Before & After: A Modern Makeover for a Circa-1850s Row House in Jersey City

When it came to remodeling their circa-1850s row house in the historic Harimus Cove area of downtown Jersey City, young couple Chakshu and Gabriel, who also have a small son, turned to Mowery Marsh Architects to create an open, light-filled home. The match, it turns out, was a good one. “From our first meeting it was apparent that Chakshu has a great sense of style,” says principal architect Jennifer Mowery Marsh, “I remember thinking ‘I bet she loves Remodelista!'”

When Chakshu and Gabriel bought the house, it was laid out as several rental apartments and a previous addition had left the kitchen on a different floor from the main living space. It was important to the family to reconfigure the space and bring the living room, dining room, and kitchen onto a single level, while aligning it aesthetically with their more modern style. “Chakshu brought a lot of visual aids to the design process with a well-curated Pinterest page,” says the architect, “She has a clean, modern approach that has a nice homey feel to it, which is what we strive for in our work.” The ultimate goal, they say, was to make the home feel clean, uncluttered, and livable.

Join us for a look at the results.

Photographs by Haris Kenjar. General contracting by Endres Home Builders, Inc.

Entry

The architects had hoped to retain the original flooring during the remodel, but once the house was gutted they realized that wouldn’t be possible. “The floors at the back of the house were about a foot higher in some areas, and they were so out of level we decided to replace all the floor framing throughout.”

Kitchen

The architects rebuilt the entire back wall to allow for bigger windows to take advantage of the light and views.

Living Room

Master Bedroom

The second level was previously a separate rental unit with an intermediate landing that chopped up the floorplan. The architects eliminated the landing for a straight staircase run to the second floor, where they sited the owners’ son’s bedroom, a guest bedroom, a hallway bathroom, and a new master suite. The master bedroom is one of the architects’ favorite things about the finished project because of the original beams, which were uncovered during the renovation; they left them exposed to add some period character to the home.

Master Bath

Rear Yard

Before

N.B.: Mowery Marsh’s Montlake Residence project was the winner of the Best Professional Kitchen category of our 2018 Considered Design Awards. See it here.

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• Before & After: A French-Inflected Townhouse Renovation in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
• Before & After: Remodelista Contributing Editor Izabella Simmons Shares Her Scandi-Inspired Remodel
• Before & After: A Buzzfeed Founder’s Renovated Rowhouse, Budget Edition