Featured Homes
Gentlemanly Quarters
With a dose of drama, a Boston designer turns a Back Bay apartment into a home that reflects its owners’ urbane lifestyle and refined tastes.
BY
Megan Fulweiler
PHOTOGRAPHY
Sam Gray
INTERIOR DESIGN
Phillip Jude Miller, America Dural
PRODUCED BY
Kyle Hoepner

Here’s to glamour, to good taste, couture quality and refinement. Here’s to alluring colors, art and books. To lovely dishware, gleaming silver and fresh flowers, single or en masse. And here’s to all the individuals who understand that real style—the lasting sort—is not just a pretty room, but a way of life.

It’s quite evident that fine-tuned sensibilities are involved at this address. The old adage “life is short, use the good china” is held close. Still, such beauty and order doesn’t happen by itself. Serendipity may have brought the skillful designer and his clients together (the three kindred souls were once neighbors), but getting to this point entailed months of über creativity.

Credit goes first to the owners for their stellar leap of faith. “Everybody told us not to buy this unit,” says Dr. Steve Williams, who shares the space with his partner, Dr. Michael Stillman. “But we knew if anyone could make it fabulous, Phillip could. I’d call him every day and tell him so. Finally, he came around.”

Their confidence in Phillip Jude Miller has been unwavering since the interior designer, who heads the Boston firm America Dural, cast his spell over their previous home. When they later put it on the market, the place sold in a matter of hours. The problems this time, though, were more involved. Although the landmark Back Bay building has spectacular garden views and glorious common rooms, their unit sported low ceilings and too many hallways. “When you’re spending thousands of dollars per square foot, you don’t want lost real estate,” explains Miller.