Timely Transformation
After a major life change, designer Meryl Stern brought a calm, comforting new look to her Bergen home.
Your home is your cocoon, your peace and sanity, the place that is safe and warm when everything else in your life is crazy,” says interior designer Meryl Stern. And she’s not just talking about clients. As a newly divorced mother of two teenagers, Stern used this time of major life change to give her own Bergen County home a new look that was tranquil, organic and reassuring.
Like many, Stern appreciated the conveniences of her 1980s construction, but she desperately wanted the look and coziness of an older home, which is typically layered with natural materials. “I exposed fir beams and stained the pine floors a high-gloss ebony,” says the designer. Next was adding wood wainscoting under the chair rail and expanding the existing three-inch base molding to seven inches. “Wood is warm to the touch,” says Stern. “It feels warm physically and emotionally. There’s something very comforting about the transformation of a tree into a floor plank or a piece of furniture. I have a full appreciation for that. It brings me closer to nature.”
A hiker who is a regular at Sunday farmers’ markets, Stern says she tries to live a green life—and an important part of that is decorating with antiques. “I believe in reusing as much as possible,” says the designer. “I have some of my grandparents’ things and other antiques that I have bought on my own. These pieces also add meaning to a house.” Among her collections are round objects such as antique finials, cannon balls and blown-glass spheres. “I love the organic shape of round objects,” says Stern. “Geometric shapes really offer a pleasant simplicity.”
It was the simplicity and purity of a photo-mezzotint of a solitary ear of corn that made her want the image for her dining room. “I confess, I was designing the Harvest Bistro & Bar in Closter, which sits next to a 20-acre farm, when I saw this photograph. I bought it for them and then kept it for myself.” The designer arranged her furniture and works of art against a quiet, calm palette of monochromatic oatmeals, mochas, chocolates and ebonies. Natural fibers were another essential decorating tool, with leather-bound sisal underfoot and grasscloth for select walls. “It can take a long time to get a house together,” says Stern. “It’s not something I do quickly, but I think the effect here is both ethereal and anchoring. I feel like I am on solid ground.”
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