How often do architects get asked to redesign their own work? For long-time Charlottesville architect Robert Paxton, principal at Dalgliesh Gilpin Paxton Architects, a home he had designed near Ivy in the late 1990s had been purchased by a new owner who loved its style but had some other elements in mind.
The qualities that drew the new owner to the house, says Paxton—“classic proportions, high ceilings, and lots of natural light”—were a direct result of the original clients’ assignment. The couple had lived for years in Paris, and wanted a home incorporating the elements of French style: an entry court, symmetrical layout, shingled Mansard roof with arched-top dormers, French doors and French windows, high ceilings. The home that Paxton and colleague Roger Birle designed served the family well for two decades—and when it was time for a new family, says Paxton, “it was an honor that the client reached out to us.”
The new owner wanted to keep the house’s style and character, but needed more space for a larger family. The three second-floor bedrooms were renovated for three teenagers, adding an adjoining den/game room in existing storage space above the garage. The major ask, though, was adding a complete owners’ suite and guest suite on the first floor.
Paxton explains his firm frequently works on houses it has designed, and he was excited about taking his original plan to another level. “I always enjoy being creative about how we can get as much value out of the original house, and make it work,” he says. One big plus: The owners’ suite addition created a five-part composition that was classically French. “The enhanced program completed the symmetry of the house,” Paxton says, and reinforced the gravel entry court and entrance foyer as a central axis and focal point. The larger layout also enabled Paxton and project architect John Peterson to expand the rear terrace and add a pergola there. (Rachel Lilly was the landscape architect.)
During the renovation, the DGP team did its best to make use of the house’s materials and assets. “We try to be sustainable, and reuse/reclaim as much as we can,” says Paxton. All the existing flooring was retained and refinished, and the materials for the small pergola off the living room, displaced by the addition, were re-used on the new one.
The first-floor living and dining spaces were little affected; the kitchen and adjoining laundry room got a major overhaul. The original clients had specifically asked for a galley kitchen, but the new owner wanted to make the kitchen lighter, more open, and more connected to the family eating/living space. Removing the kitchen’s interior wall and replacing it with a large marble-topped island and seating area created a more open and inviting great room, and enlarging the kitchen window brought in both added natural light and the vista of the garden beyond. (An added French country touch is the exposed reclaimed-wood beams from The HeartPine Company in the renovated kitchen.)
The laundry room was remade into a well-organized pantry with sink, refrigerator, and plentiful storage space—as well as warm dark-blue walls (in Farrow & Ball Hague blue) and veneered wood over metallic wallpaper on the ceiling, in a nice contrast to the airy neutrals of the living spaces. Reorganizing the space allowed for a mud room that offers access to the newly enlarged rear terrace, as well as to a stairway to the kids’ den over the garage. (In the original plans, that space was left unfinished, although Paxton had wisely included framing for future stairs.)
The major work was the addition of about 2,300 square feet on the house’s western side to accommodate the owners’ suite and guest suite (a living space for her mother was one of the client’s must-haves). This end of the house is virtually self-contained: a spacious south-and-west-facing primary bedroom with access to the rear terrace; primary bath; his-and-hers closet/dressing rooms; an office and laundry room—as well as a workout room upstairs. The guest suite, which during construction was called “mom’s room,” has its own foyer, bath, and walk-in closet. And in case of more visitors (such as future grandchildren), there’s a separate bedroom with bath in the attic.
The client also wanted to put a personal stamp on the furnishings, and turned to Chloe Ball, owner of Kenny Ball Design (Kenny is her father, and owner of Charlottesville institution Kenny Ball Antiques). Many of the materials and paint colors had been selected during the renovation in consultation with the DGP team, but the client asked Ball for help in choosing furnishings, fabrics, wall coverings, and fixtures.
“[The client] has very definitive taste—elegant, timeless, but comfortable,” says Ball—as well as an eclectic approach to interior décor. Fortunately, the home’s high rooms, light-filled interiors, and neutral colors allow for contemporary pieces to live well with its French classicism.
A stunning example is the interior foyer. Its wallpaper of weeping cherry trees and stylized water (Wave and Blossom from Gracie Wallpaper) echoes Japanese woodcuts, but coexists comfortably with Urban Electric sconces and a tiger-stripe upholstered bench from 1st Dibs. Beyond is the small formal dining room, made more intimate with a circular table (the Radeski from Gregorius Pineo) surrounded by six semicircular custom-upholstered chairs. The handpainted wallpaper is Marble from Gracie, and the amazing floating-balloons ceiling light fixture is Cloud from Apparatus Studio.
There are more whimsical touches around the house. The powder room wallpaper swirls with graceful fishes swimming in a silvery sea, while mom’s bathroom gets the regal sarus cranes (both papers from de Gournay). One corner of the family room features a little nook with a built-in banquette and a modern Indian/Persian-style rug from Stark Carpet. The client’s office is totally contemporary, with wood walls and built-ins complemented by a wall covering (District by Kelly Wearstler for Kravet) that Ball chose “to play off the busyness of the shelves.”
But there’s still that touch of France, in the oversized mounted posters hanging in the teens’ den—repurposed from the owner’s former house, just to reinforce the theme.
