They filmed ‘American Fiction’ in my house. Can I get an Oscar?

My architectural gem of a house just launched me to stardom. Well, sort of.

Author’s house during filming. DANIEL G. STEGER

The first time I saw actors Jeffrey Wright and Tracee Ellis Ross waiting to open my front door, I felt as gobsmacked as you might imagine.

How our house, a Victorian built in 1895 with a turret and wide front porch, became a set in the recently Oscar-nominated film “American Fiction” is a story that began the day Rolando and I closed on our new home. Newlyweds who had been married just six months, we arrived at the house in the Bellevue Hill section of West Roxbury — and found a note from a local scouting agency. They wanted to know if they could view the interior.

Rolando is a lawyer. He immediately sniffed a scam. I’m an architect. I immediately said yes. If Hollywood found the sweep of our square footage and the detailing on the fireplace surrounds worthy, who was I to stand in the way?

It all started with a walk-through by an assistant who made it clear she was at the bottom of the pecking order. (Her name was Andie, just like the lowly assistant played by Anne Hathaway in “The Devil Wears Prada.” I took it as a sign.) Then came the film’s screenwriter and director Cord Jefferson. Our home was auditioning. It got a callback when yet another group came through, and then it finally got the part. Our house was ready to take its star turn.

The set designer arrived to see if there was any of our furniture she wanted to use (no), and the crew stashed all our stuff in rooms they weren’t going to shoot in. They stashed the two of us and our 9-year-old Labradoodle, Gus, at the Residence Inn in Dedham, stressing that this was “an independent, low-budget film.”

Setting the stage in the author's front hall, complete with the set designer-chosen chandelier. DANIEL G. STEGER

I’m pretty sure the actors didn’t stay at the Residence Inn. At least, Rolando and I never ran across them. We never even got a chance to find out what Jeffrey Wright thought of his assigned half bath off the kitchen — a tired powder room with a wall that didn’t reach all the way to the ceiling. Or what Tracee Ellis Ross thought of her half bath under the third-floor eaves.

Before shooting began, the house had an appointment with hair and makeup. Dozens of people descended like a SWAT team of grips, wanting to know things like where the electrical panel was and pulling out tools to replace our front-hall chandelier with a set designer-chosen one. The drapes were swapped out for sheer panels with blue velvet overlays. One afternoon a van approached and the crew pulled out what seemed like 20 different rugs to see which they wanted to use in each room.

The crew also had meetings with the neighbors to garner local buy-in. We were taking Gus for a walk at some point when we saw a gaggle of people standing around the site location manager. But any concerns, whatever they were, were assuaged. After all, our neighborhood was going to be famous.

Quiet on the set, please. DANIEL G. STEGER

Although there were easily 75 to 100 people on site during filming (someone really did have the job of calling “Quiet on the set!”), things usually proceeded smoothly. The only real scuffle occurred when we walked into our kitchen early one morning to find dishes and other things strewn about — wedding gifts that we ourselves had barely used, salt and pepper shakers, an heirloom lamp handed down from my grandmother. We had been promised that none of our personal items would be picked through. The worst part: The scene — a discussion over a meal in the dining room — was cut from the movie.

Tracee Ellis Ross, starring as Lisa, and Leslie Uggams, playing her mother, Agnes, during a scene filmed in the author's dining room. CLAIREFOLGER

But when you finally go and see a film more than a year after it wraps, and there’s Leslie Uggams coming down your staircase, Jeffrey Wright sitting in your office reimagined as his childhood bedroom, and Sterling K. Brown swimming in a backyard pool that you don’t actually have, all is forgiven. We’ve now gone to see the movie a number of times (how many is not important), and I marvel that I had the architectural vision to choose a house that would be home to a movie great enough to garner five Academy Award nominations — for best picture, best actor (Wright), and best supporting actor (Brown), among others.

What I would like to suggest, in fact, is that it’s my home that’s up for an Oscar. And since my home is just an extension of me, it’s really I, the film’s starchitect, who have gotten the nod.

I’d like to thank the Academy.

Daniel G. Steger is the founder and principal of DGS/a Architecture, a Boston-based studio that specializes in custom residential design, renovations, and additions.

Aging in Place, But Without Design Sacrifices

I was recently tasked with re-designing various aspects of a lovely home in Cambridge so that its owners could stay there as long as possible as they grew older. They were only middle aged but were thinking ahead. They loved their neighborhood with all of its boutiques and gourmet food shops, its proximity to Boston, and its familiar sights and sounds. They loved the memories they were making there. And they knew that if they planned for the future now, it would be easier to stay put than if they had to work through remaining in their home in the midst of a life-changing emergency.

