This historical Fairmount home is a kids’ oasis

Architect and designer Juliet Whelan summed up the task of redesigning a historical Fairmount home succinctly: “Create a child-friendly home that also has a sophisticated design sensibility.”

Her clients, Kelly Chew and Aalap Shah, were on board with that. And in their own way, so were the couple’s 10-year-old twin girls, Sonia and Olivia Shah.

The family had been living in Brooklyn for two decades but weren’t finding the right school option for their daughters. After checking private schools in the Northeast, they settled on Germantown Friends School and started to search for the right home to fulfill their vision.

Both parents were mobile: Chew is a graphic designer turned stay-at-home mother, and Shah is a human resources consultant.

“After years of living in a small Brooklyn apartment, we were ready to stretch out and create a family home that we could really grow into,” Chew said.

In 2022, they purchased a three-story rowhouse in Fairmount that was built in 1859 and did not require any structural changes. Even its teak floors had remained in good condition.

But it was anything but kid-friendly with a dark color palette. The previous owners had no children, and the house had previously been broken into three apartments before being reverted back into a single-family home.

They found Whelan, of the architecture firm Jibe Design, through online searches.

“We wanted to work with someone well-versed in both architecture and design” to ensure the space met their family needs, Shah said.

For eight months after moving to Philadelphia, the family lived in rentals elsewhere in the city while construction was completed by remodeling company Buckminster Green.

Space wasn’t a problem: The house spans 3,000 square feet.

“The entire inside was reimagined to simplify the finishes to align with Kelly’s minimalist sensibility,” Whelan said.

Whelan used white paint to brighten the exposed interior natural brick and refinished the shiny factory-finished flooring with a gentler matte polyurethane.

Other changes were smaller and more intricate.

What had been the primary bedroom became the girls’ room.

“We really wanted to transform this massive empty box into an inspiring space where the kids could practice their instruments, curl up with a book, host sleepovers with friends, or just relax,” said Chew.

Shah likes to work standing up, so Whelan put a custom wall-mounted standing desk in his office. But there’s also a couch in the room where the girls can sit and do their homework alongside him.

The kitchen was opened up, with an induction range in the center and wider windows.

And the first-floor garage was reduced in size to allow for an in-law apartment.

“There was a big emphasis on finishes,” Whelan said, even including the brightly colored paint on the inside of drawers.

“We wanted the whole thing to look like an art piece,” Shah said.

This is especially apparent in the climbing wall in the kitchen, which looks like an abstract sculpture when the twins aren’t clambering over it.

Future plans include installing a green roof and perhaps an elevator to make the home more accessible for aging grandparents.

“The project was a study in both restraint and exuberance,” Whelan said. “Restraint in maintaining a simple and unified palette of materials while exuberantly jumping at design opportunities for the kids to have fun at home.”

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