From 1890 Federal Mansion to Modern Sanctuary with Mehak Jamil

From the hallowed halls of legal practice to the heartwarming corners of a restored historic mansion, Mehak Jamil takes us through the remarkable metamorphosis of a bygone-era gem into a lively, love-filled home. Imagine discovering a grand 1890 federal mansion at an auction, ripe with potential and whispering tales of the past, then embarking on a journey to weave your own narrative into its very fabric. This is the story Mehak shares with us, as she delved into the colossal task of repurposing a former commercial law firm into the warm embrace of a family residence, all while her life bloomed with the impending arrival of a second child and the world braced against the winds of a pandemic.

Mehak's adventure in restoration isn't just about the bricks and mortar; it's a testament to the resilience and dedication of a family committed to preserving history while crafting a modern-day sanctuary. Her tale is one of emotional resonance, as she speaks to the soulful experience of imprinting a unique family mark upon their abode. We’re led through the heart of Mehak's home, pausing at the hearth of a specially renovated fireplace decked in Tile Club's finest, a symbol of the joy and satisfaction that comes from creating something truly your own amidst the backdrop of unforeseen global chaos.

As we round out our conversation, Mehak's insights on the melding of her South Asian heritage with the Victorian grandeur of her Albany mansion serve as a beacon for cultural integration within historic preservation. Each room in her home doesn't just function as a living space; it stands as an homage to her family's roots and identity. Her narration of tackling home renovations with a colicky newborn and through the surprise of a third pregnancy underscores the therapeutic power of hands-on creativity. Mehak leaves us with pearls of wisdom on the art of renovation with intention, urging us to honor our instincts and embrace the stories we wish our homes to tell.

LINKS: 

• Follow Mehak on IG: https://www.instagram.com/our1890khantique/
• See the fireplace project: https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17961420674304721/
• Button Tiles from Tile Club: https://www.tileclub.com/collections/buttons-porcelain-penny-round-tile
• Read the blog: https://www.tileclub.com/blogs/news/from-1890-federal-mansion-to-modern-sanctuary-with-mehak-jamil
• Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/68WESj2vk7k?feature=shared

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello and welcome to Tile Trends, the podcast where we dive deep into the world of tile design and home renovation. I'm your host, Lindsay Flukiger, and today we have a very special guest joining us. She's not only a financial compliance attorney, but also the creative genius behind our 1890 Contique, where she shares the journey of restoring her stunning federal mansion in Albany, New York. Please give a warm welcome to Mehak Jamil Mehak, it's fantastic to have you on the show.

Speaker 2: 0:30

Thanks so much for having me, lindsay, I'm so excited and creative genius. I feel like you're talking about someone else, but very kind of you.

Speaker 1: 0:39

We're so excited to have you with us today. Thank you for taking the time to sit down and chat. We would love to hear more with us today. Thank you for taking the time to sit down and chat. We would love to hear more about your background. Tell us everything about who you are and your journey to get to where you are today.

Speaker 2: 0:52

Yeah, oh, my gosh Big question. So, like you said, I'm a financial compliance attorney. I'm Pakistani, muslim American. I grew up right outside of Princeton, new Jersey, met my husband about seven years ago and from our first date to the day we got married was about five and a quarter months, which is crazy. Um. So met him, married him, moved out to Albany. He's born and raised Albany. He's in real estate, so obviously has a lot of interest in real estate properties.

Speaker 2: 1:30

How we ended up in this house, we started with, just you know, a standard two bedroom, two bath town home. And when we, we had our first kid and she was about a year and a half old and we started kind of looking for other places. Albany is actually one of the oldest lasting settlements from the 13 original colonies, so there's a lot of history here. And on weekends, you know, we would just go check out open houses for homes from the 1700s, 1800s and they were all beautiful, but nothing really felt right for us. And they were all beautiful, but nothing really felt right for us. One of the hallmarks of the construction of that time was a really large open floor plan on the first floor and then a very boxy second floor.

