Historic, with modern flair

South End couple apply their subtle minimalist touch to 1868 Victorian

(Photos by yoon s. byun/globe staff)

Architects Scott Slarsky and Katarina Edlund are minimalists. They are modernists. And the couple are the first to confess that they are not preservationists.

Yet here they are in their South End living room talking about how they painstakingly restored their 1868 duplex from ruined roach motel to sunny, stylish home. There are moments they sound so appreciative of Victorian period details that you begin to wonder if Slarsky, one of the founding partners of the uber-modern architectural firm designLAB, keeps a secret stash of William Morris wallpaper samples under his bed.

"When I first saw these moldings, I thought they were garish and ugly, but in a beautiful way," Slarsky says, gesturing toward the intricately carved detail bordering the soaring ceilings. "They're insane. Look over there at the flower motifs on the mantles. It almost looks like it's encrusted and gooey."

"But it's an incredible amount of craft," adds Edlund. "So you don't want to get rid of it."

The dilemma Slarsky and Edlund faced when renovating their dilapidated 2,600-square-foot Massachusetts Avenue home was how to reconcile their desire for clean lines with the extraordinarily intricate details of a Victorian home. When they bought it, the exquisite finish work was buried under years of neglect and lead paint. There were holes in the roof, windows were missing, and the back wall was falling apart. Their initial plan for the space was a gut rehab so they could create the modernist home of their dreams.

"But we realized that rooms of this scale, without the moldings, look really empty and barren," Slarsky says. "If you treat the skeleton as a shell and insert contemporary pieces into it, they can live really nicely together."

The marriage of modern and historic is most evident in the couple's kitchen. The mammoth ornamental medallion in the center of the ceiling supports a very modern Poul Henningsen Artichoke chandelier. A sleek Sub-Zero refrigerator sits opposite a pair of beautifully restored walnut secretaries. With 13 window and door openings in the kitchen, there was no room for counter space along the wall. They created counter space by adding two large islands in the center of the room. Nearly every surface of the kitchen was given a clean coat of white paint, a subtle backdrop that helps the "garish and ugly" moldings fade into the background, and makes the secretaries stand out.

The couple had a more difficult time finding a balance between old and new in the living and dining room. Stumped as to how to fill the immense space, they opted for wallpaper in a subtle white-on-silver Mylar print by Australian designer Florence Broadhurst. It gives the room texture without being overpowering.

"We're not wallpaper people, but it's a big, vacuous room and we don't have enough art to fill the walls," Slarsky says. "I saw Florence Broadhurst as a bridge to the level of pattern and design you find in Victorian architecture, but without the overwhelming feeling that Victorian patterns can have."

The couple was able to indulge their modernist tendencies on the garden level of the duplex. With lower ceilings and fewer details to be preserved, they created a family room, master suite, and a unique bedroom for their son and daughter that is divided by a heavy drape. All the family's clothes are stored in a long row of closets and dressers that run the length of a hallway, eliminating the need for extraneous furniture.

"We came to realize that you just pass through the house as an inhabitant," Slarsky says of the loving restoration of the home. "So we can't impose too much of ourselves on it."

Christopher Muther can be reached at muther@globe.com.