New Bloom on Rose Hall

The exterior of Rose Hall reads “landed gentry” in any century.
Photo by David Dietrich

Built in 1989 to look a couple centuries old, the Georgian Revival manor, seen today, still hasn’t aged enough to be vintage. But the intended grandeur prevails. Its columned brick exterior suggests characters in period British novels, strolling and murmuring in the property’s eponymous rose garden before heading in to tea. 

Inside, though, it used to be a different story. The homeowners, whose main house is a formal affair in Louisville, Kentucky, wanted a soothing interior for their North Asheville retreat, to match up with the fairytale mountain view. And so Krista Washam LaBlue arrived at Rose Hall with a palette of cream, stone, and pale mint. For glamour, she brought in goddess-y metallics. She erased all the colors that were trendy late last century, such as hunter green and bossy sunflower. Grape had to go, too. 

After replacing lace curtains and frowning valances, LaBlue appointed all-new window treatments — “an integral component,” she says. The renovation included gutting a bathroom and a couple fireplaces, but elsewhere, the house’s solid bones were preserved and the fresh tide of textiles and finishes accomplished the makeover.

“It just needed to be brought current with a tone that fit the architecture of the exterior design,” says LaBlue. It’s a modest assessment, given the scope of the place. Landing at 6,400 square feet if the extensive decking is included, Rose Hall has four bedrooms, three-and-a-half baths, and sits on a 3-acre parcel — an unusually large plot for the neighborhood. 

However, even with such a big renovation project, the interior designer gets going with a single gesture, letting the theme flow naturally till it inhabits every contour. “It all started with the selection of the entry wallpaper,” LaBlue reveals. Every other element, she adds, “radiated from this point.”

 

Photo by David Dietrich

Period Piece

The living room’s Grecian fireplace surround was one of the few total replacements required for Rose Hall, a Georgian Revival estate in North Asheville built in 1989. The handsome limestone installation is echoed through the space, thanks to interior designer Krista Washam LaBlue’s choice of complementary textures and patterns, most notably custom drapery from her KWL Design & Decor studio. The “Continuous Linen” pattern is paired with Lotus Reed handwoven shades on the oversized windows to “diffuse lighting for the home’s panoramic views,” notes LaBlue. A pair of alabaster-based lamps work with subtly earthy upholstered furniture in luxe fabrics, including the Mohair Velvet collection from regional Hickory Chair. A sculptural antiqued-bronze fireplace screen joins a minimalist gilded-steel-and-vellum Julian Chichester coffee table to bring some edge. It’s all crowned by the wow piece above the mantel, made of cocoa wood with an antique gold finish. The sisal rug in “Natural Platinum” (Stark) weaves in bold, fluid geometrics.

Photo by David Dietrich

Sense, Sensibility, and Stark

Rose Hall is a home with great bones and graceful flourishes, including the molded arched entry into the living room and the curling banister of the grand staircase. The architecture of the rooms stayed mostly untouched, and it was Krista Washam LaBlue’s challenge to bring the palette, lighting, and all furnishings up to aesthetic code. The scheme throughout is polished neutrals, including a diligent use of wallcovering. In the entry hall, wallpaper in an oleander motif (GP & J Baker/Lee Jofa), a grand double-door entry hall rug (Stark), and recessed canned lighting combine to let the artisan Cubist chandelier (hand-applied Urchin Bone, Mr. Brown London) have the final say.

Photo by David Dietrich

Slate Expectations

Interior designer Krista Washam LaBlue shows her genius knack for wallcovering — here “Lakeshore” in hand-peeled cork, by Hartmann & Forbes — in the husband’s office, accessible from the living room through French doors. The rustic aura honors the redone white-oak floors, rescued from their passé glossy past. A striking acrylic/gel print, “Avalanche,” adds to the woodsy tone set by the slate-colored, mohair velvet armchair and ottoman that command the corner. Pillow designed by KWL Design & Decor. 

Photo by David Dietrich

Remains of the Day

A gesso-and-goldleaf triptych with whimsically oversized ginkgo leaves presides over one end of the living room. The game table is surrounded by casual-rustic Gunnison chairs with unfinished leather backs (Hickory Chair in Hickory, NC), and capped with a Midcentury hammered-brass gaming pendant. Custom drapery by KWL Design & Decor — an embroidered silken-thread vine pattern with a sensuous latte sheen — sustains the poshness and creates the mood of the room. But LaBlue added a striped ivory mirror over a sunburst-veneer bar cabinet to acknowledge the “young, contemporary vibe of the owners … and ensure the space does not become more serious than intended.”

