1 of 2
Sam Fentress
2 of 2
a cheerful outdoor garden room
This family refused to live in a McMansion. Coming to St. Louis after many moves, they found instead a friendly-faced farm sprawl of a cottage, well seated on land in Ladue. It had good bones but small rooms, so they stripped it to the studs and sub-floors and redesigned it from the inside out, maintaining its character while adding updated glam and old-money timelessness. Lisa (who asked that her last name not be used) wanted a livable home where she, husband Tony, the two children and a King Charles spaniel could sprawl or go formal.
Ceilings were raised and doors, dormers, ducts, walls and the roof were moved or removed. New windows, floors and doors were added, every room was freshly painted and all new furnishings arrived. Seventeen months later, it was finished. How? Lisa teamed up with interior designer Andy Villasana of Frank Patton Interiors. "I didn't want cottage style, which this house lends itself to," Lisa says. "Every angle has something new and cool to offer." The home is rich with sheen and texture, with both a livable quality and a '40s cinematic glam.
Originally a low, dark place, the foyer became a two-story entry, including Lisa's gridded window design (used throughout the house) and new front doors, with the old ones recycled to connect the living room and den.
Meanwhile, the typical '60s kitchen morphed from a small room to a huge rectangle, delineated proportionately with cabinetry, work areas and the added fluency of the "hearth-less" room (no fireplace), which has plenty of conversation and keep-the-cook-company space.
The back kitchen wall was blown out for more square footage, also knocking out the dormers above it on the second floor. The spread of an 8-foot window, with a goodbye to the back-wall sliding glass door, gave Lisa the view she wanted of the landscaped yard beyond the expansive patio. She installed drawers of all sorts: for ice, for warming and for dishwashing ("it does small loads"). No breakfast nook; the family eats in the dining room on silk-patterned chairs.
Villasana says the dining room was the easiest. Taking out bookshelves and a mammoth desk was a snap. After satiny paint was applied, furniture installed and a glazed, still life photo mounted over the sideKITCHEN board despite Villasana's raised brow, the brick wall still awaited. Lisa came up with the solution-- a polished granite fireplace surround and matching tone mantel.
Room by room, Lisa and Villasana wove earth tones like Sherwin Williams' Harmonic Tan, Believable Buff, Baguette and Whole Wheat with tinted ceilings--none is white. And classic fabrics are nowhere near ho-hum. The result: livable sophistication.
The den, sublime with textures of slate, wood, stone, greenery and leather, leads to a ramada-style porch, flanked at one end by a fireplace and at the other by a poetically shaped Japanese maple. The addition of all-weather drapes makes it useable year-round.
The master suite, better described as a master apartment, is an exercise in the perfect balance of light and dark, with chocolate organza drapes and silk shades puffed at the windows and dark furnishings with sensuous '40s curves.
In the bath, Lisa reconfigured the sprawling tub, whose granite lip becomes a bench in the oversized, seamless glass shower. Apothecary-like cabinetry divides the vanity into "his" and "hers" and makes up for the shortened linen storage space. Lisa had an original walk-in closet ripped out (another still remains) and a wood spiral staircase drilled into the lower level, once accessible only from the outdoors and totally private from the rest of the house.
Villasana and Lisa both say the living room--a long rectangle that defied seating arrangements--was the most difficult. "I didn't want the biggest room in the house to not be usable. It's where we live," Lisa says. The new fireplace, with its unique above-mantel glam design, won the "focal point honor," beating out the flat-framed TV, which is at one end, opposite the cabinets holding the computer. Seating is in the middle of the room, cleverly arranged and includes an open-backed couch. Not interested in matchy-matchy, Lisa set everything on a beloved leopard rug. Here, guests can wear black tie as easily as Bermuda shorts.
The lower level is almost a guy haven, except for Lisa's custom-cabineted "office," from which she runs the household. She waves a hand over piles of samples, decor magazines and paperwork and points to a picture--" See? This is what we knew we didn't want."
In the main room, framed sports paraphernalia has begun to cover the walls, and the game-play-TV area is opposed by a serious lineup of leather recliners. The jewel? The wet bar, or wine kitchen, with seamless granite countertops, warming drawer, fridge and haute etceteras creating an oasis for tasting and talking.
Beyond it, Tony's wine cellar, a well-lit, temperature-controlled room, hosts an 1,800-bottle collection centered by a stained glass of the grape.
"The upstairs was tricky," Lisa says of the second floor, which has been consigned to the children and is still in process. A new three-car garage of carriage house ilk sits at a back angle to the house. "I'm not sure what I'll use it for," Lisa says, referring to the full-length studio over the cars. "Maybe some woodworking. I rather like this house remodeling thing."
Tips From The Designer
1. Take fabrics outside in true light to see them.
2. No white ceilings. Use tints, mixing a small percent of the wall color with white. It makes rooms look more fluid.
3. Light the paintings.
4. Build outlets right into cabinetry to avoid the drape of wires and plugs from under-the-counter lighting and to avoid the interruption of wall outlets.
5. It is OK to mix flooring-- wood, slate, etc.--but watch texture and color "arguments."
