For Your Eyes Only

Ken Dietz wanted his Jamaica Plain home office to be as slick as a secret agent's. So he looked to Bond - James Bond - and found that a home office can be a surprisingly covert operation.

(Photograph by Eric Roth)

WHEN YOU enter Ken Dietz's 1845 Victorian in Jamaica Plain, it's not the front door's intricate dentil molding or the beveled oval-shaped glass inset that immediately draw the eye, although both are certainly beautiful. It's Dietz's Hollywood-handsome looks, because - oh, the irony! - this interior designer styled his home office with 007 in mind.

Dietz first moved into his second floor, three-bedroom apartment in 2000 as a renter. Five years later, he bought the property for $859,000. He thought it had "great bones." Former owners had gutted the grande dame in 1935, dividing the single-family home into five apartments and removing such rich architectural details as columns, crown molding, hardwood floors, and original tile work. Dietz invested $60,000 in renovations, including upgrading the downstairs rental unit. His unit underwent a dramatic room-by-room makeover, starting with the 007-style office, which he gutted and began renovating in 2006.

"The place wasn't fully 'me' before; I was just putting Band-Aids on an older home instead of putting my imprint on what I wanted it to be," he says. While the rest of his home doesn't adhere to the James Bond theme, he incorporated teakwood, Murano glass, Lucite, and chrome whenever it suited a room. The idea for the secret agent-style office evolved after a Lucite-and-chrome pendant light caught his eye in The Drawing Room, an antique shop in Newport, Rhode Island. It reminded him of the early '60s and '70s Bond-era style, and he knew instantly that he'd build his office around that aesthetic.

From there, he looked through samples that he and his assistants had collected (they keep records of fabulous fabrics, patterns, or items for future projects). He favored the pop art-inspired designs of English decorator David Hicks, who introduced "pattern on pattern" texturing of concentric circles and lines or squares. With this style in mind, Dietz selected a black, cream, and platinum wall covering, the Trifid pattern from the Vintage collection of Osborne & Little.

Floor to crown, Dietz paneled two of the walls in teak in a grid pattern, allowing for hidden closets and storage. The wood reminded him of "Bond jumping from a teak deck off the yacht in Dr. No," he says. To add to the glamour, Dietz installed two illuminated niches with glass shelves, where he displays pieces from his vast Murano glass collection.

His desk, fashioned from a former Harvard library desk, was found in a Brighton junk shop. He added black lacquer and Lucite drawer pulls and paired it with a smoked Louis Ghost chair from French designer Philippe Starck, and he placed a vintage mercury-glass lamp on the desk for a reading light. He restyled, rebuilt, and reupholstered a slipper chair he found in a local modern-furniture store in the style of designer Milo Baughman, using an off-white Osborne & Little chenille in a biscuit-tufted pattern.

So how does a room with office furnishings evolve into a guest room? Just move the desk and drop down the queen-size Murphy bed. "Bond always gets the girl," says Dietz, "and the bed drops down, the lights dim, and music comes on."

Mindy Pollack-Fusi contributes regularly to the Boston Globe. Send comments to designing@globe.com.

Design
KEN DIETZ
Dietz & Associates, 27 Adelaide Street, Boston,
617-983-2549, dietzandassociates.com

Construction
ANDREW S. BROWN
R3CONSTRUCTION, Inc.

96 Upham Street, Melrose, 781-844-2621.

TO UP THE COOL FACTOR OF YOUR HOME OFFICE, KEN DIETZ SUGGESTS:

* Pick a theme. Think of your space as a palette or stage.

* Surround yourself with things you love, like artwork, furniture, rugs, and accessories that reflect your inner self.

* Even in a small space, consider different lighting patterns. Provide a few different sources of light in the same room - recessed lighting and direct lighting for art, table lamps for working, floor lamps for reading.

* Think big. If you collect strong objects, the walls and furniture should be as strong and important, creating an energetic space. If your taste is more subtle, bring more attention to the room's architectural details and lighten the color palette, allowing for a calming energy.

* Collect your collections - books, art, family photos, memorabilia - into niches and glass cabinets for display. When like items are gathered into well-highlighted areas, they strengthen a space.

* Add allure. Hidden drawers and concealed cabinets can store junk - and secrets.