Speaker 2: 2:12

And that didn't necessarily scare us. Again, my husband's a real estate developer, so he was like, oh, I can do this all myself, but for whatever reason it didn't really fit. Then one day I remember so clearly I had a pediatrician's appointment. I think it was my daughter's 18-month appointment. And he was like swing by this house, there's an open house. Swing by this house before you go. So I get here to this house and it's a law firm. It's a full-blown commercial law firm. Every room is an office. There's no kitchen. It's a full blown commercial law firm. Every room is an office. There's no kitchen. There's one powder bath on each floor and we walked through it really quick.

Speaker 2: 2:50

Again. I had to get to the pediatrician's appointment and we get outside and he's like so what do you think? And I was like I think it's a law firm. What do you want me to think about it? And he told me it was going up for auction. The law firm had been bought out by a regional firm and one of the conditions of the sale was they had to get rid of this building and move into more modern offices. So he was like we could get this out of steel and I was like that's fine, but I like it's a law firm. I don't understand.

Speaker 2: 3:19

So I remember so clearly that night. We sat down at the dining table after putting the baby to bed and he, on a piece of napkin, literally drew out for me like here is what we would turn into a bedroom, here's what we would turn into the dining room. And then I was like, okay, it makes sense. When you're not in that business it's very hard to visualize. Um, but so that was May of 2019. A couple weeks later, the building went on auction. We won the auction in june 2019, closed on the house.

Speaker 2: 3:53

Uh, july 2019 found out we were pregnant with our second um. The law firm had a four month notice period, so they were actually in the building until october nove. We started construction right around Thanksgiving and moved in in February. So, like three months, I was 38 weeks pregnant. We moved in February 20th, delivered my son March 14th and March 22nd the world shut down for COVID. And that was four years ago.

Speaker 2: 4:26

And here we are and it's unbelievable sometimes to look around and think we made it and we ended up in this beautiful space and we turned it from that very commercial, very sterile law firm into a home that is so unique. It really is like a once in a lifetime home, but also so functional for our families. Right? Sometimes it can be very hard to turn a historic property into something that really works for your family. We have three kids under the age of six. We have two elderly parents living with us, so it's a space we spend a lot of time. It's a space that sees a lot of living. So we're just so excited, so honored, so grateful to be the stewards of this property in its new chapter.

Speaker 1: 5:16

Amazing story. I was not expecting that Unreal, so it just sounds like there's been so much love and hearts put into this home to make it yours. How important was it to you and your family to preserve the history of this building?

Speaker 2: 5:34

It was so important and actually that's something I probably should have mentioned in the introduction. So the home was built in 1890 as a single family home by this incredible entrepreneur widow. She had lost her husband and she built this house which at the time was kind of uptown for Albany. It was outside city proper. Now it's, you know, within the downtown boundaries, but at the time it was like the suburbs. And she was a very well-traveled woman. She had spent a lot of time in Europe so she pulled a lot of architectural elements from French architecture at the time. And that's what I was saying when we had been window shopping for houses before. Nothing really felt right because it was very boxy. But this house, because of this woman's progressive vision and how much she had seen in the world, the floor plans across the floors are almost identical. You have these offensively large hallways that are 10 feet wide. You have these gigantic rooms. I mean I think each of our bedrooms is 300 to 400 square feet. The entire building is about over 12,000 square feet. So there's a lot of character here. So, built as a single family home, went through a couple of families, she left after, I think, just two years of being in the home. She found it too depressing, too far away. She left. I think two or three more families lived here. Then SUNY Albany bought it and used it as a dorm for about 50 years and at one point 80 boys lived in this house. And then in the 80s a commercial real estate firm bought it and they housed a couple different companies here. There was like a PR firm, there was a smaller law firm, etc. And then late 80s the firm that we purchased a house from bought it and they used it as their headquarters for better part of 30 years. So purchasing it from that law firm and turning it back to its original intended use of a single family home was really important to us. Also really cool to have our kids be the first kids kind of running through the halls in over a century in this house, right.