One of the things I designed for them was an outdoor lift. It was three and a half feet from the driveway up to the first floor, and the electric lift would someday allow them to access their front door with ease if they needed a walker or wheelchair.

How do you accommodate stairs without changing your home’s architecture? An electric chair lift is the solution to traversing the entry stairs into this Cambridge, MA, home. Architects will think creatively about accommodating your Aging in Place needs which means you will have a great looking solution.

It was an unusual accommodation for an unusual situation. Most preparation for aging in place translates from house to house. 

In New England, that often means making sure that a kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom can all be created on one level. Here are ways to work through the design challenges, which, if played right, become design opportunities. That is, aging in place does not mean turning your house into a small-scale nursing home with utilitarian fixtures and ugly finishes. If you properly deploy the right design elements, your home when you’re 90 can look and feel just as terrific as when you’re 40 or 50. Here’s what to consider.

Bathroom

Often, a home’s first floor has a half bath but no shower. So, space for a 3-foot by 5-foot shower has to be carved out. People are often reluctant to add a shower on the first floor. They think it’s not going to be used often enough. But it’s not just an overflow shower as a family grows up. It allows guests to come and stay comfortably without using the family bathroom upstairs.

A good time to add a shower downstairs is during the addition of some other downstairs space, such as a mudroom off the kitchen. Alternately, the space for a shower can be carved out of a closet or utility room. Ways to keep it from looking like a bathroom in a nursing home but still accommodating someone with physical limitations: 

•   Install a zero threshold shower so bathing becomes barrier-free. It has the added bonus of making a room look bigger because the floor tile can extend into the shower without a break; the space doesn’t look cut up.

•   Design the shower for a curtain rather than a glass door. Someone with mobility issues might need a second person to help with showering, and a glass door abruptly cuts off space; you really need the full 3 feet by 5 feet for two people to maneuver.

•   Install a hand-held shower along with a shower head. If someone is seated, they can’t easily move themselves into or out of the water stream coming from a shower head. A hand-held shower will also keep the helper from getting soaked. (In the meantime, it’s a luxurious feeling to spray the water from a hand-held piece directly onto your hair or other areas or your body. It’s what the Europeans do.)

•   Vanity height is generally 33 to 34 inches. Keep it at the lower end for easy access from a wheelchair. Your eye won’t notice the difference.

•   Make sure the sink is pulled to the leading edge of the vanity so you won’t have to reach over as far, and choose a vanity layout that leaves open the space where your knees would be in a wheelchair. It needn’t read “wheelchair-bound.”

•   Instead of a medicine cabinet above the sink, just put a mirror there, and install a custom-designed in-wall medicine chest that you can roll over to, if need be.

•   The standard rim height for a toilet seat is 15 to 16 inches, which can become hard to lower yourself into or out of over time. But all the major plumbing companies make toilets at “comfort heights” of 17 to 18 and even 19 inches. Easier to get into the seat that way (and no thick, squishy, ugly toilet seat necessary to raise the height).

•   Consider installing a wall-hung toilet. The system will be adjustable from about 14 inches all the way up to 20 inches, and that flexibility zone will allow you to customize the height for your level of mobility. The higher the toilet on the wall, the less lowering yourself into the seat that will be required. You will also gain 9 inches in front of the toilet because the tank remains in the wall — great if you have a tight bathroom space, because it opens up more room for maneuvering a wheelchair or walker.

•   Consider levers instead of knobs, both on the door to the bathroom and at the sink. They’re easier to maneuver for someone with arthritis — you’re just pushing rather than twisting. Better still, at the sink, go with voice command to make the water start flowing. Why use your hands at all when Alexa can do the work for you?

•   Widen the doorway to allow wheelchair clearance, but just a little. In a healthcare institution, the door width is 36 inches. You don’t need all that. Just go to 32 inches — 2 inches wider than a standard door opening. It’s wide enough, and it will keep your home feeling like a residence instead of a facility.

Often, you can “prep” a bathroom or other room for aging in place while the walls are opened up. For instance, if you don’t need a grab bar in the shower right away (and there are beautiful grab bars ones that come in any finish you choose), put some plywood into the framing as you’re creating the shower so that one can easily be screwed into that strong substrate down the line.

A zero clearance entry to the shower is a key concept for a bathroom with aging in place features. This shower has ample space for a caregiver to help bathe someone in a wheelchair. The ample lighting is bright, cheerful and inviting!

Kitchen

With the kitchen, much of what you want to think about are reachability and clearance. With that in mind:

•   Choose a sink with an apron, like a farmhouse sink. That pulls the sink 3 inches closer to you, which means less bending toward it.

