daily living. D’Agostino tucked
a large pantry area behind the
kitchen wall to keep food-prep
messes out of sight. “The downside
of living in a house with an open-
concept first floor,” he says, “is that
if you don’t plan for it, your house
is going to look cluttered.”
The D’Agostinos’ home looks
anything but. The built-ins, the
glass walls and the open-concept
first floor all create a distinctly
modern feel, which is balanced by
more traditional elements like a
coffered ceiling in the great room,
the shiplap in the master bedroom
and an exterior that evokes New
England by way of the Hamptons.
In fact, says D’Agostino, from the
floor plan, the house looks like
something that was designed to sit
on a cliff in California overlooking
the ocean. But Washington
Township isn’t Monterey, so
D’Agostino designed a house
that would make sense in its
environment. On the exterior, the
two-story glass walls contrast with
traditional touches such as an oriel
bay window—more commonly
seen on Tudor Revival homes—
and a roofline featuring three
peaks, which, D’Agostino says,
“ties everything together.”
In fact, what really ties the house
together is joy: the joy of living
next door to your best friend, in
rooms specifically designed for the
whole family, in a house by turns
dramatic and homey—the perfect
place, as it happens, for a vacation
that never ends.This page: Shiplap on the vaulted
master bedroom ceiling adds warmth.
The windows were specifically
designed to frame the sunrise.
Opposite page, top: In the master
bedroom, a pair of French doors open
onto a large balcony. Opposite page,
bottom: The very modern master
bathroom includes a custom floating
vanity with a quartz countertop and a
double-sided gas fireplace from Heat &
Glo, which warms both the bathroom
and the bedroom.NJ
Home|^
73GAL.s19.d'agostino.indd 73 2/26/19 9:00 AM