Speaker 2: 7:46

But the house has just remarkable character and detail and we were so lucky to have purchased it from a law firm that was so dedicated to also preserving its natural and historic detail. So you can see behind me all of that detail is hand carved plaster. Every single ceiling has different trim. Every single floor is a different design of wood. Most of the rooms have different types of wood used. We have these two absolutely stunning porches on both the first floor and the second floor of the home that overlook Washington Park, which is the big park in downtown Albany that was designed by the same gentleman who designed Central Park and Prospect Park in New York City. The only home in Albany that has this right. We are known as the home with the big porches. It has a very Charleston feel. So I give you all these examples to show you how unique this home is.

Speaker 2: 8:47

And even if you wanted to build something like this today, you couldn't. You're not going to find people who can do this hand carved, incredibly detailed ceiling work, and so it was. It was very, very important to us to keep that original character, to preserve something that's lasted through the test of time right and not replace it with kind of the cookie cutter consumerist stuff you see now. But it was also equally important.

Speaker 2: 9:14

Like I said, we had three kids, young kids. We have two elderly parents. My husband has a very large extended family. We host a lot. There's always people in and out of the home. So it was also very important for us to have a home that was entirely livable and not a home that had 10 rooms sectioned off and only one room that people can actually sit in. We had to build a new kitchen from scratch. We had to build new bathrooms, and so those aren't entirely period appropriate, but they're functional and they go with the character of the house, and that was that always. You know we're still doing work on it now, and that remains at the forefront of anything we do.

Speaker 1: 9:57

Wow, twelve thousand square feet.

Speaker 2: 10:00

I know my Dyson really gets a workout.

Speaker 1: 10:04

I know my Dyson really gets a workout. Can you talk about some of the challenges that you face in having to take this large space, this historic home that really didn't have all of the things that you needed, like you said, kitchens, bathrooms that were needed to be built. What were some challenges that you ran into during your renovation?

Speaker 2: 10:23

Yeah, I think the hardest thing that people don't realize about historic homes is they're historic for a reason, right? They construction was very different back then and we're used to, you know, just drywall sheetrock. You can punch a hole through it. You can't do that with these walls. These walls are 12 inches thick. There's brick glass, I mean. They are indestructible and that's why they've lasted 130 years. So I am, I thought, a very handy person, but I you know you can't screw in a closet rod in these walls. There's a specific drill that you need, basically for brick. And so that was really challenging. Right, to know that nothing is a quick, easy fix. Nothing is straightforward.

Speaker 2: 11:10

This house is also on a hill. It's right up. We sit at the top of Washington park. It has settled tremendously over the past century and a half, and so there's not a single straight surface. Everything slopes a little this way Our main hallway downstairs kind of looks like the ocean. It goes through a wave. You put a chair by a desk in one corner of the room and a day later it's on the other corner because it's just rolled down. So that's also challenging, right. You don't have straight lines. Nothing is off the shelf. Everything has to be custom made.

Speaker 2: 11:47

The scale of this home is absolutely massive. Like I said, we have 12 foot ceilings, we have these gigantic rooms. Our doorways are not standard, so everything is very custom and very expensive, and we're so lucky that my husband is a real estate developer. He did a lot of the work himself and now we have found some really incredible artisans that have helped us do a lot of the custom work. But, yes, it gets a very pricey and it gets very difficult. Everything is an out of the box solution. You can't just go to, like home Depot, and pick a door and install it, you know to. I think those have been the really big challenges. Oh, and then the fact that the world shut down, you know, a couple months after we moved in.

Speaker 1: 12:32

So that was tough. It really sounds like quite the adventure for you guys, but so unique. I'm loving hearing all the little quirks and little things that you know. People in you know a newer build aren't dealing with, but it sounds like you're having way more fun.

