Imagine this scenario: You’ve just had your home completely redesigned—kitchen, living space, dining room—and you’re ready to enjoy the gorgeous results of all your dreaming and planning. You sit down to an elegant meal at your dining room table and gaze out a large bank of windows at . . . the very uninspired scene of a stone patio populated with last year’s furniture and tired potted plants.
When a potential client first approaches me about design, we have a conversation. It doesn’t matter if we are designing a new home from the ground up or simply replacing a few key items, developing a relationship is a crucial part of the process—it’s foundational.
Nine years ago, a family visiting the Upper Valley from Manhattan stopped by our showroom. They were renting a vacation home on a farm in Vermont that we had designed and had looked us up. I came to realize that the sense of “home” we worked so hard to create in the place they were visiting had made a significant impact and spurred thoughts of how they could bring that same feeling back to Manhattan.
I always mark my calendar and look forward to the annual Architectural Digest Design Show in New York City. It comes at a perfect time—when it’s not quite spring up here, but I’m ready to be done with New Hampshire winter. The show is full of inspiring new innovations and designs. This year was no exception.
When I first walked into this Sunapee kitchen, I could tell this was a kitchen that had seen thousands of family dinners, where parties and informal gatherings had budded and bloomed, where a busy family had landed after weekend days full of skiing. It was a space of love, complete with worn Formica and aging appliances.
Fifty years ago, in the fall of 1967, my parents, Gilberte and Andy Boghosian, took the first steps in what became a journey for our entire family. They opened a small storefront and fabric workroom at 10 Allen Street in Hanover, a building which had formerly housed a printing shop, a dry cleaner, an art supply store, a restaurant, and even a bowling alley.
“The way I work is I like to get a picture of something, then back into the details. That’s how Aharon works. I would ask him a question and 15 minutes later, I knew all about the counter surfaces or types of tile I was considering. That’s what I need. It’s extremely valuable to find someone who is willing to spend that kind of time helping me learn. When a contractor comes in, he naturally wants to know where you want something, but the project at my house expanded to the point where I needed more guidance and support.
Designed in 1949 by famous architect Edgar Hunter and featured on the cover of Architectural Record Magazine in 1953, this was Edgar and Margaret Hunter’s personal residence. Together, they spent two decades in Hanover, New Hampshire, designing homes while both taught architecture and design at Dartmouth College.
Working with a client for a number of years and developing a personal style together is what makes a project even more rewarding. When I received a call from this friend (after 20 years of working together, it’s tough to call her a “client”), I was excited to have the opportunity to work with her again and to help her plant new roots in a place that was so important to her. This property, located in the ocean village where she had spent her childhood summers and later summers with her children, would begin a new chapter for this couple.
