Home Town: A Forever Home and a Fine Southern Porch

Everybody loves a porch ...
  Because porches are magical.
—Erin Napier

The formal living room takes full advantage of a beautiful fireplace and amazing original bead board. "I'm going through a rug thing," said Erin. "Rugs on the wall and on the floors." Here she made use of a vintage rug as a wall hanging, providing visual interest and a nice contrast with the pale blue walls.

The dining room, with its soft, neutral palette, offers a tranquil retreat that helps ground the vibrant visual motifs in the front foyer and living room. The round pedestal table was handcrafted by Ben at his woodshop with reclaimed pine wood with help from his brother Jesse.

The exterior renovation included a new porch frame around the existing columns, adding new railing and staircase entry. Raising the porch to the level of the front door creates a more proportional look for the front of the home. The renovation also includes an added architectural feature at the center of the top floor helping add balance and visual interest.

For the Hogues, "Southern living" could essentially be encapsulated in one word, and that word is "porch." Bill and Julie were wanting to find a home with traditional, stately Southern architecture, including a great front porch. Ben and Erin's renovation helped them get precisely what they were looking for.

Ben custom created a solid oak console table for the foyer with hand-turned newel posts that mimics those on the original staircase bannister. A template of the original staircase posts was used to create the replicas for the console on a lathe.

The wainscoting, and the wood walls beneath the fabric wall-covering, was unfortunately in poor condition. Ben and Erin opted to install new drywall and paint the room in a neutral tan-gray with white trim. The subtle palette of the dining room provides a calming counterpoint to the vibrancy of the colors in living room and foyer.

The dining room gets accessorized with a new chandelier and a gallery wall featuring botanical and ornithological prints.

The mantel was reworked slightly, removing the dentil molding for a more streamlined look, but the surround of white marble with dark gray veins was kept intact.

The living room walls are painted in a cooler pale blue-gray. The original bead board had been meticulously installed in solid horizontal runs with no vertical seams visible across the span of the walls.

Erin recommended replacing the wood flooring in the addition with a luxury vinyl tile that mimics the look of wood, but which would be water resistant and more durable for a large and active family making frequent use of the pool. The den is furnished with a generously sized sectional sofa, large coffee table, console, new window treatments and a richly ornate area rug.

The family room was visually dated but came with a fireplace and built-in shelving.

The dated wrought-iron railing has been removed, and the stairs are widened to the full span of the opening between the den and dining area – creating a better flow and better transition between the two spaces. Since the wall that had originally separated the den and breakfast area was a load-bearing wall, removing it required installing a new support beam which, along with the new stairs also helps create a visual break between the spaces.

Ben and Erin recommended a dramatic reconfiguration of the kitchen, opening up the wall into the breakfast area and creating visual continuity with uniform brick flooring throughout both spaces. Two large islands were added, one for a prep space and cooking, and a second for seating and serving.

The kitchen got all new cabinetry, painted in soft gray, offset by gray and white marble countertops. The existing walk-in pantry was kept intact and the interior upgraded.

A butler's pantry, a feature not too uncommon in houses from this era, connected the dining room and kitchen.

Where the bright red door and black shutters gave the home exterior a stark appearance, the natural wood door and shutters in soft mossy green help soften the exterior and create a stately but welcoming entry.