DesignNJ-OctNov2023_Digital issue

‘Everything
about it was serendipitous,” Yana Schafer says
about discovering this Midcentury-style home in Short
Hills. Schafer, of design firm Malyev Schafer, which
has offices in Short Hills and London, explains how
everything fell into place the first time she entered the residence. She
learned it had five bedrooms when it was built. When a child went off
to college, the original owners converted one bedroom into an office and
made it a part of the primary suite. “Meanwhile,” Schafer notes, “we have
three kids, moved at the height of Covid and were working from home.
It felt customized to us.”
But there was another cosmic coincidence: “When we first saw the
house, we walked into the dining room. It was furnished with dining
chairs just like I had bought at an auction a year earlier.” That was a clear
indication for Schafer that this house was meant to be hers. “The style was
already mine — even the furnishings were literally what I picked out.”
Schafer was drawn to the home’s contemporary aesthetic. “I’ve always
52 October/November 2023