MOD Society Greensboro - Sept-Oct 2020
TIMELESS TRADITION
2020-08-29 08:24:54
“You feel it as soon as you cross the threshold of this stately home: a sense of elegance and ease, timelessness and calm … It is traditional in the best and most enduring sense—a comfortable, welcoming classic.”
In the quest for tranquility, tradition outshines trendy.
You feel it as soon as you cross the threshold of this stately home: a sense of elegance and ease, timelessness and calm. A place meant for family dinners, festive holidays, quiet nights in and kids on the go. It is traditional in the best and most enduring sense—a comfortable, welcoming classic.
The home belongs to doctors Cristi and John Howe. Cristi is an internist, and John is an orthopedic surgeon. Both are graduates of Wake Forest University School of Medicine. They have two young children and a couple of dogs. Life is good. And busy.
When the family returned to Winston-Salem in 2006, they decided to build a home that would suit, and soothe, their active lifestyle. They chose the Buena Vista area, bought property and hired architect Mark Shaver to design a colonial Georgian home that would integrate well into the neighborhood.
Before the first shovel of dirt was turned, Cristi engaged interior designer Linda Knight Carr to help bring her vision to life. It was a well-timed decision that led to a beautiful, timeless design.
Linda spoke with the couple, visited their former home, reviewed blueprints and studied Cristi’s collection of home and décor pictures culled from magazines. “I got the sense that this would be a classic, traditional design,” Linda says, “but updated and fresh with a youthful influence reflecting the family’s active lifestyle.”
Fittingly, the family room is the first view from the home’s entryway, and what a view it is! Cristi and Linda went with neutral, durable fabrics for the upholstered furniture pieces and an over-sized coffee table that can easily accommodate party hors d’oeuvres, homework, board games or movie night pizza.
The color and light for the room come from floor-length hand-blocked linen drapes that frame large French doors and windows. The linen fabric is a lovely Southern-style pattern of blues, greens and golden yellows. It is also an alluring hint at what’s to come that served as Linda’s inspiration. “This is where you get a glimpse, for the first time, of all the colors you’ll find throughout the home,” she says. “This is where our color palette comes together and makes sense.”
The use of color throughout the home is soft and subtle: creams and taupy whites, celadon-greens, blues and buttery yellows. The lighter colors give the home a clean, contemporary feel and mark a departure from the deeper, darker hues of older-style traditional design.
The breakfast room relates to the family room in term of lightness, color and comforting ambience. Linda felt it was important for the two rooms to connect visually as well as literally. The breakfast room often serves as the informal, weekday dinner dining space, she explains. “It is where conversations about the day so often take place, so I wanted this be a cozy, relaxed room.”
It is indeed. The oval elm table is perfect for the family of four but can easily accommodate extra seating for guests. Linda likes to blend different finishes in a space, so the chairs are painted a medium gray, lightening the overall attitude of the room. “I’m all for be being able to move your items around, not having to keep everything in the same location over the lifetime of a home. The less everything looks perfected and matched, the easier it is to do that,” she says. The curtains in the breakfast room are similar in tone and treatment to those in the family room, but a bit brighter with crisp blues and greens and more lemony yellows.
Another unifying element throughout is the use of distinctive botanical prints, a nod to Cristi’s love of gardening and a way to bring the beauty of nature indoors. The large fern prints in the breakfast serve as a softening element, purposefully positioned so they don’t take away from a strong and central painting on the opposite side of the room.
The kitchen is sunny and smartly fitted with an expansive island, creamy-white cabinetry, high-end appliances and warm nickel hardware. The island’s dark wood finish, repeated in the bar area, provides an aesthetic break from the wash of white marble countertops. Here again, flow and family dynamics are central. The island top is larger than its base so stools, upholstered in a Yale blue, can be fully pushed underneath. Functionality, order and calm reign in this bright, breezy kitchen.
The dining room is the most traditional of spaces in the Howe home. It also affirms the notion of timeless elegance and thoughtful timing. The table and chairs are from Cristi and John’s previous home and care was taken in reviewing architectural plans to make sure everything was scaled appropriately to accommodate desired seating and special gatherings.
A quiet green wallpaper warms the space, and silky, soft gold drapes, pleated and finished with a classic nailhead treatment, cast a burnished glow across the space. Not to be outdone in terms of radiance factor, a graceful, lacey crystal chandelier repeats both the drapery cascade and the trellis pattern on the walls. A gilded gold mirror hangs above the cherry sideboard between a pair of gold candlestick lamps.
While the room is clearly and exquisitely classic, accessory touches like the clean, strong shape of candle globes and planting elements give the room a fresh and airy perspective.
There are delightful surprises in this home—tradition reimagined, recharged and updated. Take the home office, for example, nestled in a quiet corner off a long hallway. The room is a study (pardon the pun) in masculine, earthy tones. The walls are covered in a dusty green grass cloth. Millwork and trim, white throughout the rest of the home, is a warm khaki tone here. A leather chair and ottoman, antique desk and bookcases fill this pocket-sized space.
The living room is one of Linda’s favorites. It is a gem of a space, small in dimension but grand in effect. The color scheme here is monochromatic and muted, featuring shades of celadon, sea glass, white and misty gray.
This is meant to be a quiet, intimate space, Linda says, so she and Cristi decided to pull furniture close to the fireplace, creating a floating, cozy seating area. Classic lines and understated details of the sofa, chairs and other pieces are purely, pristinely traditional. But the contemporary shapes of lamps and wall sconces, the continuity of soft neutrals across surfaces and the eclectic mix of finishes give the living room a fresh perspective.
The fireplace marble is gray and white with just a hint of celadon. Walls on either side are recessed and display botanical etchings in grays and whites intended to pull the gray of the marble across the walls. Like other rooms in the home, this space is awash in natural light, and the large windows are dressed in drapes of embroidered silk that Linda describes as “yummy and gorgeous.” It is a room of unique treasures, from the French Wedgewood-style carved mantle vases to the round gilded mirror taking center stage to the graceful metal coffee table by Avrett Design.
Sometimes in design, Linda says, you don’t exactly know why you are doing something at the time, it just feels right. “And then once you’re finished, you recognize why you were doing it, and why your head was taking you there.”
Linda appreciates the living room for another reason. The space took time and consideration. In fact, she and Cristi didn’t tackle the room until a year after the family move-in. They wanted time to contemplate how the room would be used and give it the care and attention it deserved. The result was worth the wait.
Tradition takes time. And traditional design is all about staying power. The Howe family is happy and comfortable in their beautiful home, and they plan to be so for many years to come. They are grateful for Linda’s guidance and collaboration. “Her artistry helped me create a home that is a sanctuary with beautiful surroundings that I continue to enjoy daily,” says Cristi.
– Lucinda Trew, editor
Regarding the Home...
HOMEOWNER: Cristi and John Howe
ARCHITECT: Mark Shaver
BUILDER: Richard Andrus
INTERIOR DESIGN: Light Knight Carr, Knight Carr & Company
Featured Home Photos
Pages 22 & 23 Living Room
Page 24 Family Room
Page 25 Dining Room
Page 26 Breakfast Room
Page 28 Hall (top); Study (bottom)
Page 29 Kitchen
Page 30 Master Bathroom
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