This Updated 1878 Savannah Home Nods To The Past With Panache

Details

Traditional living room with high...

Painted Benjamin Moore’s White Dove for a gallery-like feel, designer Jon Green’s Savannah living room features a fresh mix of English antiques, contemporary furniture and modern art—including works by Sonia Delaunay and Katsumi Hayakawa—which flank the opening to the dining room. An English Regency-style settee and chair, both by Minton-Spidell, stand alongside a sleek coffee table by DFM.

Traditional building exterior with red...

Built in 1878 for a coppersmith, the house was designed in the Italianate style. Although expanded over the years, the original part of the house, seen here, retains its late-19th-century exterior architecture. The front door is a replica of the original, which Green and his partner, David Long, commissioned through Grayco in Bluffton, South Carolina, based on old photographs of the house.

Traditional entryway with a gold...

The home's entryway features an eclectic mix, including an ormolu chandelier from Ida Manheim Antiques in New Orleans and a round Elliott Puckette painting from Kasmin Gallery in New York. The turquoise wool stair runner is from Eckard’s Flooring Design Center. Studio Printworks’ Le Temple des Grecs wallpaper graces the walls.

Large living room with traditional...

A double parlor in size, the living room’s camel-colored sofa and club chairs, all made by DFM, wear Holland & Sherry mohair velvet. A striped James Betts painting holds its own among pairs of mirrors made from architectural panels, blue Anglo-Indian sconces and antique Coalport vases-turned-lamps from Seventh Heaven Antiques. The rug is by Stark.

Breakfast room with yellow toile...

The breakfast room lends views and access to the courtyard thanks to the steel-and-glass wall and door unit by DFM, which Green designed “to look like an addition but be compatible with the history of the house,” he says. The designer chose Schumacher’s Johnson Hartig for Libertine Modern Toile wallpaper in Yellow to highlight David’s collection of heirloom blue-and-white Delftware.

Traditional kitchen with turquoise cabinetry,...

Drawn by residential designer Rogelio O. Carrasco and built by AWD of Savannah, Inc., the kitchen’s traditionally styled cabinetry was painted Farrow & Ball’s Stone Blue to add boldness and modernity. Made by Villa Lagoon Tile in Gulf Shores, Alabama, the custom-designed, turquoise encaustic wall tile is emblazoned with a gold star, a motif that reappears in the adjacent dining space.

Small dining room with brown...

A proportional Hepplewhite-style table—crafted from a single board of mahogany by Art Welling of The Traditionalist in Taylors, South Carolina—helps to maximize the home’s narrow dining room. A large contemporary painting by Peter Sullivan, from McClain Gallery in Houston, accents one wall. The gold fillet trim along the ceiling is one of Green’s design trademarks.

Gray hutch displaying traditional china...

The pantry houses Green and David’s sizable china collection, whose colors sing against walls and cabinetry painted Sherwin-Williams’ Garret Gray. The muted shade—selected by the previous homeowner—offers a pleasing color transition between the white dining room and blue kitchen, Green notes.

Bedroom with traditionally patterned wallpaper,...

In a guest bedroom, Green bordered an 18th-century reproduction wallpaper, Braqueni ’s La Pannonie, with burgundy velvet trim. This crisp detail inspired the room’s other plummy complements, including a berry linen-covered Chelsea House bench and a pair of Fortuny pillows. DFM fabricated the bed, which is upholstered in blue Brunschwig & Fils damask and finished with nailhead accents.

Brick-walled courtyard with swimming pool...

Once part of a lane that ran alongside the house, the courtyard was re-hardscaped with bluestone from Scottish Stone Craft to create more usable outdoor living space, including this poolside retreat. Dedon’s Marrakesh coffee table, sofa and chairs form a comfortable setup beside plantings that include kumquat trees and gardenia transplanted from the grounds of a New Orleans cottage the owners restored previously.

Designer Jon Green has the unique distinction of never having lived in a new house. Raised in an 18th-century residence near Boston, Green spent his adult life living in a 1920s-era dwelling in Houston and restoring historical homes elsewhere. Following the renovation of a Victorian house in West Virginia, he took on painter and naturalist John Audubon’s former studio: an 1820s New Orleans Creole cottage that earned Green and his partner, former furniture manufacturer David Longwood, a preservation award. So, when the couple recently relocated to Savannah, it likely surprised no one that an 1878 abode in the city’s downtown historic district became their new home. What might be surprising, however, is how well it accommodates the owners’ 21st-century lifestyle.

Lured by its architectural charms, the pair was pleased to find the house boasted a few modern conveniences oft uncommon in a historical city like Savannah. “It had the historic aspect, along with features hard to come by downtown: a courtyard, plus a swimming pool and a two-car garage,” Green says. “Also, it’s Italianate in style, so it’s a little lower to the ground. It has only four steps up to the front door, which is nice.” Owing to the previous owner’s efforts, the biggest point of difference between this house and those the couple had worked on previously was the minimal alterations required. Aside from imparting their taste on the interiors and re-hardscaping the sheltered courtyard, the couple elected to renovate only the kitchen and the adjacent screened porch—a project hatched when a frequent collaborator and friend, residential designer Rogelio O. Carrasco, visited the pair in their new home.

“After seeing the kitchen—knowing how much David cooks—and listening to their ideas about the screened porch, I spent one morning drawing up designs for both rooms,” recalls Carrasco, a burgeoning historical house specialist who worked with fellow residential designer Nadia Palacios Lauterbach to complete the plans. By removing the cinder block wall that separated the kitchen from the porch (which was, in turn, enclosed to make the breakfast room), Carrasco created a generous and functional space for cooking, dining and entertaining—three activities Green and David enjoy frequently. The residential designer also conceived the kitchen’s classically styled cabinetry, including a sizable island. The latter, Green says, makes cooking a “delight”—which is a word that might be used to describe the entire renovation. “Rogelio and I have a nice building process; he throws out an idea, I improve upon it, then he improves it further. The result is very good,” says Green, who is equally complimentary of Josh Waters, the general contractor who worked closely with the local historic foundation to obtain approval for the home’s alterations. Adds the designer: “Josh did a beautiful job on everything.”

Much like the kitchen overhaul, Green approached the interiors with respect for the house’s age and architectural style, but without getting too mired in tradition. “Being true to the architecture of the home is the bedrock of decorating,” states Green, who furnished most rooms with at least a few antiques—a gesture that not only reflects the hallmarks of the residence but also its Southern roots. At the same time, he adds, “I like to be in the modern world; I like modern art, accessories and comfort.” As avid collectors, the couple has displayed their contemporary cache prominently throughout the house, where its appearance alongside some of the rooms’ traditional-patterned wallpapers creates an appealing juxtaposition.

Color was used to keep spaces from feeling stuck in the past. “I like a fresher look, so I whitewashed all the walls that I could, including those in the living and dining rooms,” says Green, who added more vibrant hues beginning with the entryway, where a turquoise stair runner is outlined in red, giving it zip. “Blue became our way to freshen the house and give it a clean look,” he adds. The dwelling’s most creative use of the color, however, graces one of its most unexpected new accoutrements: a custom steel-and-glass china cabinet inspired by the bright cerulean, campaign-style entrance at Château de Malmaison: the French country home of Napoleon and Joséphine. Occupying the new breakfast area—a space bridging the old and new portions of the abode and leading to its lush, bluestone-laden courtyard—the arrangement is proof positive that when Green and David merge past and present, the results are dazzling.