Showing posts with label stone houses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stone houses. Show all posts

The Interior of the Southern Accents Showhouse -- Part II

7:10 AM home desaint


Before taking you upstairs, it's hard to not show you the stair hall.  Just off the entry and before the library, the stairhall is probably my favorite room in the house.  I never thought a stairhall could be a favorite room but it is mine.  Maybe it has to do with all the time and money we spent creating it, but it's one more element of the house that makes it a true Cotswold style house.  The paneling, tudor style baluster and hand painted burlap wall covering (from Rusty Arena) are beautiful and very fitting for the house.  The oak trusses in the ceiling complete the room.  Our carpenters did all of this work on site and in place including the hand turned finials on the newel posts.



At the top of the stairs you come to the first bedroom, the boy's room.  Joe designed this room, well, for a boy.  With all fabric walls and ceiling, this room is probably the quietest in the house.

Outside the boy's room and before the playroom is the children's library because every child needs their own library.

Just past the children's library is the playroom.  Designed to be large enough for television seating and a pool table, Joe had a different idea for the showhouse.



On the other side of the playroom is the girl's room.  Feminine is the best way to describe this room.  Needless to say, this was the favorite of every girl that toured the house.




The girl's bathroom completes the girl's retreat.  With all white Ann Sacks tile surrounding the tub and a unique limestone floor (also from Ann Sacks) this bathroom is perfect for a little (or any age for that matter) girl.  The photograph next to the vanity is my little girl when she was 5 years old.



On the complete other side of the house is the guest suite.  Above the garage and laundry room and with it's own staircase, the guest room is the most unique room in the house.  Joe selected Porthault linens for the bedding and they were the inspiration for the entire room.  With zebra stripe walls (all handpainted by Shaun Christopher) this room was the favorite of a lot of visitors.




The guest bath continues the same zebra stripe and has all Ann Sacks marble.


I hope you enjoyed the tour of the upstairs.  After I did my previous post on the downstairs, I realized I did not include pictures of the kitchen and morning room.  The cabinetry is all Wood Mode, the countertops are honed black granite and the backsplash is Ann Sacks Gothic tile (handmade in Maine).


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The Exterior of The 2009 Southern Accents Showhouse

1:11 PM home desaint

Although you may have seen the pictures on-line, I wanted to write a post about the 2009 Southern Accents Showhouse we finished in August of last year.  I have to say that I cannot be more proud of it.  From the exterior to every single detail, this house is a true showhouse.  However, in today's market of over the top showhouses, our's quite different.  You will not find a multi-tiered theatre room or a pool with waterfalls.  This house is a statement of how to design and build a new old house.


Larry Boerder, the architect, did an incredible job of designing the house in a Cotswold style that would sit beautifully in the English countryside.  The house is set on 2/3 of an acre and was designed to appear as if it had been added on to over the years with two wings off the main portion of the house.   The  hand-chiseled stone is as close as we could find to a Cotswold stone and is beautiful.


The back of the house is every bit as beautiful as the front.  With a large loggia (we did put a flat screen on above the fireplace), classical pool (we did do some simple fountains), over the top landscaping and an outdoor kitchen built completely out of oak beams, the backyard  and back of the house are magnificent.



If you've read my blog very long you know that I usually design most of the homes we build.  This one was a little different but I made sure I designed some part of it -- the outdoor kitchen area above (and many of the details inside).  Although the design is similar to one I had seen before, I incorporated the beam and bracket details Larry designed for the house.  We planted Merlot Wysteria on the corners of the outdoor kitchen to eventually cover the entire roof. 

The sidewalk and driveway are cobblestone pavers that fit the house perfectly.  Notice the large overhang and brackets over the garage.  This is actually one of my favorite architectural details of the exterior.
My next post will be on the interior.  Joseph Minton and his staff did an incredible job of making sure the exterior and interior blend perfectly.  We actually had one lady tour the house who had come from England and commented that the house would fit perfectly in the Cotswold region.  Here's Joe and his staff.


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Homes We've Built in Fort Worth -- Part II The Interiors

9:36 AM home desaint

As promised in my previous post, below are a few pictures of the interiors of some of our work over the past few years.  I hope you enjoy.

The above picture is the entry hall of an Italian Renaissance house.  We built the custom made doors that lead to the powder bath and coat closet to fit the antique Verre eglomise which, according to Betty Lou Phillips, is a reverse painting on glass.  The limestone slab floor is from Ann Sacks.  A local artisan hand painted the metallic gold banding and then glazed over the gold bands and silver walls.


This bathroom for our client's daughter consists of 1920's era tile floor and a reproduction vanity that is based on an antique commode our clients had found.

This loggia is my favorite we have done.  The brick flooring was salvaged from one of Fort Worth's oldest streets and encompasses the entire front porch and side loggia.

This powder bath is much more than just a powder bath.  The antique fountain, turned into a pedestal sink, was a chore to make work with the water flowing out of the mouth of the sun face, but the outcome is spectacular.  The venetian walls were done by the same local artisan mentioned above (as were many rooms in the house) and the window surround is limestone.

The other daughter's bathroom is my favorite.  With white Thassos tile, a 1920's era pedestal sink (although it is new) and soft green walls make it a true 1920's style bathroom.

All of the above pictures are from an Italian Renaissance style house in Fort Worth we built and the pictures are out of Betty Lou Phillips beautiful book, Inspirations from France & Italy.  If you don't have a copy of this book you need to add it to your library.  Betty Lou has an incredible eye for beautiful homes.


These two pictures come out of a French eclectic house we did last year.  The client, who is a very talented interior designer, was very specific in her selections and searched long and hard for the furnishings and pieces to be built in.  From the 3" limestone floors filling much of the downstairs, the antique columns, the antique mantels, the antique chandeliers and sconces, the antique iron entry doors and the Gracie wallpaper in the dining room, this house is a true showplace.

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French Village: An Inspiration for Development

4:28 AM home desaint

In the 1920's a developer by the name George Woodward was a busy man building and developing in the area of Chestnut Hill in Philadelphia.  Woodward began developing very modest homes years earlier, but after travels to England and France (and working with the famed architect Wilson Eyre) he developed Cotswold Village.  The houses were created from Woodward's love of the Cotswold country side.  They were all built around 1915-18 and were built with chiseled local cut stone and steep roofs.  


In the 1920's, Woodward decided to create a development that mimicked his love of the old stone farmhouses he had seen while traveling in the Normandy region of France.  These houses are beautiful examples of French Normandy architecture in the United States.  It is examples like this that inspired me to do what I do.  If it could have been built in the 1920's, it can certainly be done today in my city of Fort Worth or anywhere.  Woodward obviously had a very keen eye for details and a true understanding of scale.  The houses posted here are located on Gate Lane and the pictures come from the George Woodward Co. which is still in existence today as a real estate company in Philadelphia.  I will cover more of the Philadelphia area in other posts as there are great examples of period revival architecture from architects like Mellor, Meigs and Howe.  I hope you enjoy these photographs.



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