Upward Bound

Before: Piecemeal furniture and insufficient shelving (plus an abandoned ballet barre) did nothing to help the small, overwhelmed study.

 
After: The mirrored panel above the bookshelves not only hides the home’s heating and ventilation systems, it also reflects and completes the triangular window pattern, and makes the tiny space appear larger.

Joslin added built-in bookshelves (“Alan’s mission in life has been to contain my clutter,” says the wife) and Birkerts resuscitated the desk—actually a dining room table purchased in 1971—with red paint. Joslin “really wanted me to get rid of both the table and the armoire because they didn’t fit—they were both dark, heavily grained, and sort of 1970s in affect,” the wife explains, “but I was sentimentally attached.”