A Paris cafe, a New York art gallery, a cozy bookstore—what if you could live in them all? When Jack Cullen and Sam Thomas* purchased a preconstruction apartment on the Portland waterfront, they took the opportunity to design a home that felt like all the places they most adore. “We love art galleries and bookstores and coffee shops and Europe and New York,” says Cullen. “We had this great ambition to get all of that in here.”

That ambition was all the greater because “in here” is a small apartment—just 1,350 square feet. But Cullen, a retired architect, leaped at the challenge. When the couple’s usual travel habits were curtailed by COVID, he poured his energy into design. Cullen used SketchUp modeling software to create a detailed 3D rendering of the space and all that would go in it. The result of his labors is a home whose every inch has been carefully considered, every object intentionally selected to suit the couple’s lifestyle, reflect their history, and connect the space with the local scenery and vernacular.

The apartment’s entrance belies its small footprint, creating an impression of space and dramatic form. Visitors are greeted by the challenging gaze of a young man in an oversized acrylic by Provincetown artist Cassandra Complex. “We call him ‘The Lobsterman,’” Cullen says. In selecting art and decor, the couple had looked for connections to the Portland waterfront, and they liked that they could imagine the painting’s subject on one of the fishing boats they can see from their windows. A concrete bench beneath the painting offers a space to rest bags and take off boots while taking in the quartet of photographs that runs down one side of the hall. The large-format images, by photographers Tom Jackson of Texas and Jennifer Pritchard of California, were selected because they evoke the couple’s “small-town origins and the inklings of wanderlust,” says Cullen. The hall is anchored by a sculpture by Mark LaRiviere that the couple calls “Mother Ballerina.” It took some time to find the right sculpture, says Cullen. “It had to do a lot of things,” he says. “It had to be curious, and beautiful, and draw you down the hall. Everything before is pretty; this one is raw.” The sculpture rests on a rough-hewn plinth that evokes the timbers of an old waterfront building.

The hall ends in a small room that serves many functions. It’s an office for Thomas (a retired botanist) as well as a media room and a place for second breakfast and card games—and for wine and chocolate (a glass cloche always displays a single bonbon, a promise of the next treat). For this room, the design inspiration was midcentury Paris. Above the sofa is a large, bright painting the couple commissioned from Maine artist Rick Hamilton, whose work they discovered at Portland Art Gallery. The carpet pattern suggests European tile, linking the room with a similar pattern that Cullen hand-stenciled on the wall of the hallway bathroom. “When you have a small space, I don’t think you can shift gears too much,” says Cullen. “I had a test of taking a piece of furniture into a different room and seeing if it still feels cohesive. It has to all make sense together, and then you tweak it just enough to give each room its own identity.”

The apartment’s main room includes the kitchen as well as living and dining spaces. Here, says Cullen, “a bunch of things were challenging from a design point of view.” The room is square, with a large island dividing the kitchen from the living/dining space. Cullen wanted to ensure that the living area didn’t feel cramped or overwhelmed by the kitchen. A large, deeply textured rug signals that the living space is a primary area, not an accessory to the kitchen. “Rugs, I’ve found, are the most restrictive,” says Cullen. “I start with the rug because there are not many choices if you want to have them feel really distinct but also really comfortable.” Here, he chose one with a botanical pattern that subtly references a display of dried plant specimens, collected by Thomas during graduate school, that hangs nearby. Cullen further shaped the space with a bit of trompe l’oeil in the form of drapes that flow continuously across the exterior walls. Without the drapes, the divisions of walls and windows drew attention to the small size of the room, but now, “the eye reads all the edges as one consistent, white thing. It brought the kitchen down to a better proportion, so we could still have the big island, and it didn’t overwhelm.” A small dining table is set by the window under a chandelier. “It feels like you’ve gotten the best table in a restaurant,” says Cullen.

Rather than using a high-backed couch to divide the living and dining areas, Cullen selected a double-sided sofa that keeps the space open and enables conversations in multiple directions. A wingback chair near the fireplace creates a firmer boundary for a reading nook. “I love books, and I wanted a library,” says Thomas. “Jack said, ‘Of course, but I’m not going to spend ten years with a half-empty library while you slowly fill it with books.’” The solution was buying books by the foot, to be replaced with more curated works over time. “Much to my surprise, I found out you can buy by content,” says Cullen. “We both wanted travel books; we wanted art and design; we wanted botanical books, but not gardening books. We bought 30 percent more than we needed and got rid of the crappy ones.” The art books, in particular, have proved to be a source of delight, introducing the couple to previously unknown artists and styles. Some of the art books make their way to the bedroom dresser, where the couple start each day with a new page and a new work to ponder.

Cullen’s deep and longstanding passion for space and design haven’t always been shared by Thomas. “Before we got together, all my apartments had nothing in them. You could call them minimalist, but that would say there was a plan,” he says. While Cullen was the driving force of the apartment’s design, however, the result is very much a space for the two of them. Their history, shared interests, and life together flow through the elegantly arranged space, infusing every artwork and furnishing. “It wasn’t designed for anyone else but us, and what’s going to make us the happiest, living here,” says Cullen. “When we’re here, spending the day is so nice. No parts go unused. It feels like us.” 

* Homeowners’ names have been changed to protect their privacy.