Whole-Floor Renovation + Furnishings · Westfield, New Jersey
Layered and Luxe: A First-Floor Renovation and Backyard Resort in Westfield, NJ
Thirty-year-old stone walls, a kitchen rebuilt around how a three-generation family actually entertains, and a backyard used in January. Featured in New Jersey Monthly.
A first-floor renovation of a luxury home in Westfield, New Jersey: material selections, lighting, furnishings and the full accessory zhuzh that carried these rooms from outdated to modern luxury.
The house was built in the 1990s and had genuinely good bones — an attractive layout and original six-inch-thick walls of locally mined stone. What it needed was a twenty-first-century makeover, because the family that has lived in Westfield for three decades had no intention of leaving. Children and grandchildren are nearby, and this property is where everybody ends up.
So the brief was hospitality at scale. Because the couple loves to entertain, the kitchen and family room had to be roomy enough for a catered party and still cozy enough to read a book or watch the morning news from the peninsula television. That meant family-friendly fabrics and carpet, a great deal of cabinetry to hold and hide everyday kitchenware, and a backyard that works all year. New Jersey Monthly published the result in February 2023.
Project Snapshot
- Location
- Westfield, New Jersey
- The House
- 1990s home with original locally mined stone walls
- Project Type
- First-floor renovation, furnishings and exterior living
- Construction
- Michael Robert Construction
- Interior Design / Selections / Furnishings
- Ellie Mroz Design
- Rooms
- Kitchen, eat-in dining area, walk-in pantry, coffee bar, family room and wet bar, office, powder room, entry foyer, pool and backyard living
- Signature Elements
- White marble island, steel-and-glass pantry wall, pop-up island television, hands-free motorized cabinetry, floor lights washing the original stone, gas fire bowls
- Press
- New Jersey Monthly, February 2023
A kitchen built for a catered party and a Tuesday
The kitchen was enlarged to take a walk-in pantry you can see into, closed by a custom steel-and-glass wall rather than a door — storage that behaves like architecture instead of hiding behind it.
A generously proportioned white marble island anchors the room, with white oak shelving, custom cabinetry sized around the dishes it actually holds, and under-cabinet lighting. A television rises out of the island counter and vanishes back into it when nobody wants to look at a screen. The coffee bar is one of the busiest spots in the house and has a water spigot plumbed into the wall, so the pot is filled where it is used.
Small decisions carry the most weight here. A pop-out bottom drawer holds two dog bowls. Floor lights wash the original stone walls at night, which is what turns a thirty-year-old material into the best thing in the room.
Eating in, against the stone
The eat-in area sits against one of the original stone walls under a planked wood ceiling. The homeowners' own table base was kept and refitted with a custom stone top, ringed with rattan chairs under an oversized woven pendant.
Keeping the base was not a budget decision. It is the piece the family already ate at, and a renovation that replaces everything tends to read as a showroom rather than a house somebody has lived in for thirty years.
The family room, and the bar in the corner of it
The adjacent family room takes kid-friendly upholstery and carpet, because the room is used by three generations and the fabric has to survive all of them. A second counter area with a peninsula bar means drinks never have to come out of the kitchen during a party.
The corner bar has hands-free motorized cabinetry and a wine fridge, set into planked oak built-ins and open shelving for glassware. Beside it, the stone wall and the fireplace do what the 1990s house already did well.
A backyard used in January
The exterior phase turned a traditional backyard into a Zen-style resort with swimming, barbecuing and dining areas — a covered bar pavilion, a pergola with teak lounging, a live-edge dining table and a tall stacked-stone fireplace.
The part that matters is the frigid months. Gas fire bowls along the pool edge and a proper outdoor fireplace mean the family and their guests are out there roasting marshmallows in winter. A backyard that is only usable for four months is a garden; this one is a room.
More from this home
Have a house with good bones and rooms that no longer fit how you live? The floor plan is often fine. What needs rethinking is what each room is for.
start a projectBuilt With
Michael Robert Construction
Design and construction on this project were coordinated together — architecture, site work and finish carpentry alongside the selections and furnishings.
See the construction side at Michael Robert ConstructionQuestions
Questions we get a lot
What does a first-floor renovation usually include?
Here it was the kitchen, eat-in dining area, walk-in pantry, family room and wet bar, office, powder room and entry, plus all the furnishings, lighting and styling — then the backyard as a second phase of living space. The floor plan was largely kept; what changed was how each room works.
What do homeowners ask for most in a kitchen renovation right now?
In this project: a coffee bar, a wine fridge, stone counters, natural finishes, a walk-in pantry, hands-free cabinetry, under-cabinet lighting, kid-friendly lower cabinets, a refrigerated beverage drawer, and a pop-up television inside the island counter. Nearly all of them are about keeping the work of entertaining out of sight.
How do you design a kitchen for a multi-generation family?
By planning for two extremes at once. This one is roomy enough for a catered party and cozy enough to read a book in on a Tuesday morning. That means durable family-friendly fabrics, generous concealed storage for everyday kitchenware, and a second bar area so drinks never have to come through the working kitchen.
What is a see-through pantry?
A walk-in pantry closed by a glazed wall rather than a solid door — here a custom black steel-and-glass partition. The storage stays visible and orderly and the kitchen keeps its light, so the pantry reads as part of the architecture instead of a cupboard hidden behind a slab.
Can a New Jersey backyard be used year-round?
Yes, if it is designed as a room rather than a garden. Gas fire bowls at the pool edge, a tall stacked-stone fireplace, a covered bar pavilion and a pergola with proper lounge seating mean this one gets used in the frigid months for roasting marshmallows, not just in July.