Photo by David Dietrich

Time for Fresh Tea

Although the majority of Rose Hall was a cosmetic renovation, the dated, under-scaled kitchen island was demolished and replaced with this organic-feel update, created by the home’s interior designer in collaboration with Keystone Kitchen and Bath Biltmore. The graphite-stained maple base is topped by a lively granite pattern called “Crazy Horse.” The historical botanical print gets a boost in gold leaf from BlackBird Frame & Art, the tone picked up in a gilded-iron chandelier finished in mercury glass (Gramercy). “Krista brings a sharp eye to the framing design table — fun, but always in excellent taste and favoring the impact of distinctive, carefully selected mouldings,” notes BlackBird owner John Horrocks. “She recognized the impact a hand-finished gold frame could have on the modern botanical in the kitchen. While connecting the viewer’s eye to gold elements in both the painting and the room, the traditional details of the frame are a playful contrast to the modern style of the art.”

Photo by David Dietrich

Room with a New View

Rose Hall is only 30 years old, but from the start, the home was meant to have an old-fashioned allure. The trick of its interior renovation was erasing all remnants of late-1980s brassiness and traveling back to a more classic sophistication — all while lifting the mood. In the master bedroom, no single component competes with the long-range mountain view; instead, all the peaceful neutrals work together to accomplish the look. The two touches of modernity (a spare-lined, four-poster canopy bed and sinuous iron snake andirons inside the limestone fireplace) form a kind of call and response. It’s one of two new fireplace surrounds installed within the home, one of the project’s few major structural changes. The bed is adorned with pieces from Hendersonville’s Oriole Mill — a “Diamond” throw and an “Antiquity” coverlet. The antiqued white branch chandelier and earthenware mantel urns (bookending a cut of natural coral) unite to bring the outside in. A barnacle cloche adorns the offset-side demi lune.

Photo by David Dietrich

Vanity Affair

Even before the reno project was complete, Rose Hall’s master bath was already receiving media attention for its all-point elegance. Though most of the home’s layout was left alone, here the designer removed a walled water closet, gutted under-stair storage, and borrowed needed square footage from adjacent bedroom closets so the newly spacious dimensions would match the 10-foot ceilings. The entire bath was re-plumbed and refitted to center the new double RH vanity base, topped with a local slab of Baikal marble from Nature of Stone, fabricated by RockStar Marble & Granite. She also installed wide “Apollo Beige” porcelain floor tile, sourced through Horizon Tile & Stone Gallery, with the same intent. A Jeffrey Court glass shower and an elegant slipper tub turn the bath into a spa. But it’s all the artisan details — including a tumbled-seaglass chandelier, bone-and-resin-framed mirrors, and a hand-blocked and colored “Kinomi” Peter Fasano wallcovering — that make the space runneth over. (Hardware and faucets: Bella Hardware and Bath.)

Photo by David Dietrich

The Picture of Delicate Gray

In the corner of the master bedroom is a transfixing abstract mirror, its raw-edged frame made of driftwood. An antiqued Gustavian chest imparts a French Country air, but Old Hollywood gets its say in a glittering mercury-glass lamp base (Mr. Brown London). True to her last name, Krista Washam LaBlue plays with the calmest translations of that hue in the boutique, hand-blocked and hand-colored floral wallpaper (Peter Fasano) and in the textiles and wall paint, where she blends shades of pewter, cornflower, smoke, and cerulean. (Local artist Lannie Cunningham, Trinka 5 Designs, created the decorative vases with mercury glass and coral.)

 

Resources

Interior Designer: Krista Washam LaBlue Design (KWL Design & Decor)

Kitchen/Bath Designer: Krista Washam LaBlue Design (KWL Design & Decor)

Cabinetry: KWL Design & Decor with Keystone Kitchen and Bath Biltmore, Asheville

Countertops: Island Redesign by KWL Design & Decor.

Material: Nature of Stone, Fletcher.

Fabricator: RockStar Marble & Granite, Asheville

Fixtures: Bella Hardware & Bath, Asheville

Local art and accessories: BlackBird Frame & Art, Asheville (framing of KWL-acquired art); Lannie Cunningham, Trinka 5 Designs (decorative vases in mercury glass and coral in master bedroom and bath); The Gardener’s Cottage, Biltmore Village (planters, vases, and vintage silver epergne in master bedroom)

Furnishings: Hickory Chair (living room/dining room), Modern History in Highpoint (living room, dining room, center hall, master bedroom). Other furniture sourced through KWL Design & Decor.

Textiles: Stark Rugs, Kalaty Rugs.

Local: Oriole Mill (master-bedroom textiles, living room throws and comforter).

Drapery: Cowtan & Tout, Lee Jofa, F Schumacher & Co.

Tile: Horizon Tile & Stone Gallery, Fletcher

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