand-blown solid black crystals.
Irene wasn’t surprised by anything in the final design because she had worked with Kalkstein every step of the way through the year-long project. By contrast, Alfred hadn’t. He’d left the entire renovation project up to his wife and Kalkstein. “He didn’t have a clue,” Irene says. When the apartment was completed and they did their final walk through, he was most struck by the dining room with the black chandelier. “He stopped and said, ‘Yes!’ He liked the contrast of this minimalism with this lovely chandelier,” Irene says. He also especially liked the art by Timothy Nero above the buffet.
Owners’ Retreat
In the Roths’ bedroom suite, which is entered through sliding opaque glass doors, Kalkstein transformed the bathroom, too. She used gray stone in three different finishes for the walls and floors of the double shower and streamlined Boffi bath. “Stone is natural, but it’s cold. I wanted to warm up the bathroom with natural rattan,” says Kalkstein, who added a sculptural Cappellini chair that’s just the right gesture.
Kalkstein selected a simple, spare bed, a long low cabinet that parallels one wall, and a comfortable chair for the bedroom.
Why does minimalism appeal to Irene so much? “It’s harmony. Minimalism is not only in design, it’s everywhere. It’s in literature – in Samuel Beckett, and in music, for example, Phillip Glass,” she says.
Irene says the best part about working with Kalkstein was the mutual understanding, respect, and warmth in their relationship. “If I decide to do another project, even if it’s in another country, Deborah will be the only one to do it,” Irene says. “She is absolutely exceptional.”
