Beach/House, Fall 2024

Provincetown Independent | BEACH / HOUSE | Fall 2024 | 3
Upstairs,
Downstairs
Going big on design gives a small house room
for entertaining and for retreat
Reclaimed-wood cabinets contain dishes, serveware, and a pantry in the kitchen and dining area
on the main floor. The cabinets are painted in semi-gloss Green Smoke by Farrow & Ball. Ryan
Stanton recovered the antique couch in a white Pierre Frey boucle. “Everyone thinks that I’m
insane for using it as a dining sofa,” he says. “So far, there’s only been one candle wax incident
but that’s been hidden by a pillow.” (Photos by Sean Litchfield; styling by Sean Donovan)
By Stephen Orr
Provincetown is a high-density
town. Case in point, what once
was a small home in the East
End with two buildings on a narrow
lot recently became three condos
squeezed into the previous buildings’
footprints. There was no room
for the builder to go out for the 2021
down- to- the- studs new build, so he
went up, doubling the one- and- a-
half stories to three on the rear unit.
For Ryan Stanton and Robbie Goldstein,
prospective buyers, it definitely
wasn’t love at first sight.
The vertical stack of rooms joined
by narrow staircases posed both design
and practical problems that the
couple, who also live in Boston, felt
they would not be able to overcome.
“We looked at the property when it
was about 60 percent done,” says
Stanton. “I think a lot of other potential
buyers struggled to figure out
how to utilize the space,” which is
only 720 square feet, just 240 square
feet per floor.
Stanton, who has his own interior
design company, Stanton Schwartz
Design Group, was ready to move on
with the search when Goldstein, the
commissioner of the Mass. Dept. of
Public Health, came up with the idea
to rethink the floor plan and change
the two- bedroom unit into a onebedroom,
freeing up a top floor aerie
that’s now a secondary living area.
“For me, that space was the reason
we bought the house,” Goldstein
says. “It has everything I want for a
place in P’town. You can see out over
the town and the sea.”
Once the layout was resolved, the
couple asked the contractor to stop
speccing the remaining materials
and fixtures so they could personalize
the project as it was being finished.
“It was basically just white walls and
subflooring, so I was able to get my
hands on all of the paint colors, the
marble, the hardware, the bathroom
fixtures, the vanities, and all of those
types of details,” says Stanton. “I had
the chance to layer in our own flavor.
It was, quite honestly, an interior designer’s
dream come true to be able to
get in early.”
Much of the house’s sophisticated
color scheme is inspired by a certain
piece of stone that Stanton had
tucked into his memory. “Two years
before we bought the house, I went
countertop shopping with a client
and fell in love with the Italian marble
that you see throughout the house,”
he says. “I found it completely mesmerizing
from the instant I saw it.”
Finally able to use it, he deployed it
liberally in the kitchen counters and
backsplash, the upstairs bathroom,
the third- floor built- ins, and even a
little remnant on the outdoor patio.
Its rich palette of dark greens, pinks,
and blacks in wave- shaped patterns
inspired the fabric and paint palette
that knits together the entire house
in ways not normally seen at a beach
continued on page 4
Robbie Goldstein, left, and Ryan Stanton stand in front of their house. An outdoor entertaining
area accommodates dinner guests on the front porch. (Photo by Stephen Orr)