By Jillian Diamond
It’s no small feat to renovate a house dating back to the 1920s, but Meghan Friedman, of the Baltimore-based design firm Redhead Design LLC, did just that. The historic home now serves as her showroom and office, showing off her construction and decorating work.
“I like doing the construction and decorating parts, because [by doing that] you get to work on the whole project, soup to nuts,” Friedman explains. “You can work on how the space flows and it’s organized. It’s like putting together a puzzle.”
A former graphic designer, Friedman went back to school at the Maryland Institute College of Art to study interior design after having children. She credits her early interest in design to her mother, who was always decorating the family home.
Friedman notes that the first thing she considers when designing a home renovation is the lifestyle of her clients—how much storage they need, how often they cook in their kitchen, how often they entertain and many other personal factors. But her builds are not meant to be solely utilitarian, as they reflect their owners’ personalities and interests as well.
“It’s really important to me that a home feels like it evolved over time. It doesn’t feel like it has any personality if it looks like a designer came and just put things there,” Friedman says. “One of the best ways to do that is through personal items, and colors and patterns that reflect the homeowner’s personality.”
A historic house
Renovating the 1920s house was a bit like an archaeological excavation. In peeling back its layers, Friedman and her collaborators learned continued to learn about how its previous residents lived.
“I think that the previous owners lived through the Great Depression, so they saved everything,” she notes. “The house was full of DIY projects, none of which really went together.”
While the finished build is much more modern and draws from mid-century design, there are some elements that Friedman managed to preserve from its original build. While red oak floors are common in Baltimore houses, the inlaid border in this house floor is original, giving it a unique look.
Home is where the hearth is
One of the house’s most striking elements is its fireplace, which has an unusual arched firebox. Most fireplaces have rectangular fireboxes. In addition to plastering the fireplace, Friedman decided to carry this curved motif to other parts of the house. She worked to preserve the arches that already existed in the house, as well as adding new ones onto the doorframes and entryways.
The fireplace is no longer functional, now housing several decorative vases, but its impact on the rest of the home design is plain to see.