Speaker 2: 12:47

We really are. And if anybody had told me when we you know, the day we purchased the home on auction, if anybody had told me all the challenges we would face and you know how hard it would be and how many fights we would have and how stressful it would be, we would have probably thought twice about doing it. But I'm so glad I came into it kind of so naive and looking back now, having gone through the hardest part, I'm like, yeah, okay, you know, all's well that ends well. Of course, in the moment it was difficult, but again, you know, sometimes I really look around and I look back on pictures from when we were in the middle of construction. You know, my husband only allowed me to come visit the house once a week during that, like last month, and I remember every single day after I visited I would sit in the parking lot in my truck and I would cry.

Speaker 2: 13:39

Remember, I'm like third trimester pregnant and I was like what have we gotten ourselves into? How will this be completed? But now I look around and I'm so proud of what we've built and I'm so proud of all the work we've done and so much of it has been with our own two hands right. Of course, there were a lot of, like I said, amazing artisans, amazing craftsmen that came in and helped us, but in every single room there's stuff that we have done All the hardwood restoring. My husband did it himself, right. So it's, it's amazing to walk through a space and know that you have really, truly left your mark on it and you know, hopefully the family that's in here in a hundred years will like what we've done, um, and as they add their mark. But it's, it's a really beautiful thing. It's a really beautiful thing.

Speaker 1: 14:28

So amazing. I'm feeling so inspired by all that you guys have done. I would not have said this three years ago. Yeah, I mean, I can't imagine being third trimester and just wanting to get things done and wondering, and so we know, a lot of times with renovation, even construction, you don't know. You think you have a timeline and anything could happen. So I'm so happy for you that you guys were able to move in and get settled and continue on.

Speaker 2: 14:57

Yeah, and you know I'm so like we moved in literally. It was still a construction zone. It was very important to me to move in before my son was born and you know, at the time, like yes, covid was, people were starting to talk about it but no one really took it seriously and nobody would have believed four years ago that we would still be here. So I pushed my husband to get in. And when I say we were construction zone, like we were construction zone, my Island literally was delivered at the same time. Island literally was delivered at the same time. My moving trucks came in. We had one functional bathroom, we had working sinks, but work very much continued when we moved in. But I'm so glad we pushed and persevered through that because, like I said, a month later the world shut down and if we hadn't moved in then I don't know how much time we would have lost.

Speaker 1: 15:51

Wow, that timing was impeccable. So, speaking of some of the hands-on DIY renovations, we have been privy to see your amazing Instagram account and some different renovations that you've done yourself and, of course, one of our favorites is the adorable fireplace renovation in your daughter's bedroom using Tile Club's buttons porcelain tile collection. What sparked the idea for that project?

Speaker 2: 16:21

So, oh my gosh, I'm going to start crying during this one, because my daughter's room is really important to me. You know we moved in I told you when she was. She was 19 months when we moved in, because her and my son are 19 months apart. She was a baby right and in the very, in a very short period of time she left the only home she had known, moved into something. Our townhouse was 1200 square feet so we literally upgraded to 10 times the house. So she moved into this gigantic space, got a new brother who was colicky and cried all the time. So it was a lot of change for a little kid.

Speaker 2: 17:00

So her room was the very first room I set up. I remember the night before we moved in I waddled over here, you know, set up her crib, set up her dresser, set up a basket of her toys. We had an amazing nanny at the time who drove her over first thing while we were situating the movers, just so she would feel comfortable in her space. And you know again, when you move into a house this large, it's very overwhelming to know where to start. I don't have any formal design training or experience. I was just kind of flying by the seat of my pants and by my like hormonal rollercoaster right. So her room was the first one. It felt manageable and I threw myself into it. I did this beautiful gallery wall that's still up in her room. I got this really cute bow holder for all of her clips and stuff. Then I didn't touch it for a very long time.

