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When Alexandria residents Laura Grant and Tom Truchio approached interior design consultant Kaki Ernst of Truley Home last winter to spearhead the renovation of their historic home in Old Town Alexandria, the local designer jumped at the opportunity to help bring the minimally updated home, built in 1875, into the new millennium.
Exquisite exposed brick, a striking interior, arched doorway, original heart pine floors and a charm-ing claw-foot bathtub all presented an irresistible opportunity for a makeover. The homeowners, along with their 13-year-old daughter and pet gol-dendoodle (named Paisley), have lived in the home since 2010.
Ernst hit the ground running last spring and went to work to rid the 19th-century home of some of the outdated space constraints while striving to retain the splendor of its 144 years. She enlisted Northern Virginia contractor John Boynton of J & F Specialties, Inc. to help with the project’s construction details.
According to Grant, she and her husband wanted to respect the history of the smoky navy-hued brick home, while also giving it a more modern twist. “We love the story of the house, and our goal was to highlight its history through certain design elements,” she said.
Ernst added: “From day one, we wanted to make sure that we didn’t take away from the original ‘stories’ of the home. … [Instead], we wanted to add to its narrative with the help of creative enhancements.”
“Our goal throughout the process has been to maximize every bit of space in this home,” Grant said. “In Old Town, certain laws can prevent homeowners from expanding a home’s footprint, so it’s more about how you can work creatively with the space you have.”
BLENDING OLD AND NEW
Heart pine floors and elegant exposed beam ceilings original to the home, along with the arched interior exposed brick wall, preside over the now-updated kitchen space.
As part of the remodel — and on the list to “go” — was a dark red- and brown-toned kitchen bearing no relation to the rest of the house. Ernst and Boynton re-placed the outdated cabinets with brighter, more modern, white-cherry cabinetry that creates a cleaner, airier, more spacious kitchen.
The team also incorporated additional storage space; updated the old appliances to professional-grade (“We both love to cook,” Laura noted); added lighting; incorporated quartz countertops and created a coffee bar area. Other original design details include brushed gold hardware and a tailor-made range hood lined with gold trim.
Laura’s “pièce de résistance” in her new kitchen is a customized purple professional-grade stove. “I’ve loved purple my whole life, and I wanted something in the new kitchen to make the space entirely unique,” she said. “The purple stove will be the first thing people see when they walk in the kitchen, making it perfectly unique.”
Several dramatic changes were made on the second level, which was a burrow of two small bedrooms and a single hall bath, common in Old Town’s historic homes.
Working with the homeowners and Boynton, Ernst transformed the upper floor into a more spacious, contemporary space, featuring a new en-suite bathroom in the master bedroom, a newly remodeled hallway bath, a custom-designed, hidden hallway closet and a redesigned bedroom for their teenage daughter.
Unique accents abound upstairs. The team opted once again to retain the original heart pine flooring for the updated hall bath, but this time, pulled the floors up to the ceiling, creating a unique look and feel. An antique claw-foot bathtub pays tribute to the home’s original owners, so Laura decided to showcase the piece by repainting the tub’s exterior black and reglazing the interior in a shade of gold. The team also chose patterned tile for the new floors and reconstructed a former space-constrained shower to a more functional shower. “It’s a beautiful showpiece bathroom now,” Laura said.
Next, Ernst helped the family design a functional linen closet in an un-utilized space located over the stairwell. “I found a stunning wrought iron piece from an old gate at a local antique store and incorporated it into a ‘concealed’ closet,” Ernst said. “It now looks like custom artwork displayed on the wall, but behind it is a hidden, yet very functional, linen closet. We took advantage of every nook and cranny, maximizing every bit of usable space.”
The team added another bath upstairs featuring a walk-in shower as well as a navy-colored vanity with a white quartz countertop laced with navy veins. Ernst also suggested a pocket door for space-saving purposes, as well as a brushed glass divider to retain the room’s light and flow.
Phase by phase, and with extraordinary attention to detail, the Old Town renovation resulted in unique solutions that added modern functionality while also preserving the historical feel of the home.
“I wanted to find a team I could turn to, collaborate with and trust to give me what I wanted in our renovation project,” Laura said. “Kaki and John helped us capture our vision… we knew we could trust them to make the right decisions with regards to retaining the integrity and quality of the original home. We are so pleased with how everything turned out.”
