Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/60293
PAMELA AND PHIL PARISI began work on their Reading house in 1976, when they bought an Acorn House kit, erected the shell, and moved into the bare space with studded walls and plywood floors. For the past 36 years they have finished, furnished, and, finally, renovated. Today, their home is colorful, personal, and beautifully livable, but the Parisis say that they will never be done. "The house is a constant work in pro- gress," the couple says, laughing. The Acorn House was a novel architectural idea; a good design at a time when open layouts, angled roofs, and cantilevered decks were only available to lovers of modernism who could afford archi- tects. As popular today as they were when first introduced during the 1960s, the modular structures feature post and beam construc- tion, which allows for contemporary open floor plans with exposed beams and vaulted ceilings. The clean lines and interior flexibility appealed to the Parisis, both designers who met as students at Mass College of Art and married in 1971. Today, their home reflects their artistic sensibilities, encapsulating high points of 20th-centu- ry design while showcasing mementoes of their trips abroad. "In the mid 1980s, we began our foreign travel," says Pamela Parisi, who worked as a package designer for Gillette before she re- tired. "We bring back tchotchkes. Not little tchotchkes," she says. "Big tchotchkes!" These include Indonesian puppets, Tibetan weavings, and Japanese castings. The striking Asian art happily coexist with iconic furniture, including four original ladderback chairs by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the Glasgow designer and artist who straddled Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau, and Modernism while he gave the world some its most sublime and original design ideas. A black steel circular staircase dominates the living room while a contemporary slab kitchen table refers to George Nakashima. Was- sily chairs and a Saarinen lounge speak of seminal Western design history; contemporary art glass glows from mirrored shelves. The Parisis' collections, which span the globe as well as the last century, look their best in high-ceilinged, light-filled rooms that look out at an equally arresting garden. "We chose this building lot because it was easily accessible to our jobs and to the airport," Phil Parisi says. "Then we picked a house plan, which we customized within existing support walls." Their home site occupies a thickly wooded rise populated with white pine trees. Though the lot measures a half-acre, it appears much larger thanks to judiciously placed plantings that screen nearby houses. The overall effect is that of a secret garden on a hidden woodland hilltop. The Parisi driveway leads into a world that seems far removed from its suburban surroundings. "We didn't plan to make a garden," Pamela says. OPPOSITE "But after we lived here, I wanted to be able to walk around the yard. We built a path; then we cleared around it. Then we kept going," she laughs. "When we began, I asked a local landscaper for advice," Phil adds. "He told me to forget about it. 146 When the Murphy Bed descends, the sitting room becomes a guest suite. PREVIOUS SPREAD With bed in wall, the sitting room provides garden views. THIS PAGE Saturated colors and compelling sight lines transformed a basement into a warm garden-level apartment.