Fantastic design comes in several types. However one recurring constant is that great design happens in the hands of more creative people. How else could something like a dilapidated and abandoned Pittsburgh row home be shockingly converted into an arty and eclectic home that perfectly embodies the couple who inhabits it?
This was the situation for Alissa Martin, the owner of a local clothing and shoe company, along with her husband, a psychologist. The creative couple spent a year working with mossArchitects and Botero Development in the first stages to personalize their run-down, two-bedroom space to seamlessly wed Martin’s modern-edged Moroccan design together with her husband’s penchant for studying and collecting. In the end, color and texture dominate by way of exposed brick and ceiling beams, a vibrant wall mural and casual-cool patterned wallpaper and bedding.
at a Glance
Who lives here: Alissa Martin and her husband, pug Milo and Alaskan Malamute–mix Lakota
Location: Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh
Size: 2,600 square feet; two bedrooms, 2 bathrooms
Jason Snyder
Martin, right, along with her husband sit on the front steps of the newly remodeled house, which is just one of five in a once-dilapidated construction.
Martin is originally from the D.C. metro region but has called Pittsburgh home for the last 11 years. College friends from Penn State initially lured her to Pittsburgh, along with the design, character and affordability enticed her to stay and receptive Pavement, a clothing and shoe shop.
Jason Snyder
Jason Snyder
Martin requested that the reclaimed hardwood floors — rescued out of a Polish dance hall that has been torn down to make space for the Tower in PNC Plaza (charged as the greenest skyscraper on earth) — maybe not be “refinished in any way so as to preserve the aged patina and one of a kind color variants,” she says.
Jason Snyder
Years of jealousy meant the kitchen needed to be completely gutted. Exposed original ceiling beams, simple white subway tiles, open shelving and Ikea cabinets painted blue now underline the couple’s eclectic aesthetic. They spent additional time choosing the finishes in the kitchen as well as from the bathroom, because they felt these are much permanent investment.
Kitchen cabinet hardware: Anthropologie; cupboard paint: Sea Glass, Martha Stewart Living (Glidden); faucet: Ikea; shelves: Wade Caruso Woodworking
Jason Snyder
Reclaimed wood chandelier: Roxanne’s Dried Flowers
Jason Snyder
Background: Grand Game for Anthropologie
Jason Snyder
Underneath Lakota, the couple’s Alaskan Malamute mix, is a wooden console displaying travel mementos. The couple spend the majority of their time on this first floor entertaining friends and hanging out with their beloved dogs.
Jason Snyder
Milo, a 13-year-old pug, introduces unimpressed in the front of the living area’s reclaimed wood bookcases, made by Wade Caruso Woodworking.
Jason Snyder
This sitting room, which will be a work in progress, is home to the couple’s vintage record player, acquired in the set of the movie The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
Jason Snyder
The bedroom attic is on the next floor, where initial pine flooring was patched, sanded and sealed with polyurethane.
Jason Snyder
The bathroom includes imported Moroccan hand-printed ceramic flooring tiles by U.K. textile designer Dominic Crinson.
Jason Snyder
Reclaimed wood frames the door to the bedroom.
Jason Snyder
Skylights lend a modern touch to the original exposed beam ceiling.
Bedding, drapes, carpeting: Anthropologie; chandelier: Pottery Barn; upholstered Chair: Hot Haute Hot
Jason Snyder
Pictured here is the few shared office nook.
Desk: Flatiron, Restoration Hardware; folding seats: Terai, Anthropologie
Jason Snyder
The second floor includes a guest bedroom dressed in bold bursts of color.
Bedding: Anthropologie; wall paint: Sea Anemone, Martha Stewart Living (Glidden)
Jason Snyder
The second-floor bathroom is outfitted in white subway tile, while sexy Moroccan-inspired ceramic tiles out of Dominic Crinson line the floor.
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