Octavia Street

Photography by Casey McMurray

We fully transformed this house while keeping all of the historic architectural features and character. This young family loves their historic home, but they needed a major renovation to bring it into current day with a large kitchen, mudroom, and a new breakfast nook. We built out a little study for work-at-home needs and we transformed an unused space to a new dressing room. These old homes lack storage space and with this family having little twins, we got clever in how to add storage while retaining all of the historic character.

This family has a Kosher kitchen, so the kitchen is perfectly symmetrical. This allows the owners to have mirror images of all dishes & cutlery for their Kosher lifestyle.

They wanted some bold design in the renovation, so I proposed transforming the 1970’s opening between the stairhall and living room into a taller opening trimmed out in beautiful woodworking and painted a deep ebony color. This is one of their favorite parts of the house and sets the tone for a unique design. At the kitchen, we blew out the back wall with 2 large new glass french doors to achieve Indoor/Outdoor living! Their kitchen used to be drab with the low acoustic tile ceilings and the low-light space. Now, it’s bright and airy. Another bonus is that they can keep an eye on their twins playing in the back yard!
We wanted to do something very unique in the kitchen, so we did an island with rounded ends and we clad it in reeded Tambora paneling. You just want to touch it!

They are big cooks, so we did a large cooking range with a big, sculptural rounded hood above.  The Ijen Blue Quartzite on the countertops and backsplash gives that New Orleans color infused in the design and it’s also a low maintenance stone!

Investing in this house meant investing in the historic character of New Orleans. We helped our awesome clients create a special home for many years to come!