Sunset Hues Shape A Bespoke New Jersey Family Home

For Indian families, entertaining often takes a different shape than sitting around a formal dining table. So, to suit the Sinhas’ convivial gathering style at their Short Hills, New Jersey, new build, designers Barette Widell and Christina Boschetti collaborated closely with their clients to create an effortlessly elegant home with spaces to congregate that are more akin to a “chic hotel lounge,” according to Widell.

Neema and Neil Sinha and their two children relocated from Hoboken to the suburbs, where a flagpole lot that backs onto a wooded reservation became the site of their dream home. With very specific ideas about how the family would use the spaces, the couple worked with architect Timothy P. Klesse and general contractor Etai Har-El to formulate the layout for this ground-up construction, and Widell and Boschetti stepped in to transform the interiors into a bespoke sanctuary.

While the home appears to be a typical Colonial Revival when viewed from the driveway, the sunset hues and soft textures that adorn the spaces inside are unexpected. In the reimagined dining room, where banquette seating and drinks tables replace a traditional setup, the wallpaper depicts a landscape in shades of purple—a color that Neema gravitates toward. “We did a lot of experiments with different tones on the walls and really tailored them to her vision,” Widell recollects. Meanwhile, chains of illuminated crystalline beads are draped from the ceiling, arranged to appear “undone and organic, similar to what you find in nature,” Neema describes.