Household Style: Baldwin Park Elegance

The floor prepare of the Craftsman-impressed household that Jim Carlsen and Melissa Tountas purchased in Baldwin Park just wasn’t performing for the pair. They wanted to use the house a lot more competently, and to seamlessly blend their personal types: Carlsen’s earthy, masculine style with Tountas’ softer female flair. And they wished to kick it up a notch by introducing a generous dose of glamour to their dwelling.

The couple experienced already worked with John McClain Style and design to freshen up Tountas’ Lake Nona dwelling right before putting it on the industry. Amazed with principal designer and corporation proprietor John McClain’s work, they had no question he was the suitable interior designer to renovate their Baldwin Park household.

“This was a complete renovation we remodeled anything down to the studs,” states McClain, who has offices in Orlando and Los Angeles.

With his staff and lead designer Heather Rau, he started off by gutting the initially ground of the two-story dwelling, eradicating tray ceilings, archways and some walls. The whole downstairs space opened up, giving a new see of the house as you enter via the front doorway. Sight strains now stretch from the living and dining space to the kitchen area and loved ones home further than.

All the flooring through the home were being replaced with broad-plank hardwood flooring in dim oak. Functioning with a palette of neutral tones, various textures and subtle metallic factors, the design and style group developed a refined transitional inside.

“I feel for us, owning a large amount of neutrals is calming. It will allow function things to stand out extra than if you have a great deal of color. We required selected factors like artwork and parts of furniture to be highlighted through the residence, devoid of a ton of colour interruptions in the qualifications,” Carlsen describes.

The retired medical professional, a collector of Jamali’s artwork, needed to showcase select pieces by the artist, who is identified for his mystical expressionism. The pair also had several pieces of household furniture that deserved interest, which includes an antique J & C Fischer piano with an exquisite old-globe carved scenario. It has been in Tountas’ relatives for a long time and previously belonged to her mom.

Immediately after making a style strategy with the few, McClain went to operate. In the dwelling home, he positioned the piano and two eye-catching chairs with distinctive, graphic hand-bent rattan frames and sides—Auburn Lounge Chairs by Palecek, which he located throughout a market place excursion to North Carolina. “The chairs truly provide two reasons. We understood there would be a limited sum of seating in the dwelling area, and the chairs are right there the place you enter the home. We needed them to be truly sculptural and attention-grabbing in their very own suitable. The second thing they do for this house is with the two tones in their wood, they tie in the lighter, redder tones of the piano with the darker tones of Jim’s household furniture items,” describes McClain, referring to Carlsen’s rustic wooden dining room desk, which sits adjacent to the dwelling space.

At the rear of the piano, “The Guardian,” a pigmentation on cork by Jamali, seems over the shoulder of Tountas whilst she’s taking part in the piano. The woman’s sunburst-framed primitive deal with echoes Carlsen’s earthy style. Completing the dwelling space is a shiny chrome-and-glass bar cart reminiscent of 1950s cocktail-hour glamour.

In the adjacent dining region, a area of interest was developed on the wall to particularly property “Kastor,” a fresco tempera portray by Jamali that Carlsen affectionately refers to as the “Mud Lady.” Jamali’s group built and constructed a customized wooden body that floats the artwork and enhances the weighty, dim wooden of the dining space desk.

A curved staircase just off the living/dining space qualified prospects to the next-degree bedrooms. You won’t obtain any blinding white walls in this article. McClain insisted on a charcoal wall masking with a refined illusion of clouds and stars. The gentle performs off of it, making a stunning sheen. Wrought-iron railings and oak wood methods tie it all jointly. Carlsen’s 22-12 months-aged twin daughters and Tountas’ adult son and daughter all have bedrooms in the home, encouraging frequent visits and family time alongside one another.

Transferring farther into the home, the ethereal open kitchen area with its island and white cabinetry supplies a welcoming and spacious relatives hub. Carlsen considers the kitchen area a social space, so it was developed to accommodate family associates who enjoy to cook—potentially all at the very same time.

The island is set 60 inches from the stove, much past the standard 36-inch spread, allowing sufficient room for more than just one prepare dinner in the kitchen. Combining functionality with beauty, the hood above the stove serves as a centerpiece. “The stove’s hood is a custom made piece. We wished to mix all the distinct metallic accents. We appreciate combining metals, but the way to execute it the right way is by way of repetition. You want to generate a rhythm by way of the place,” describes the designer.

The stainless steel of the appliances echoes the stainless steel overall body of the hood. Brushed nickel accents discovered all through the house—such as the metal trim around tile and in the breakfast table—are repeated in the band around the hood. And the polished nickel of the kitchen’s hardware repeats in the rivet detail.

When it came to tile placement at the rear of the stove, McClain advised the few to depart from the standard 45-diploma placement of herringbone tiles. The 90-degree placement of the tiles forms a pattern that provides desire to this predominantly white kitchen area. “I imagine it’s a more modern day way to do it. It’s less zigzaggy,” he suggests.

To increase room, the cabinets at the pretty top rated had been developed with glass doors to imitate a shadowbox. Below, McClain positioned items from Tountas’ fine china and crystal collections. Vases and bowls are on show year-round alternatively of staying tucked away in containers and brought out only for holiday and specific events.

