Asbury Park Victorian gets ‘really fun’ facelift

In 2007, with most of the work completed, they welcomed the arrival of their son, Owen, now 14. A few years later, they added a Victorian Bulldog, Watson, to the mix. And as they began to entertain each other more, the 1,800 square foot home they had lovingly renovated began to feel a bit small.

So in 2016, when they saw an ad for a three-story, 4,000-square-foot clapboard house from 1891 with a 1,200-square-foot freestanding guesthouse in the back, they decided to buy it, eventually selling their first home. The price of the new house, after a bidding war, was $600,000.

Their new old house had been restored by the previous owners and much of the original woodwork was intact. The couple liked the historic details, but the interior was a Victorian time capsule — with a floor plan divided by small, dark rooms — and didn’t feel right for their family. This was doubly true for Mr. Berman, whose company is known for designing clean-lined modernist spaces.

To renovate it, they planned to keep the original details as much as possible, while opening up the house to create a relaxed and friendly atmosphere filled with playful and unexpected finishes. “For us, it was a chance to celebrate a lot of classic details, but give them a facelift,” Berman said. “We wanted this house to be really fun.”

In the front part of the house, they left most of the architecture intact, but changed its personality with new finishes, fittings and colors. A sliver of yellow paint now runs up the front steps, up the front door, and wraps around the porch ceiling. In a game room just off the lobby, they whitewashed wood floors and added wood panel-like wallpaper and a woven bamboo pendant lamp above a walnut ping-pong table with a leather net.