•   If you have the room, design your kitchen with at least 42 inches from counter edge to counter edge. Any less, and it might be difficult to maneuver with a wheelchair or walker. 

•   Get levers for the sink instead of cross handles. Better still, go with motion sensors or voice activation. Some faucets can be turned on simply by waving your hand in front of them. And voice activation has reached the point that you can instruct the sink to pour, say, only one cup of water, or whatever amount you need. The flow will stop on its own when it’s supposed to.

•   Deploy seamless floor finishes, not tiles with space between them or rounded edges that can make them difficult to traverse. The best bet might be linoleum, which comes in a sheet. This is not your grandmother’s linoleum. There are fantastic choices on the market today.

•   Choose exquisite but very low-maintenance finishes for countertops. Quartzite or Ceasarstone is going to keep much more easily than marble, which will make you worry every time you leave out a lemon or other item that can leave an acid stain —like a glass of red wine that will produce a ring if you go to bed without putting it in the dishwasher. 

•   Go under-counter for storage as much as possible. That’s true for appliances as well as storage space. That way, if you can’t stand easily in the future, you can reach everything from down low. You can now choose refrigerators and freezers that come in drawers, along with drawer-designed dishwashers and microwaves. It’s also a good idea to go under-counter for things you might normally keep on top of the counter: the coffee maker, loaves of bread, your breakfast mugs. Reaching down is usually much easier than reaching up. Dishes can go down under, too, kept in place by wooden dowels so they don’t jiggle precariously as you open and close the drawers. Bonus: The more you hide down below, the more open and clean your kitchen will look — always.

•   Make sure to put in beautiful task lighting and, where applicable, under-cabinet lighting. They will help if visiual acuity lessens over time.

Note the ample knee clearance under the countertop work area. The dishwasher is elevated off the floor by 8”, and the wall oven is lower than a typical installation height. The corner sink is shallower than a typical sink, but it is much easier to access and reach into when sitting in a wheelchair.

Bedroom

No, you do not have to put a hospital bed in the middle of the living room. But in the first-floor space that you designate for a bedroom when climbing the stairs might no longer be an option, choose a mattress that would make it easy to transfer from a wheelchair without having to jump up or lower yourself too far down. Other ideas for a bedroom that will allow you to remain in your home down the line:

•   Design closets so that your clothes hang at about half the height they normally do. That way, you can pull them off a hangar from a chair rather than a standing position. There are many closet systems on the market now that are extremely customizable for your specific needs.

•   Go with hardwood floors or a floor with low-pile carpeting. Plush, high-pile carpet is difficult to run wheels across.

•   Have enough electric outlets installed right where your nightstand is going to go. You want everything accessible to you from the bed so you don’t have to go fumbling in other locations. You also want to install items in your home that work remotely. This includes a remote thermostat in case you get too cold or warm during the night, a remote alarm system, and a keypad you can keep by your bedside for other systems as well — perhaps the electronic raising or lowering of window shades. You don’t want to have to keep getting out of bed to activate or deactivate something.

•   If you keep a television in your bedroom, have it installed at a height that is going to work for you no matter what.

•   Try to make sure the bedroom has enough room for someone to sit and monitor you if need be — or just keep you company.

The smooth, seamless flooring allow you to navigate without the fear of tripping on rugs. The seating area is a welcome amenity when a caregiver is required to monitor you or to keep you company.

An Interview with Tile Designer Rene’ Yang Becker

When a client wants the best in tile design — backsplash, floor, shower, vanity surround, wall accent — I bring Rene’ Yang Becker into the picture. A design consultant at Tile Showcase in Watertown, she applies her deep and uncanny knowledge of tile and her amazing eye to up a home’s design game — all while keeping the homeowner and the rest of the design team happy. To learn more about how she thinks about tile and brings her talent to bear while working with top-tier designers, I sat down with Rene’ for some insight on her process and what led her to this career.

Daniel: Before we get into the nitty gritty, is there a way you can describe how tile functions in the overall design of a home?

Rene’: People often approach tile as an afterthought, but it’s a critical part of interior design. I mean, yes, you can go to Home Depot and get something very utilitarian that nobody would notice. That’s fine. But tile can make an impact. 

Years and years ago I met a contractor who was certified by the Tile Counsel of America. He said to me, ‘Rene’, did you know that when you put tile in a bathroom or over a kitchen sink, you really don’t need it. It’s all decorative. You can waterproof a shower without tile; you can just install a waterproofing membrane.’ It drove home to me that tile’s main purpose is  decorative, not protective. So why not lean into that? It has only become more important, not less.

A custom glass & stone backsplash is the focal point in this kitchen renovation.
Tile Design: Rene Yang Becker

Daniel: How is that?

