Family Kitchen, Southern Style

These homeowners created a comfort zone made for cooking, dining, and relaxing.

Geographically, Todd and Crissy Clarke's home sits in the small southeast Texas city of Beaumont. But lose the map, stand in the kitchen, and you're likely to feel like you've traveled about 100 miles east on I-10. With its brick floors, antique pine wood beams, and cypress cabinets, the kitchen and family room have the distinct flavor of South Louisiana architecture. It's a look the couple was drawn to again and again as they sought out designs for their new home. "We kept gravitating toward that A. Hays Town style," Crissy says, referring to the renowned Louisiana architect. Luckily, they found Baton Rouge architect Al Jones, a former Town protégé and a success in his own right.

Making a List

When Al first met with Todd and Crissy, he asked for at least three pages of things they wanted. After months of research, Crissy was ready. She'd driven to a favorite neighborhood and taken 250 photographs. They couple had also considered the Country French style of Tulsa architect Jack Arnold. Crissy gave Al a long list of wants, but she also gave him a list of her dislikes, things culled from years of homeownership.

Instant Age

This house was built in 2001 but has the charm of an older home. The secret is in the materials. Salvaged wood and brick give the family room and kitchen a sense of history. The large ceiling beams were salvaged from a building in Asheville, North Carolina; the smaller beams came from a shopping center torn down in Shreveport. The bricks on the floor are from an old building in Ponchatoula, Louisiana.

Because of these elements, the interiors maintain the tone set by the exterior walls, which are lined with bricks from a razed grocery store in New Orleans.

Cypress Style

For the kitchen, Todd and Crissy spent two days in Baton Rouge working with Highland Millworks & Cabinet Company. The couple helped plan every drawer, every shape, and the placement of the cabinets. The company then made two trips to the house: one to mark where the cabinets would hang and another to install them.

The cypress cabinets are stained with the architect's formula to match the trim around the doors and windows. Cypress boards, individually cut to fit, also line two walls in the breakfast nook. This treatment visually connects the two areas.

Color and Light

Warm vanilla paint on the walls allows the dark wood beams and red brick to stand out. Multiple windows, free of treatments, let in maximum sunlight.

In the family room, red, white, and blue toile adds color. A floral rug in the same hues breaks up the expanse of brick. Even though the rug and furniture have very different patterns, they don't clash because of the similar tones-a neat design idea to keep in mind. AMY BICKERS MERCER

HIDDEN HOME OFFICE

The idea for a workspace in a closet came from Crissy. "I didn't like walking in to see the computer and loose papers out everywhere. I wanted to have it so I didn't have to put things away all the time but could easily hide them," she explains. The solution? A desk was fitted into a closet off the breakfast room. Upper cabinets and corkboard on the wall provide plenty of room for paper items. The desk is small, so there is enough room to tuck in a chair and shut the door.

FAMILY KITCHEN, SOUTHERN STYLE

Pages 122-123: Architecture by Al Jones, Baton Rouge, (225) 925-0123; builder was Anderson Construction, Beaumont, Texas, (409) 860-3133.

Copyright Southern Progress Corporation Sep 2004
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