Elizabeth Steimberg Renovates an 1800’s Center-Hall Colonial in New York

Concrete flooring. Midcentury furniture. Bright, open, and airy. Hard to believe those descriptors apply to an 1800’s center-hall colonial in suburban Glen Head, New York.

Well, they certainly did not when Elizabeth Steimberg was hired to renovate the property. “It was dark and musty,” she says. “But I saw the potential. It was a matter of creating a dialogue between the house and the 4-acre site.”
 

A complete overhaul ensued. The front door, with its rounded top, the rear elevation’s doors and windows, and the ipe deck they open onto are all new. Inside, Steimberg’s attention to detail and affinity for texture is particularly apparent in the eight glass-tiled bathrooms, one of them carved out of an erstwhile closet.

The space that saw the greatest transformation, however, is the kitchen. A generous island is topped in the same poured concrete as the door. She also added a pair of Jean Prouvé tables surrounded by a bevy of steel café chairs. (The owners, a family of eight, entertain often, and this is where meals usually take place—there’s no formal dining room.) For most of the seating, and the pendant fixtures over the island, she chose juicy shades of orange and red.
 

“It’s a weekend place, so the pops of color and the simple furniture make it casual,” Steimberg notes. The relaxed vibe meanders throughout the house. And there’s a lot of house: 8,900 square feet, with nine bedrooms.

This story originally appeared in Interior Design’s Best of Residential book.