Rene’: Just think about kitchen trends — bigger kitchens with great lighting, so people want beautiful tile there, too. And you need a lot more of it. There used to be an average of 30 square feet of tile for a kitchen. Now it’s an average of 60 square feet. I’ve done $20,000 kitchen backslashes — not often, but people are really thinking about how the tile can be the art in a space.

Daniel: How do you help clients work up a tile motif that will both serve and augment the overall design sensibility being brought to a home?

Rene’: A homeowner may come in and say ‘I want pink tile.’  That’s very common — for someone to start with the color they’re looking for. Of course, pink looks very different on cement than on ceramic, so that doesn’t get us very far. And there are so many materials to choose from: porcelain, glass stone. And then even within just stone there’s limestone, slate, marble. And there’s mass-produced versus artisanal. 

So what I often like to do is step further back and ask a client to just say some words that describe how they want a space to look — glamorous, zen, organic, spa, sumptuous — and then I can begin to understand the kinds of things to show them. If they say ‘organic,’  maybe I’ll show them tile made of pebble, or even hand-poured glass. 

Or if they tell me they went on vacation once to the Bahamas or to Morocco and they have wonderful memories of how they felt in those places, I can begin to pull together a motif that will evoke those feelings — something Moorish, or perhaps something beachy. And, of course, the beach on a Caribbean island is going to lead to a different tile than happy memories of the family beach house on the Cape. There’s actually a tangible thing to it. People like to reach out and touch it.

Your home, and even the small spaces in your home like your bathroom — they are your sanctuary. Why shouldn’t you feel in your sanctuary the way that most pleases you?

In small spaces - like a bathroom - let your fantasy be expressed in tile.
Tile design: Rene Yang Becker

Daniel: What about mixing and matching different types of tile?

Rene’: I do it all the time. Do you know the reality show Chop? Each chef gets a basket of the same ingredients, and they all make up different combinations, different dishes, different flavors. Tiles are ingredients, and you can put them together differently for different effects.  

Daniel: So different tile combinations become like different meals?

Rene’: Exactly! Do you want a very rich dinner? Then maybe it’s an all-marble bathroom — marble on the walls, marble on the floor. 

Or maybe you want a ‘lighter’ meal — a marble wall with a marble mosaic that’s offset by a concrete floor with some porcelain. When you ‘cook,’ it’s not just about salt and pepper. It’s herbs. It’s all about layering. And it gets very technical, too.

Daniel: What do you mean? 

Rene’: Nobody’s bathroom or kitchen is a perfect square or rectangle. There’s always something going on with a corner or an angle. And you have to think about how the tile is going to terminate, how a border might work. What is the finishing edge going to be?

Tile is technical: Daniel & Rene lay out a tile backsplash in a client’s home before the final installation.
Tile Design: Daniel Steger & Rene Yang Becker

Daniel: Clearly there’s more to it than meets the eye. How did you get into this field?

Rene’: I have a bachelor of science in interior design from the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, which is FIDER-accredited. That was my first stop in the U.S. after moving here from Taiwan. My first job after college was selling rugs in a store affiliated with a design center there. The store also sold tile, and I fell in love with it.

Daniel: What brought you from Hattiesburg to Boston?  

Rene’: Hurricane Katrina. My sister was up in Massachusetts already, and Katrina was terribly devastating, so she said, ‘Why don’t you just move up to this area?’ Once I moved to the Boston area, I never looked back.

Mix traditional tile shapes with contemporary patterns & bold colors.

Wayland- from the ground up

Homeowners Susan and Brad, two of the most lovely people one could meet, contacted me in 2014, and we soon embarked on a year long project that resulted in one of my most comprehensive projects to date; it was a fulfilling and rewarding project, full of learning experiences and adventure every step of the way. Susan and Brad's aim was to transform a Wayland cape into a more contemporary living space. The exterior continues to reference the cape style, however the open interior plan, material selections and finish details fit a more contemporary sensibility.  Color, light and texture are were the main focus for material selections throughout the project.  I was able to focus much of my time directly along side the clients through every stage of the project. Initially, the three of us sat sat together for many hours pouring over design plans. Once the project took shape on paper, I continued to provide complete architectural services (including weekly construction administration meetings where all relevant parties came together for a meeting of the minds) and many field trips for various material selections. I am particularly proud of this project and exceedingly thrilled to see the product come to fruition. I will most certainly miss seeing Brad and Susan's cheery faces on a regular basis. The project was completed in December 2015 and the clients couldn't be more thrilled with their new home. Have a peek at the construction images below to see what it takes took to get this project going. 

Click here to view the completed project gallery.