Rich color and clever space planning distinguish historic home
Photo by Asheville Real Estate Photography
Danielle Fontenot grew up in old homes in New Orleans. “I don’t think I’ve lived in a house under 100 years old my entire life,” she says. “My husband Philip is from a small town in Louisiana and was raised in an older home. We are both pretty familiar with their nuances, creaky floors and all.”
So, when the two physicians — she is a vascular surgeon and he is an orthopedic surgeon — moved to Asheville for new positions, they were drawn to a neighborhood rife with century-old residences. The home they landed on — built in 1922 — was also imbued with local history. “The house was designed by Richard Sharp Smith, who did a lot of homes in Montford, but also was the architect who took over and finished the Biltmore [Estate].” (Biltmore’s original architect, Richard Morris Hunt, passed away before the project was completed.)
Danielle has her own history with the trade. Her father Daniel D. Taylor is an architect in New Orleans; naturally she called on him to help redesign the two-story home for two busy professionals and their growing family.
Photo by Asheville Real Estate Photography
The house had good bones and a layout they liked — the main bedrooms on the second level and a guest room on the first made by enclosing a sleeping porch. They loved the back deck, back yard, and front-curb appeal.
Danielle notes that with the living area already opened up, she didn’t think renovation would be a big undertaking.
Project Developer Zac McMakin of Asheville Home Remodel had a slightly different frame of reference. “I compare remodeling an old house to pulling a thread on a sweater,” he observes. “You think you’re pulling a thread, and the next thing you know you’re not wearing a sweater anymore.”
But he was intrigued by the project. “One of the first things I did was walk through the house with Danielle’s father,” says McMakin, who explains that the architecture of older New Orleans homes is similar to that of some Montford houses. “His plans were really great.”
The major areas of demo and reconstruction were the second-floor bath, the adding of a pantry and laundry room to the kitchen, and a redo of the first-floor powder room. Aesthetic refreshes were also all in the family — Danielle enlisted her sister-in-law Lyndsey Fontenot, an interior designer with Unique Indoor in Houston.
Photo by Asheville Real Estate Photography
Although major walls were not technically moved, partitioning walls were constructed on the second level to turn the one large bathroom — which also held the washer and dryer — into two. The girls now share a smaller bath with a coral-tiled shower and easily reached hardware and toiletry nooks; the larger primary has an enclosed shower, free-standing soaking tub, generous vanity, and champagne-bronze hardware. Asheville Home Remodel also created a sizable closet for the primary suite, a rare commodity in older homes.
McMakin executed a meticulous but subtle restructure of the main foyer, hardly noticeable to a visitor but vital to creating a noticeable to a visitor but vital to creating a laundry room and pantry under the impressive original staircase. This area now accesses the kitchen, its walls painted the same deep jewel green as the adjacent ceiling and window frames, as well as the new kitchen island.
Remodeling the kitchen also included removing the beadboard ceiling — which revealed quite a network of antiquated electrical — and adding new cabinetry (from Black Mountain Cabinetry & Design) and paneling over the refrigerator that twins the pantry doors. Rather than wall-mounted cabinets, deep magnet-catch drawers hold everything from cutlery to plates to cookware.
The powder room on the first floor was utterly transformed with high-gloss paint, dramatic light fixtures, vintage vanity, and moody wallpaper by Spoonflower (also responsible for the Monet waterlilies up the staircase walls).
Philip gravitates to the swivel chairs in front of the insisted-upon working fireplace. The girls love the window seat with easily accessed toy storage beneath.
But according to Danielle, “The little powder room has the biggest wow factor.”
Another wow moment: Asheville Home Remodel just received a RotY (Remodeler of the Year) award for this project from the National Association of the Remodeling Industry, for “Best Whole Home” remodel in its price category in the Southeast region.
Resources
Builder: Asheville Home Remodel
Architect: Daniel D. Taylor/Koch & Wilson Architects (New Orleans)
Interior Designer: Unique Indoor (Houston)
Cabinetry: Black Mountain Cabinetry & Design (Black Mountain, NC)
Countertops: Mountain Empire Stoneworks (Asheville)