In 2023, the owners of a circa-1952 Metairie home decided after 33 years, it was time for a change. Once defined by an unremarkable light blonde brick exterior and a mishmash of midcentury, contemporary and New Orleans design elements, the ranch-style house was transformed into a striking, modern, multigenerational hub with nods to its roots.
“There are some great midcentury modern homes in the New Orleans area,” says architect Nathan Fell of Nathan Fell Architecture. “Lakeview comes to mind and some places along the lakefront. But what we find sometimes in Metairie is a lot of the homes [built in that era] are a little bit timid in their approach.”
The owners — a busy couple with adult children, grandchildren, extended family and an active social life — loved their neighborhood and the home, but wanted a space more conducive to gatherings and sleepovers with their grandchildren. At 4,000 square feet, the home’s footprint didn’t need to be increased to achieve these goals, but a major configuration was in order. Fell, in collaboration with CNG Construction, also aimed to break free from the earlier iteration’s design reserve, leaning into original midcentury elements while also crafting spaces that embody openness, diversity and the way the family actually lives.
The extensive renovation involved strategic relocations of bathrooms, adding a laundry room, converting a mundane garage into a lively cabana with seamless pool aåccess and redefining indoor-outdoor connectivity by making the pool visible from more areas of the home and expanding the openings in the living area. Additionally, to open the living space with vaulted ceilings and create more expansive communal areas, as well as visual drama, the design team combined the former dining room with the living room and raised and reframed the roof.
Now, the exterior of the house — with white painted brick with an eye-catching, wooden gable — exudes a cohesive charm with its repointed brick framed underneath by smooth gray stucco. “We added ipe wood trellises to define space and introduced a central ipe gable adorned with glass elements to create depth,” says Fell. Horizontal pavers lead the eye, and visitors, to the newly grand double-door ipe-clad entrance framed by the trellis. For the pool and landscaping, Fell worked with Palmetto Pools + Landscape (with plants from Windmill Nursery in Franklinton) to create a pool raised 3 feet, the same level as the main floor, and raised decking which combined play visually as an internal courtyard.
Inside, the design blends new and modern, as well as vintage and antique heirloom furniture and décor. There was a particular focus on the kitchen — inspired by the family’s matriarch. “Food brings the family together and they bond over cooking,” says Fell. “So having the kitchen as successful visually, but then also functional and able to take on multiple uses, was important.” The kitchen’s design strikes a balance between visual allure and versatility with double ovens and an efficient exhaust featuring a unit below the range and a flush unit in the ceiling above.
For the millwork and cabinetry in the kitchen and throughout the home, the family’s patriarch was keen to replicate the color of a cherished rosewood table in the adjacent dining room. Fell’s team worked with Daniel Bell to achieve the look. “The cabinet designer probably produced 30 different samples for us to find the right stain, the right fill, the right veneer for the cabinets,” says Fell. Quartz tops the counters and a waterfall island, adding light and contrast to the jewel-box room. A transition from the kitchen to the dining room is created with a dramatic, yet elegant backlit Cristallo natural stone feature wall (with stone from Triton Stone). Barlinek, Oak Cannoli 7-inch wide plank engineered wood flooring unifies the kitchen, dining and great room floors.
Multiple seating areas in the great room gain coherence via the repetition of quartz for the stone feature wall and the cabinet and casework material from the kitchen. The feature wall houses an inset, flat-screen TV with a linear vapor fireplace nestled beneath. The pièce de résistance however is the multi-tonal ipe wood veneer covering the vaulted ceiling. “It’s is a little bit surprising, when interior elements match things on the exterior,” says Fell. “Not just visually for your eye to possibly move to and through spaces, but sometimes those spaces feel a little bit more ambiguous about whether they’re interior or exterior.”
One architectural challenge was integrating an I-beam into the gable design, which Fell camouflaged by a trapezoidal shape to maintain a clean aesthetic.
Saving the entryway for last, the alcove is a model of practicality, featuring a bench and coat closet. It’s a space that sets the tone for what lies beyond — a home marring past and present, innovation and tradition and breathing new life into the familiar.
