Host-Centric and Hassle-Free Living

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An upscale, waterfront condo renovation harnesses form and function

When you’re a consummate corporate professional who spends many hours either at the office or traveling for business, you are keenly aware of how precious the time you spend at home is. For our feature homeowner, a newer Annapolis resident, the complete renovation of her recently purchased 2,200-square-foot condo, needed to transcend what she thought of when she heard the term “condo.” 

“I was looking for a condo that felt as spacious as being in a home but also [provide] a hassle-free life when I come home.”

THE PROJECT: An upscale 1980s-era condominium; well-kept but only moderately updated over the last several decades. A fresh approach would be needed to make the dwelling better suited for active 21st-century living. Strategic and thoughtful planning would be required as there was zero possibility of adding square footage.

THE PLACE: Annapolis’ close-knit community of Eastport. Known for its maritime village aesthetic, this condo’s location is fortuitous in terms of its quintessential waterfront views and its proximity for frequenting the bustling downtown on foot.

EXECUTING THE PLAN: After receiving positive feedback from a work associate, our homeowner chose the team at Bayview Builders of Annapolis to convert a conventional boxy dwelling with downsides such as low ceilings and limited gathering spaces into a seemingly limitless space in terms of form and function.

Low Points & High Expectations

The expectation standpoint was high for this project as the homeowner, a transplant from her native Illinois, needed to transition from a rental to a permanent home after assuming a new professional role in the area. As such, the need to create a worthy homebase was imperative. 

With little to no flex time for home maintenance and repairs, the condominium option made sense. The homeowner zeroed in on this particular condominium complex for its location and long-standing reputation for providing the ultimate in greater Annapolis living experiences. 

“I’ve moved from a huge Chicago house in the city with a big yard,” she explains. “So, it’s like been there, done that,” she continues of the choice to take her home life in a different direction in Annapolis.

The homeowner says she spent much time on the water during her life in Illinois, so finding a location in Annapolis where she could evoke her love of the water, would definitely help her feel more at home in her heart. “I always need to live someplace where I can wake up and look out to the water or close to it. So, this is my dream place and having boats [around]…my front yard’s full of boats!”

Indeed, her now-gorgeous ground-level condo provides a postcard perfect view of Spa Creek from several vantage points. Providing the ultimate environment to take in those views became the responsibility of Rich Lang, Bayview Builder’s Director of Construction and Shawn Killian, Construction Manager.

Lang explains that he knew that this project presented the potential for significant “before and after” impact after first walking into the space, which had already been partially demo-ed for feasibilities. 

“What [the owner] purchased was a very vanilla, uninspired space that was then upgraded with a very intentional floorplan reboot, with a personalized lighting plan and controls, and crowned with luxury-level finishes.”

This re-boot, says Lang, would primarily affect what he calls the public wing of the residence, namely the living room, bar, kitchen, dining area, and exterior deck. This entailed essentially gutting nearly the entire unit down to the exterior walls and then rebuilding the interior walls close to their original locations with the exception of the kitchen.

“Portions of this area were reimagined to create a visual connection with the adjacent dining room and living room spaces,” Lang adds.

The Physical and Visual Connections

Re-imagining and then creating work-arounds for how spaces would connect and flow going forward became the responsibility of Gina Valenti of Abrams Valenti Interiors of Chicago. 

Like Lang, Valenti had many of the same first impressions of the space in general. 

“The vintage of the residence didn’t necessarily bless us with abundant ceiling height, which I think is one of the challenges of the space,” Valenti explains. “I would call it like ’70s/’80s, a lot of drywall, a lot of vanilla drywall. It was completely devoid of architectural details. And I think that was just maybe the era and the stripping down as iterations of this home happened during the course of its existence.”

The re-imaginings and work-arounds started from the get-go with the home’s entry, which was originally much narrower and tunnel-like leading back and into the main living area. The owner did not wish for the residence to have an apartment-like feel upon entering. To accomplish this, the dark and blasé entry needed particular consideration. 

This meant that a section of a half-height wall that was creating a dark shadowy corner in the entry needed to go. And it did. Replacing it was an architecturally elegant railing that is unobstructive and lends interest.

“We wanted to just extract the light from the living room and get it into that entry hall because it needed it so desperately,” adds Valenti, who employed two additional approaches to counter the low ceiling height in the space.

An attractive element of wood trim was then applied to the ceiling and a gorgeous, Perry style brass lighting fixture design from Ralph Lauren’s line for Visual Comfort, provided a crowning and functional touch to the entry in a way that some standard lighting choices may not have. 