Speaker 2: 17:54

Two and a half years ago when I found out we were expecting our classic surprise number three baby. When we found out she was a girl, I was like okay, I want the two girls to share a room and I thought it was high time to give some sort of upgrade to it. So we did the closet, which is another project, and then the fireplace. I had never really looked at any of the fireplaces in the house. Suny had closed them off. Obviously, with 80 boys, you don't want functional fireplaces in every room and you know we had so many other big things to do that the fireplaces never even like appeared in my view. When I was looking at a room and when I was looking at her room thinking about how I can refresh it, it like stuck out to me like what is this eyesore and why haven't we done anything to it. There was just this stone slab at the bottom that was gray and very drab. The surround was brick that had been painted like a cream, which looked beautiful, but the slab was just very ugly, kind of cracked, and honestly, again, I don't have any design, formal design training.

Speaker 2: 19:01

I find a lot of my inspiration from social media, whether it's Instagram, whether it's Pinterest, whether it's you know, a catalog from a furniture store and somebody and I can get you the exact name of the handle she had redone a fireplace with penny tile and penny tile was all the rage. This was like last year another amazing South Asian creator that I follow, kim Inkasa, had done. She'd redone her guest bath and done this beautiful custom penny tile floor. And it started like spinning circles in my head. What if I did something custom in this room that would really be so special to this room and liven it up? So we have a lot of like purples, turquoise, pinks and yellows in the room, and then this like drab, gray fireplace was not on brand.

Speaker 2: 19:52

So I started toying with the idea of it and then, as like none of my DIYs are planned right, I kind of jump in. I'm a Leo, I just like jump in and then figure it out. So I went online, I went onto your website and I was like I'm just going to order every color penny tile you guys have and you know they came and I would match them with, like the color of the rug and the bedding and see what worked. And it all kind of just started coming together and I remember it took me a month and a half to do it and I changed the design like six times.

Speaker 2: 20:24

My daughter helped me do it and the great thing about penny tiles, it's very customizable. But it's also very labor intensive, right Like you have to pop out each tile at once and then, you know, replace it. But the end result was this beautiful, very vibrant, very um, it's just like when I look at it it's cheerful and it's happy. And when I look at it even now it's been, you know, a year and a half since we've completed it Even now I look at it and I remember sitting there with my son and my daughter picking out the tiles and then you know the design of the vase the blue tiles in the vase. That was my daughter's idea.

Speaker 2: 21:04

She was like mama, you have to put water for the flowers you know it feels so good to see that and know this was something we did together and again just left our mark on this room, and it'll probably suck for the next family who comes in and uses it as a boy's room or wants to use it as like a formal office, but for right now it's. It's exactly what I wanted for the room. It adds cheer. It adds such a beautiful, distinct and custom touch and I can't believe when I look at it, that I did that. It was my first time tiling. It was my first time using thinset, my first time using grout. But goes to show you that internet can teach you anything.

Speaker 1: 21:45

My first time using Grout but goes to show you that internet can teach you anything. It really is happy Every time I scroll through you know, some of our UGC and I see some of the different collaborations we've done or just projects we've been tagged in. I literally smile every time I see that one because it's so bright and happy you did such a wonderful job with the color scheme and, from the rug to the fireplace, everything is is just perfect.

Speaker 1: 22:08

Obviously, the result was absolutely stunning and penny rounds are timeless, so maybe the next person will decide to make a change, or maybe not. You never know.

Speaker 2: 22:18

Yeah, well, that's what I mean right, like really honoring the character of the home while also doing something that feels right for your use. So, exactly like you said, penny towel has been used for decades, for over a century. There very well may have been penny towel in the home back when it was created. So that part felt like it was very true and period appropriate. But you know, the colors may have been different than what they would have chosen.

Speaker 1: 22:47

Speaking of those vibrant, beautiful colors, let's talk a little bit about how you went about incorporating your South Asian imprint into the design of your home.

