When Randall Cobb and Lisa DeAngelis first toured their future Midtown home, they overlooked its outdated decor and overgrown garden. They saw past the inadequate lighting, and they paid no mind to the "wet campfire" smell permeating the home, caused by water leaking through the chimney.

Instead, what the couple saw was a living, breathing work of art. After all, famed Atlanta architect Henri Jova built this Mid-Century modern for his parents in 1965, next door to his own estate now on the market for $1.95 million. Jova pioneered a contemporary aesthetic in Midtown architecture, most notably at the Colony Square complex at 14th and Peachtree streets.

Hyosub Shin / AJC (ENLARGE)

Interior designer Randall Cobb and his wife, Lisa DeAngelis, gently renovated a Midtown home designed by renowned architect Henri Jova. This is the couple in the library, which takes up the entire second floor.

Hyosub Shin / AJC (ENLARGE)

When Lisa DeAngelis discovered the crimson Chinese temple doors at Paris on Ponce, she said she had to convince the owners to part with them as they weren't for sale. Now, they are mounted into the wall above the mantle.

RELATED LINKS • Photos: See more of this Midtown home • Photos: Two mansions for sale, including Henri Jova's estate • Previous Private Quarters • Home & Garden • ajchomefinder.com • 2007 Home Sales Report Step back in time Search our historic archives for stories on historic homes and more about the Atlanta environs from 1868 through 1939.

"The entire footprint of the house was flawless ... it was designed perfectly," Cobb said. "I just had to update everything."

Luckily for the couple, they both have an eye for structure — she as a dentist, he as an interior designer. They fell in love with the home's clean lines, its airy feel and courtyard garden. For them, the white brick abode was an impeccable canvas waiting to be painted.

"I knew instantly what it would look like," said Cobb, owner of Randall Cobb Interiors.

They purchased the home in February 2006 for $575,000 and wasted no time getting to work, moving in post-renovation that August. They had spent the previous decade in a Morningside townhouse, and were anxious to make this 7th Street property their own.

DeAngelis explains they called in every favor owed to them and set their sights on the home's virtually non-existent lighting scheme. (Think a single outlet in a room.) Because they wanted to keep the original stained redwood ceiling intact, they installed the conduit and a new roof above the planks. They introduced light by removing a wall that concealed the foyer's staircase and replaced it with a glass-paneled banister. The couple also gutted the home's three bathrooms and tore out overgrown bushes in the courtyard.

"We basically built a new house inside an old shell," DeAngelis said.

Through their work, the two restored the home to its intended contemporary feel, but with a hefty dose of cozy, Zen-like sophistication. And it works — the property recently appraised at $1.2 million, Cobb said.

"Even though I'm a modernist, I have a real issue with this cold, straight-line look that is out right now," he said. "Everything is about comfort."

The home's color scheme incorporates chocolates, creams, and golds, with pops of reddish hues to complement the ceiling. Cobb's aesthetic is sleek and understated, save for the dramatic crimson Chinese temple doors mounted above the living room mantle, which DeAngelis said she had to convince the owners of Paris on Ponce to sell.

Cobb carefully selected furniture in scale with the home. (The sweeping two-story living room makes the home feel larger than its 2,100 square feet.) When appropriate pieces could not be found, Cobb — a former designer with David Incorporated in Atlanta — created them himself, including the silverly beige sofas in the living room and cinnamon suede button-tufted bed in the guest room.

The couple's elaborate art collection is on display throughout the home, among them pieces by Atlanta artists Alli Royce Soble and Tracy Hartley. In the dining room, the paintings pop against the backdrop of creamy white brick walls, also found on the home's floors and exterior. (But in this room, a friend faux-finished the bricks white as a previous owner had painted them burgundy.)

Cobb completed the room with Thomas Pheasant chandeliers and ostrich-inspired host and hostess dining room chairs, flanking the glossy mahogany dining table he discovered at Paris on Ponce.

"We love the dining room," Cobb said. "When we're entertaining, and the French doors are open, we can hear the fountain and police cars. Midtown is great."

Doors from the living and dining rooms lead to the courtyard garden, home to a mangled metal sculpture that Cobb explained was once Jova's Porsche. A deco-modern wrought iron table is completed with a hand-painted Italian tabletop DeAngelis commissioned as a gift to her husband. The words "Villa Bosco" are inscribed on the piece — a tribute to Cobb's childhood nickname "Bosco," meaning hat with no brim.

The couple prepares their meals in a small, yet functional kitchen. Cobb made few changes other than adding additional lighting, installing a commercial grade hood, and finishing the space with a black backsplash. A butcher-block table on casters doubles as a breakfast table and serving cart.

"This is where we ran out of money," he joked. "We made do."

Perhaps his work is best seen in the master bedroom and study, both lessons in how restrained design, intimate lighting and rich fabrics create a contoured, urban glamour. Golden brown pin-tucked silk drapes line two walls of their bedroom, leading to a wall of glossy mahogany closets which DeAngelis helped design.

Their upholstered bed, by Swaim, features the same Kravet silk bedding as their linens. The floor is covered in a dark, lustrous hand knotted silk and wool rug from India. The master bath boldly glistens with Bisazza mosaic glass tile, which Cobb also used on the floor of the home's elevator.

(And yes, the elevator still works. It has been updated with shimmering gold Murano crushed glass wallpaper.)

The Homelift elevator and stairwell lead to the upstairs study, the only room on the second floor of the home. The couple co-designed built-ins and a workstation in this richly lit room, anchored by Cobb's beloved burgundy 1970s David Blumenthal sofa, an homage to the Atlanta designer with whom Cobb studied. Here, the couple often watches movies at home with Chihuahuas Pepper and Major.

"We manage to utilize every room," Cobb said.

DeAngelis said she and her husband plan to stay in this home permanently.

"There are still moments when I sit in the living room, and it suddenly occurs to me that this is where I live," she said. "I just wish the days were longer so that we could enjoy it more."