“No one has ever walked into a room and said, ‘I love those recessed [lighting] cans. I’m so glad you got 12 of them in there,’” Valenti muses.

Adding touches of accent lighting “everywhere,” over works of art, and within molding and millwork wherever feasible was another strategy employed to address the structural challenges normally associated with condo living. “But instead of big, beefy, traditional crown moldings that have these big swoops or angles or curves or curly cues, which are wonderful, and I love them for specific homes, this wasn’t the place. So, we have tons of flat surface [molding] to go on the ceiling or on the wall.”

Underneath everything, Art De Vivre European white oak wood floors in wide planks provide both panache and warmth while connecting all the spaces; the color of the wood being lighter, and not something heavy which would absorb the available light. The same wood was then used in the aforementioned railing, which was intentionally chosen to bring an air of nautical whimsy to the space. 

Mission Critical Layout and Optimal Furnishings

This residence’s main living space needed to check many boxes for this ambitious homeowner who loves to entertain. To do that well, Valenti says they created a layout for the furniture that would orient the view out to the water. 

“The house also needed to be able to function as a place where she could receive guests and people don’t feel boxed in.” 

So, pieces that moved and enabled movement around them, like the orange upholstered swivel chairs in the living room, were intentionally chosen for their versatility. As were the ottoman and cocktail table combo chosen for their style and substance providing a place to put one’s feet up or to pull out the ottoman entirely to be used as additional seating or even as a game table.

“We like items that can do multiple things. I think that is a really fun way to add function to a space,” Valenti says. “Even in, if you look at that elevation of the fireplace, there’s a little table with some ottomans over to the side, and that is beautiful by itself.”

This room is also elevated in its design with the somewhat sneaky integration of a posh and purposeful cocktail bar off the living room. When not in use this incredibly creative space disappears behind the fireplace wall as if it were an ultra-stylish speakeasy. What could have been a coat closet or modest flex space, as seen in comparable condo units, was taken to an entirely different place once the team leaned into the homeowner’s love of entertaining and collecting fine wines. 

This “little treasure” of a room was inspired by the magic of what happens when a child discovers something wonderful that was hidden.

“You go in and it’s just luscious blue and it’s lacquered, and it’s lustrous. And she gets to put her silver on display in there,” Valenti says.

Complementing these elements of blue on the opposite side of the room, are those naturally-created postcard-like views, that were constructively enhanced by the installation of a set of Loewen Liftslide doors that lead to the gorgeous outdoor dining and living space. It essentially doubles the square footage of the owner’s available living space.

That Amazing Kitchen

This home’s original kitchen was completely closed off from the rest of the living space to the point where there was no visual connection. This issue created the most substantial workaround required by the construction and interior design teams.

Understanding how to mitigate the structural limitations within the special constraints associated with the nature of this home being a condo, was where Bayview’s technical superpowers really paid off for everyone involved. 

The team discovered that they would be able to remove some abandoned pipes in the wall which were no longer necessary, enabling them to free up a substantial amount of space. The result is what Valenti calls, “a living, active kitchen.”

It would be fair to add sumptuous and ultra-functional to the list of this room’s attributes, which include dreamy Infinity White quartzite countertops that connect sight-wise to the fireplace surround and to the cooktop range’s hood and apron creating a visually exciting relationship within the living space. A backsplash of Chinois Field tile in New Lagoon by Ann Sacks adds an aquatic-like finishing touch to the entire living space which serves as an intrinsic art gallery of sorts for the homeowner’s most cherished collection.

A wisely integrated wall of appliances and storage extends into the dining space offering a clever and attractive buffet. A yummy, round almond-finish Barbara Barry for Baker Furniture dining table and Laurent dining chairs in an ash dark walnut complete the visually advantageous dining room creating the ultimate, host-centric indoor-outdoor entertaining space. 

And it is obvious that the homeowner agrees.

“I’ll just say this. I had some of my colleagues and team over—a bunch of youngsters, and I told them that I’d take them out to the yacht club, or I’d go out wherever…and they’re like, ‘No, we just want to go to your house.’”

She adds, the night that was intended to be a quick, after-work hangout, lasted late into the evening. “It’s so wonderful that people just love to be here and they feel so relaxed and comfortable.”

Insider Interiors Tip

The interiors team suggested not adding a utility drawer directly below the range top, opting for the sleek addition of a sink-like apron of stone instead. The option to place cook-top controls above and not adding the drawer, which oftentimes is a clothes and stain-catcher near the range, creates a more stream-lined appearance and is ultra easy to keep clean.