A Bryn Mawr Colonial with pockets of ‘funky’ design
The home’s unique powder rooms and a speakeasy-inspired lounge were among the changes in a six-month remodel.
As soon as Lisa and Brian Walsh stepped into the backyard of the Colonial-style house for sale in Bryn Mawr in 2023, they knew they had found their new home.
Once they stepped inside, it was clear the house needed a lot of work, but the yard made it all worthwhile.
“It was spring and the garden was blooming and it was beautiful,” recalled Lisa, cofounder of Cruzen, a mobile auto-care and roadside-assistance service. “We looked at each other and said, ‘This is what we want.’”
To remodel the 3,800-square-foot house, they turned to Remy Creative Interior Design in Bryn Mawr and South Philadelphia-based Leuzzi Bros. Construction. The six-month project included gutting much of the first floor to remove a load-bearing wall and open the space. They designed a new kitchen, mudroom, and living room, and replaced the staircase and floors.
The second-floor renovations included expanding the primary bedroom and bathroom, building a second walk-in closet, and updating the remaining bedrooms and bathrooms. The home now has five bedrooms, three full bathrooms, and two half-bathrooms.
The kitchen is the heart of the home where the family gathers around the honed porcelain island that seats five. They eat most of their meals there, and it’s where their daughters, Ella, 7, and Joie, 5, do homework and arts and crafts.
The kitchen flows into a small living room where the family watches TV in front of the fireplace and the girls play.
Also on the first floor is the bourbon room, which Lisa and Brian designed as a cozy speakeasy. It features a navy blue bar with a platinum blue quartzite countertop, mesh-fronted cabinets and shelves to store liquor bottles, and a brick wood-burning fireplace.
“This space had an existing masculine, traditional vibe that we wanted to modernize, keep cozy, and add function,” said Randi Edelman, founder and creative director of Remy Creative Interior Design. “We worked with Goebelwood to custom-build bar cabinets that would match the style of the existing dark bookcase woodwork, but chose a deep navy color to make the bar stand out.”
The room includes a cognac leather banquette, navy swivel chairs, and a hide rug. Staring out from above the fireplace is a brass deer head donning glasses and smoking a pipe. It’s Brian’s favorite part of the room, aside from his beloved bourbons.
That collection includes Chicken Cock, a bottle he was gifted as a joke, and a rare Pappy Van Winkle that he won eight years ago in a Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board lottery.
“When I tried the Chicken Cock, I was surprised to find it was one of the best whiskeys I’d ever had,” said Brian, a financial adviser with Vested Advisors and an entrepreneur. “I save the Pappy Van Winkle for special occasions.”
Beyond the colorful bourbon room, the house is mostly decorated in blacks, whites, and grays.
“Black and white suits my personality,” Lisa said. “I like a modern feel with a comfy-cozy vibe. But I wanted the bathrooms to be a bit more funky.”
The powder room off the foyer presents a moody feel, featuring a vintage-inspired porcelain console sink with brass legs, and deep charcoal Phillip Jeffries vinyl sisal wallpaper. Brass U-shaped Regina Andrews sconces frame the brass, irregular-shaped mirror.
“For the second powder room, Lisa loved the look of a stone block sink and wanted to incorporate black and white terrazzo somewhere in her home,” recalled Edelman. “The contractor fabricated a custom sink in the mudroom bath with the 24-inch-by-24-inch tiles.”
Paired with the sink is a black and white graffiti-inspired wallpaper, organic shaped mirror, wall-mounted faucet, and offset pendant light.
The backyard is the family’s go-to spot when weather permits. The kids spend time in the playhouse Brian built for them and romp in the yard with Bo, their 9-month-old Bernedoodle. The Walshes host friends and family under the covered patio, located just outside the bourbon room through sliding doors.
White metal furniture with comfortable gray cushions fill the covered portion of the patio, and gray rattan and bright blue wooden chairs sit by the barbecue grill, overlooking the garden.
“This house encompasses everything our family enjoys, sharing time together and separately,” Brian said. “It’s a place to host family and friends.”
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