The kitchen area chairs that line the island—once Carlsen’s barstools—are a great illustration of utilizing what you like. McClain’s carpenter slash off the ft to adapt to the height of the kitchen island. The backs were being reupholstered with a woven cloth that creates a shimmery illusion. “We really like the participate in of light. We believe it is fascinating, and it changes around the day as very well,” the designer emphasizes.

A breakfast location is adjacent to the island. A brushed nickel café table and chairs rest on a cowhide rug. In a nearby corner sits a modern desk underneath a significant, assertion-earning steel clock with topsy-turvy Roman numerals.

At the significantly finish of the open up flooring system is the family place, a cozy location where everyone can kick off their sneakers and get cozy. The wall where a 1990s constructed-in enjoyment middle when resided is now house to an leisure wall that includes a television, sound bar and hearth. “We received 4 to 5 ft of space by getting rid of it,” McClain factors out.

Working with porcelain tiles with zero grout traces and matching grout, McClain and his team created a wall that looks like reliable natural stone. Below, the tv and hearth fit seamlessly. On each sides of the wall, Carlsen’s rustic bookstands display household treasures. This is a great mix of the two-family members aesthetic: Carlsen’s masculine items this sort of as his Ferdinand the Bull sculpture and Tountas’ additional feminine Lladró figurines.

“What’s definitely attention-grabbing about this amusement wall and all the things John did is that he bridged the hole in between glamorous and earthy/rustic without the need of it on the lookout uncomfortable,” claims Carlsen. “This tile to me represents the stoniness of concrete, but it has texture and is extra glamorous.”

To accommodate the substantial website traffic of a spouse and children region, McClain chose performance fabrics with Crypton coating for the white sofa and blue chairs. “I would hardly ever do a white couch with out a Crypton coating,” he suggests. The material is resistant to stains, h2o and micro organism.

Off the family members region, textured wallpaper jazzes up a powder area with an exquisite however subtle metallic tone. The few framed vintage childhood photos of every single of them sitting down on a potty—a whimsical contact that generally evokes a chuckle from attendees.

The whole house is a testament to McClain’s talent for applying wall coverings. Throughout the household, he showcased wallpaper with bold textures and reflective houses that dazzle with the light. Even so, the master bedroom’s statement wall is by much the most noteworthy. In this article, McClain employed mica-—wall tiles created of stone flakes—in a slate tone. The tiles’ purely natural stone-adorned texture offers off a prosperous, heat, luxurious search. Mica quickly displays mild all-around the room, generating a amazing metallic sheen, when the chips incorporate visible interest and depth to the wall.

Yet another Jamali artwork provides additional fascination to the master bedroom walls. “Untitled,” a pigmentation on cork, capabilities a woman’s experience in shades of brown and beige, enhanced with touches of the earth’s yellow, rust and blue tones.

Carlsen remembers a tale about the artwork. As the room’s renovation neared completion, he declared that he had to run out for a several minutes. “I went more than to Jamali’s [Winter Park] gallery. This piece was meant to go in his New York gallery, which is sort of his museum. It was on the truck to go there, and I fell in adore with it,” Carlsen suggests about the previous-moment order and ending contact to the bed room.

The room’s king-dimension bed is a custom structure, a modern day retooling of a wingback chair upholstered in plush mohair. The structure of the mattress was encouraged by a preferred chair from John McClain House, the designer’s residence furnishings line.

The adjacent learn toilet was fully reconfigured. McClain describes the personal bathroom as “the prettiest water closet you are going to at any time come across.” Tall white double doorways open to a sleek, skirted bathroom cocooned by walls included in an sophisticated, grassy-textured wallpaper. The tiled floors throughout the grasp bath aspect a porcelain variation of white onyx, which McClain suggests gives the subtle appear of organic stone, but with out any of the upkeep.

A statement wall offsets the glistening white of the rest room. Patterned tiles with white-and-grey interlocking geometric designs produce a refined optical illusion of diamonds and squares. It serves as a backdrop for a white slipper bathtub and a towering flooring-to-ceiling glass-
enclosed shower. Shiny chrome hardware pairs nicely with the Caviar mild fixture—metal cones tucked inside bubblelike glass—that hangs more than the tub.

No issue how amazing the interior, no Florida home is entire without the need of an inviting out of doors place. Doorways from the kitchen area lead to the lanai and backyard, in which a rectangular swimming pool and incredibly hot tub with water features is the focal place. Feathery day palms and crepe myrtles line a single aspect, providing the compact house a cozy and personal really feel. An city gardener, Carlsen has planted lemon and Critical lime trees as nicely as seasonal tomatoes, peppers and herbs in containers. On the lanai, the sofa’s navy cushions with white piping increase crispness to the sitting down area’s décor, when a picnic table encourages outside family gatherings.

As Carlsen walks from the outside to the inside of, and from the entrance of the property to the again, the joyful home owner remarks, “I just cannot rely how several diverse sights of this residence are accurately what you would expect to see in an architectural magazine.” McClain and his team couldn’t inquire for a far better compliment.