Downsizing is looking up

Gracious and spacious, Cheryl and David Bacharach’s Main Line adult home exudes positive energy; a tangible symbol of a new chapter in their lives.  Eagerly anticipating the adventures to come, this young-at-heart couple could not be happier--and their grandchildren who now live around the corner are pretty stoked too.  

Prior to the move, visiting the adorable offspring of their two grown children--both of whom had defected to the Main Line several years ago--meant commuting from the Abington area.  Finally fed up with the cross-town trek and ready to explore new horizons, the Bacharachs decided to wrench up firmly planted stakes and migrate to Philadelphia’s other side.  It took two years, but once they found the right cluster home community in Bryn Mawr, it was out with the old and in with the uncharted and exciting. “We were ready, and what we found was that once we got here it was a wonderful change to our life, even to our marriage. We felt almost like youngsters again,” beams Cheryl.  “It was all new and different, like a breath of fresh air.  We just adore it.”
    
This is an empty nest to be sure, but fully and finely feathered, each well conceived detail is precisely articulated into a sophisticated environment that is at once lavish and understated. It is customized glamour created expressly for two, says interior designer Sue Goldstein, of Sue Goldstein Designs. “This is a totally different undertaking than creating a family home. We’re not designing to accommodate the kids, the dog and the housekeeper,” she explains.  “Here the activity level is strictly upon their request--like an adult resort right in the middle of Bryn Mawr.  Every square inch is designed to be appealing, functional and fully enjoyed by Cheryl and David.”
    
Constructed with fewer—but larger—rooms than a traditional layout, this 4,400-square-foot attached home belies the term “townhouse,” and lives more like a mini estate, but without the maintenance issues of a more sprawling single dwelling.  
    
“This is a house with lots of room for living, literally and figuratively,” smiles Goldstein.  The oversized dining room can—and often does—seat 20 people comfortably.  But it’s small potatoes compared to a living room which can only be described as humongous.  In its original incarnation, this area was designated as living room, dining room, and kitchen. The concept included a main floor master suite toward the back of the house. Tinkering with the plans to install an elevator and relocate master quarters to the lower level, the former owner created this multi purpose space--and with it, a design challenge.  “You really have to honor a room of these proportions with the appropriately sized furniture.  Proper scale is so important,” stresses Goldstein, pointing out an easy chair that appears in this setting to be normal sized but is in fact a chair and a half.  “The same holds true for the 104-inch sofa.  The couch next to it is actually the standard sized piece but looks like a loveseat in this context,” she notes.  “In a room like this, if the furniture is too small, it all looks like doll furniture.”
    
In the living room and throughout, transitional décor — classic, clean lines accented with Old World charm — creates an atmosphere that is, like the Bacharachs, elegant but comfortable and informal.  “They are both very low key individuals who wanted their home to be beautiful but not pretentious.  That was really the guiding force behind everything here,” she explains.  But, before adding the furnishings that echoed her clients’ personalities, Goldstein had to do a little subtracting to alter the existing architectural backdrop.  Translation:  One owner’s definition of decorative is another’s fussy and overly ornate. Wall after wall of mirrors, copious columns and archway doors that closed off one room from another had to go. “Stripping down and tailoring, we took away the glitz,” says Goldstein. “The columns in the entranceway made you feel like you were walking into a museum.  We cleaned it up and scaled it down.”  Eliminating non-essential doors exposed striking archways and opened the floor plan, making it possible to take in the whole first floor at a glance. “I wanted them to be able to stand in the foyer and feel that they could put their arms around the whole house, and embrace all of it,” emphasizes Goldstein.  “I wanted the space to really speak to their lifestyle.”
    
In serious discord with that inclusive motif: A glass enclosed atrium separating the kitchen from the rest of the house. “The atrium not only isolated anyone working in the kitchen, but being completely open, became a receptacle for dead leaves and animals,” recalls Goldstein.  “That would be your view, sitting in either the kitchen or family room.”  Removing the eyesore--and facilitating flow--the designer connected the two spaces; adding a skylight between them to maintain the infusion of natural light. “This is really an interior room, and interior rooms are often claustrophobic. It was very important to let in as much natural light as possible both through the skylight and from the adjoining dining room,” she notes.
    
Designed to be tranquil, but not boring, says Goldstein, this home is a subtle mix of periods, as well as textures and colors—deep, rich jewel tones that reflect the Bacharach’s new commitment to the colorful life. “My other house was more modern, much lighter with a lot of beiges and whites,” says Cheryl Bacharach. “This time I went in the complete opposite direction.  We really wanted to reinvent our home.”  Color maven Goldstein was only too happy to oblige. Indeed if Cheryl had wanted to cling to the white walls of her past, she might have had to paint them herself.  “I think that white walls and woodwork just stop a room from living,” exclaims Goldstein, whose imaginative wall finishes fit like a perfect accessory. “It’s like a gown with just the right piece of jewelry.  Whether dressing up or furnishing a room, it’s all about the finishing touches.”  
    
It was with no small amount of trepidation that Cheryl and David Bacharach sold their home of 27 years to a young couple just beginning their own family saga.   Having passed the torch, they are strong proponents of change—both geographical and emotional.  “We love the Main Line—the restaurants, the accessibility to town and to the shore.  Our life is here now. We hardly ever go back,” notes Cheryl.  “It was good to let go of the past and move on.”

 Susan Pevaroff Berschler lives in Bryn Mawr, PA.