Speaker 2: 22:58

Yeah, absolutely so. It's a really interesting and difficult thing to do that right. When you buy a home that's historic, you really have to respect the energy of the home and these homes really do come with such a strong and grand character and energy. So our home is a federal Victorian mansion and you can't put the all beige, all neutral vibe in here. It doesn't go, it doesn't fit and worked out perfectly because we are first generation Pakistani Muslim Americans and our culture is very rich in colors and textiles and fabric and it's actually been the most beautiful journey to marry those two energies together to still respect and highlight the stately grandness of the home while also incorporating this warmth from the Pakistani textiles and rugs. We have some beautiful rugs in the home, rich in reds and greens, which is like not what you see mostly over Instagram, but it really brings out a coziness and warmth in the home. So one thing that it's my favorite compliment and so far almost everybody who's come through the doors has said it is for such a large home, it still feels very warm and cozy and that's exactly what we were going for and what we need, right.

Speaker 2: 24:27

Like I said, I don't want my kids growing up in a house where they can't go to that room or that room or that. My kids go to every single room and I think bringing that South Asian richness of the culture has really helped us achieve that vibe in the house. But it was very important. It was very important for our tradition, our identity, to be reflected in the home. We're also very active. My husband sits on the board of the local Historic Preservation Society and there's not a lot of minority people who get into old home ownership or restoration. So it's very important to us that, being a part of this community, we bring our own flavor to it and I'm so happy and proud that we've achieved that.

Speaker 1: 25:17

What a beautiful thing for the community and for your family as well. This has just been so wonderful today to get to know more about you and how you've infused your love for your heritage your passion for design. Even though you feel like you don't have a lot of experience, you've been able to preserve this beautiful home, and I just it's so interesting.

Speaker 2: 25:36

It's really been healing in a way, right Like I do this really boring day job and then I work from home, luckily, which is amazing, but there's no separation between my work and home life. And then I work from home, luckily, which is amazing, but there's no separation between my work and home life and so I use the house as like my creative outlet. Like I said, the past four years have been crazy. We had a colicky newborn, COVID happened, then a surprise third baby, and the house has been so cathartic for me and so healing for me. And you know there's research about the chemicals that are released in your body when you do something with your hands and it's, it's so true. So it's. It's been really fun, really tough, really stressful, but really fun.

Speaker 1: 26:20

What advice would you give to people who are wanting to renovate their own space? What's your one piece of advice that you would like to leave with us today?

Speaker 2: 26:29

Oh my God, be intentional. You have to be intentional. You can't do an entire room at once. Don't do something just for the sake of getting it done. Take your time. Whether it's a DIY, whether it's a piece of furniture, find something that speaks to you and will stay with you.

Speaker 2: 26:45

I feel like we are living in such a challenging time of just being bombarded at all times with information and images and it leads to this like, well, that person has that, I should have that, and you know, if I just buy all this and maybe I'll get it. And you have to be intentional. Nobody's space is like your space. Nobody's story is like your story. Nobody's needs are like your needs. You know, I don't think I could have gone out, even if I wanted to, and hired a designer and gotten to the point where we're at. And that's not to say that I've done it perfectly. I'm sure, like my proportions are wrong and my colors are wrong, but it's what we needed and it's what works for us. And my advice would just be like trust your gut, trust your instinct, don't be scared to make mistakes either. You don't have to do it perfect, but if you're really just intentional, if you sit with it, you'll end up with something far greater than any catalog could give you.

Speaker 1: 27:47

Thank you again so much for sharing your insights and experience with us. It's been such a pleasure to have you on the show.

Speaker 2: 27:54

This was so fun, lindsay, and thank you for having me, and let's see what else we can do.

Speaker 1: 27:59

I love it, let's do it. And to all our listeners, be sure to check out Mahek's Instagram at our 1890 Contique for more inspiring design ideas. We'll put all the links in our show notes today. That's all for today's episode of Tile Trends. Until next time, happy renovating.