When cousins of the Boukidis family suggested they look at some of the new custom homes going up in their neighborhood, they happily obliged and worked with their realtor to set up a viewing. For good measure, their realtor also scheduled a viewing of an existing home on the same street—a home he felt could be a contender. “When we walked into the new build, it was stunning! Fresh, new, modern,” Maria Boukidis recalls. “But the lot was very small, and we really weren’t crazy about that.” They went into the existing home next and were blown away by the spaciousness, finishes, lot size, and basement. “Everything ticked our boxes on the list of wants,” Boukidis says, “except the kitchen.”
The kitchen was small, and the layout didn’t work for their family, but Boukidis’ husband, Perry, talked her into looking past it, imagining all the things they could do differently. “This house was definitely meant for us, and if we could fix that wonky kitchen, I was ready to sign the papers,” she said. The Boukidises hired Urban Building Group to remodel the kitchen, and Boukidis began researching interior designers. After repeatedly liking images on social media from Georgia Street Design, she decided it was time to message the owner, Meredeth Beregovski. She got a reply instantly, and after meeting, Boukidis knew this would be the perfect pairing. “As soon as I met Meredith, I knew she understood me,” she explains. “She asked all the right questions, and when we stood in the empty rooms, I knew we were designing in her head. She was both humble and confident in her work and didn’t sell it. It was a natural process.”
“I have pretty good gut instincts,” Beregovski adds. “I just know when it’s going to work and what the client will want. Maria just let me run with it.” The Boukidises wanted a bright and airy space with a lot of uniqueness and an approachable and timeless design. “Maria’s not afraid of color, which made doing the vision boards really fun,” she says. “I will never forget—I presented seven room designs to her when we met to discuss concepts, and out of all seven rooms, she only asked to see one different coffee table. It was amazing. She really dove into the designs easily, and I could tell we hit the nail on the head that day.”
Beregovski jumped into the project at the outset, helping to choose finishes and fixtures for the kitchen, as well as designing rooms in the rest of the home. Over the next ten months, they began to see her vision come to life. “Meredith took us out of our comfort zone with patterns and colors, but it was also evident we shared an identical aesthetic,” Boukidis says.
“I think we started with the kitchen and worked outward,” Beregovski says.“I am the white kitchen queen—I must have hundreds of inquires about wanting a newly designed white kitchen. Reinventing the white kitchen with each new client is the goal. I came up with the shaker cabinets as a fresh take, and lamps and overhead lighting were a twist that sold the kitchen design.”
In the living room, there was only one true request from Boukidis, and that was to find and incorporate a very special tray in a special orange color. The tray was difficult to find, but on install day, Beregovski surprised Boukidis with the tray in the living room and had the built-in bookcases painted in the same orange to tie it all together.“Meredith really infused my love of ’50s and ’60s fashion into her designs, and I even get to display a series of vintage Vogue magazines,” Boukidis says.
She adds that while the kitchen is the center of her home and a space she loves, she never anticipated the entrance to the home being the real showstopper and one of her favorite elements. And Beregovski agrees. “They have a very interesting entrance, with a sort of a vestibule that empties guests into a foyer and then a longer hallway,” she explains. “And once we used this to our advantage, we discovered that it offers the most amazing foreword into the story of the home. Each little room is a jewel box that gets revealed as you come deeper into the house. From the threshold, you are just eager to see more.”
Dark trim frames a neutral and sophisticated vestibule entrance, with a pop of color from two bright green velvet stools underneath the entry table. In the hallway, a hand-painted printed grasscloth from Schumacher is bold and classic, familiar yet unexpected.
“Maria wanted a very impactful dining room,” Beregovski says. “The inspiration images she shared with me were so stunning and well-designed, I felt challenged to come up with something equally as beautiful, but with my own take on it.” With so much light in the dining room, Beregovski convinced Boukidis to allow her to lacquer the ceiling in a very creamy beige color to not only complement the deep navy grasscloth but to reflect the natural light all across the room. “Then once we realized she had a set of intaglios, I came up with the idea to get them mounted on antique marble papers and specially framed,” she says. “Campania, a custom frame shop in South End, did an incredible job. The pieces completed the space.” The same impactful lacquered-ceiling element can be found in the light and bright master bedroom, where neutral colors reigned, and natural light was given a spot center stage.
“Maria really liked soft, subtle colors, which we wanted to carry into the master bedroom. We added a ton of texture to make the neutrals interesting, and we lacquered the ceiling in Benjamin Moore White Dove to really bounce light around the room,” Beregovski says.
The overall effect of the home is a study in the complicated skill of using color as a neutral. Soft, subtle colors, muted in tone, are amped up with pops of bright color in a combination of big and small ways. “I’m always looking for cohesion,” Beregovski says. “I see so many designs that start off with a great concept but get lost from room to room as the designs mutate. I really try to create a flow in the home that feels natural, but also delights with interest.”