Zosia Mamet and Evan Jonigkeit Transform a 100-Year-Old Log Cabin Into a Modern-Rustic Getaway
If Zosia Mamet and Evan Jonigkeit ever tire of the Hollywood life, they’re ready for a second career as home-renovation stars.
The actress, 31, best known for playing Shoshanna Shapiro on Girls, and her husband, 36, a fellow actor who had a villainous turn in X-Men: Days of Future Past, are admitted HGTV junkies. So when they bought a 1920s log cabin an hour north of New York City in 2014, they were looking forward to overhauling it.
“It was a rugged sort of camping experience,” Jonigkeit jokes of the renovation, which he tackled with the help of a handy friend. “We were sleeping on plywood subfloors. We didn’t have a refrigerator. We didn’t have electricity for a period.”
His proudest accomplishment however, would likely go unnoticed by anyone not intimately familiar with restoring a 100-year-old log home. “I had to go and do this very time consuming almost sculpting of this material called chinking that goes between the logs.”
The process took the two friends nearly two weeks, but it was worth it. “The chinking is beautiful. Oh my god, let me tell you,” he says with a laugh.
“He’s so proud,” adds Mamet, who for her part, skipped out on the more rustic bits of the makeover. “Moose and I stayed in the city for that portion,” she notes of herself and the couple’s rescue dog.
After a yearlong remodel that involved removing several interior log walls to create an open-concept kitchen, installing new Anderson Tuftex hardwood floors throughout and some help from design firm High Street Homes, the couple finally got to decorate their dream house. They teamed up with West Elm to outfit the place for cozy getaways and big family gatherings. (Shop all their favorite West Elm pieces here.)
“The rustic elements of the original structure, we didn’t really want to mess with. We wanted to keep its integrity as much as possible,” says Mamet. “But it was also important to us to bring some modern elements into the house and kind of make it our own.”
They chose Midcentury-inspired pieces, like the pale pink Roar + Rabbit swivel chair in their master bedroom; more woodsy ones, including their slab dining table; and even a few vintage-industrial touches, like the bar stools at their new kitchen island, which is painted in Farrow & Ball’s Hague blue.
The perforated globe pendant over the dining table and the pair of factory lights in the kitchen are from Hudson Valley Lighting. The cooking space, Mamet’s favorite spot in the home, also features a stainless-steel Monogram range.
Now, they’re just looking forward to sharing the “after.”
“We wanted a place that would be a haven for us and the people we love,” Mamet says. “We open it up to all of our friends and family. Evan’s dad goes and fishes in our lake. Our friends go when we’re not there. Having it not be just a home to us, but also to the people we love, that’s what makes it feel like home.”
