Amazing Spaces: Philadelphia’s Most Spectacular Interiors

The Converted Barn
Rafael Novoa and Robert Lieberman of Rafael Novoa Interior Design converted their Upper Makefield barn into a soaring space that’s part rustic, part glam. (Photo by Jeffrey Totaro; Styling by Lauren Payne)

THE BEST DESIGN—whether seen in the curve of a bike rack or the arch of a barrel-vaulted ceiling—is immediately recognizable. It makes you feel something. These days, everyone cares about aesthetics (see: Apple’s world domination; elegant spatulas), and the trend is especially striking in populist Philadelphia, now an internationally known design hub. To see our city’s design evolution, you only have to look around: Sophisticated design is now omnipresent, from corner coffee shops and corporate offices to seriously covetable homes. In the pages that follow, we feature some of the area’s best interiors, spanning spaces that surprise (slides in an office building?), bewilder (is that really a porthole in a living room?), stun (that bathroom ceiling!) and, above all, inspire.

Sam Oberter

The Artist's Lair

The opulent, aquatic South Philly living room of cephalopod-obsessed artist Adam Wallacavage is an ideal backdrop for his sculpted chandeliers.

Courtney Apple

The Church Rehab

Clothing boutique Mettlers American Mercantile set up shop in a converted 19th-century church, once the home of the obscure Swedenborgians.

Moto Designshop

The Minimalist Penthouse

Seen through an elevated window, a smokestack provides an industrial contrast to the Kubrick-esque interior of this Old City penthouse designed by Moto Designshop.

Courtney Apple

The Bohemian Loft

A Northern Liberties loft (designed by Naomi Stein of Design Manifest) looks like it was transported from Marrakech, with a few stops at flea markets on the way.

Michael Scott Whitson

The Reclaimed Coffee Shop

One Shot Coffee in Northern Liberties, a two-story rowhome transformed by Philly’s SLDesign: because you’d never want to live in a Starbucks.

© 2012 The Barnes Foundation

The Museum

After years of internecine warfare and legal wrangling and one impassioned documentary, the Barnes Museum now resides on the Parkway. Designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects—one of Architectural Digest’s top 100 talents of 2014—the award-winning building offers better light to see the paintings and clean, contemplative spaces away from the galleries.

Kathleen Connally

The Built-In Guest Room

A cozy guest b­edroom—tucked in a 1940s home on the bank of the Delaware River in New Hope—maximizes space with adjacent built-in beds, painted white by designer Darryl Carter for a modern, airy feel.

Laura Kicey

The Mid-Century Modern

A c­irca-1958 home in Wallingford by prominent mid-century modern architect Irwin Stein is now a showcase for furniture of the same period, curated by homeowner and interior designer Bobbie Ann Tilkens-Fisher.

John M. Lewis

The Conservatory

In a Gladwyne manse, a light-filled conservatory—the work of Doylestown-based Chase Building Group—features radiant heating, motorized windows and, naturally, a self-sustaining koi pond.

Sam Oberter

The Hotel Lobby

Kimpton’s Hotel Monaco: proof that hotel lobbies don’t have to be awful.

Jauhien Sasnou

The Seafarer's Bar

Packed to the rafters with nautical paraphernalia, the Boat House—a two-level, creaky-floored pub hidden in an old pork yard in Lambertville—is the definition of weathered charm.

Laura Kicey

The Urban Showroom

Take Restoration Hardware, add bits of an old industrial factory, sprinkle in some thrift-store quirk, and you’ve got Center City home store Cella Luxuria.

Jeffrey Totaro

The Modern Farmhouse

A sustainable home in West Chester by Wayne-based Moger Mehrhof Architects features an open-tread oak-and-steel staircase, stacked beneath a cupola, that’s sexy and functional: The glass wall opens up to let air pour in and cool the house.

Halkin Architectural Photography

The Glamorous Parlor

Designed by starchitect Rafael Viñoly, Fort Washington’s Arbor Hill is endlessly versatile. To wit: This living room can be converted into a basketball court. Bonus: It’s for sale. Buy the entire property for $25 million, or just its main house and partial acreage for $13.95 million.

Isaac Turner

The Eco Bath

When Jayme Gu­okas, owner of Craftwork Design, rehabbed an East Kensington rowhome, he used reclaimed materials such as flooring from a South Philly factory and a former livestock tank as a shower.

Courtney Apple

The Verdant Brunch Spot

Has a dreamier place ever existed than the greenhouse-like Garden Café at Terrain in Glen Mills?

Tom Crane

The Historic Showstopper

It’s M.C. Esher turned elegant in the Jayne House near Rittenhouse Square. Sun streams in from a 400-square-foot leaded-glass skylight, illuminating a scenic mural in this Frank Furness home restored by Eberlein Design Consultants.

Michael Colavita

The Impeccable Cooking Space

In New Hope, a fresh, bright kitchen is the ultimate culinary retreat. (Psst: The house can be yours for a tidy $3.15 million.)

Halkin Mason Photography

The Way-Better-Than- A-Cubicle Workspace

Coolest. Office. Ever. (It’s AWeber, an email marketing biz in Chalfont. Chalfont!)

Tom Crane

The Intimate Clubhouse

The Mask and Wig Club’s Grille Room, with its hundreds of beer mugs and wall illustrations by Maxfield Parrish, is a gathering spot for members of Penn’s all-male musical comedy troupe. Built on tiny Quince Street in 1894, it’s a hidden gem of a clubhouse that you’ve probably never noticed.

Tom Crane

The Main Line Estate

Patterned wallpaper covers the barrel-vaulted ceiling in one of many bathrooms in Ardrossan, the Philadelphia Story Georgian mansion built by Horace Trumbauer. Eberlein Design Consultants oversaw the storied Main Line property’s restoration.

Lara Swimmer

The Adapted Warehouse

An abandoned building was converted into a funky workspace with visible history for this Free People office at the Navy Yard. Oh, and pets are welcome.

Floto + Warner

The Unconventional Rotunda

A two-story fireplace suspended in a silo-esque rotunda is the grand industrial focal point of this sleek abode in Buckingham Township.

Jeffrey Totaro

The Designer's Kitchen

The Rehoboth Beach kitchen of Joanne Hudson, Philly’s queen of kitchen design. We’re drooling, too.

Jason Varney

The Retreat

Designer Ashli Mizell turned a bachelor’s Delancey Street basement into a personal spa, complete with sauna.

Jeffrey Totaro

The More Is More ... Is More

Built by the Pennsylvania State Capitol’s architect, the historical-preservation-award-winning Oaks Cloister stuns with its opulence, size, and idiosyncrasies of design. (Yes, somebody actually lives here.)

Courtney Apple

The Eclectic Mix

If you could live in Anthropologie, it’d be like living in this Center City loft. Hardly su­rp­rising—the owners both work for Urban. (Styling by Lauren Payne)

Please also see “How to Find the Perfect House in Philadelphia.”

First appeared in the March, 2014 issue of Philadelphia magazine.