Kirkwood home gets classic update

Home and Garden

Kirkwood home gets classic update

Kirkwood home gets classic update

Built by local architect Frank Ruggles in 1911, Kara O'Brien's Kirkwood home is an artful blend of old and new that retains the integrity of its original Craftsman and Victorian architectural styles.

It was the neighborhood that sold Kara O'Brien on the house. I fell in love with Kirkwood's turn-of-the-century architecture, gorgeous, mature trees and the sense of small-town community closeness, she said. "The horses on the gables were original, but perhaps didn't look exactly the same. They were super rotted, but we took them down and could see they were horses on both gables. So we recreated them. Some neighborscall our house the "Horsehead House," said Kara O'Brien.

"We removed cement siding to find all of the gorgeous detailing, including the cedar shingles, decorative brackets, and sunburst vents, said O'Brien.

"The front door is a salvaged 1890s oak door with beveled and leaded glass that hailed from Ohio and had been restored. The sidelights are from upstate New York but had the same look and feel. The fleur de lys brackets and side paneling our cabinet guy milled from beams that we took out of the back of the house and are both heart of pine and cedar. We got the design from other Ruggles' built homes in the neighborhood to keep the look authentic and appropriate," said Kara O'Brien.

"We designed the kitchen based on the Greene & Greene Brothers famed furniture. The main cabinets are milled from reclaimed oak floor house joists and feature walnut accents and drawers and have an embedded civil war era bullet in the island panel. The surrounding cabinets are milled from American walnut with walnut counters and feature oak accents. The handles had to be milled with laser-guided saws to get the curviness right," said Kara O'Brien.

In the kitchen, the main cabinets are milled from reclaimed oak floor house joists and feature walnut accents and drawers and have an embedded civil war era bullet in the island panel.

The intricate walnut newel post in the photo is part of a collection of newel posts found in the house. This one came from a New York City brownstone," said Kara O'Brien.

"First, we found this fireplace opening behind the plaster during demo and decided to put it back. I found this gorgeous mahogany 1890s mantel on Craigslist and it had been flawlessly restored. It still has its original tag on the back of it and it was salvaged from a Pennsylvanian mansion. The tile is all reclaimed from the West End of Atlanta and we designed the mosiac pattern. The buck themed summer screen is also reclaimed and is solid brass," said Kara O'Brien.

The mantel and wainscoting were stolen during renovation. "Miraculously we found them on a neighbor's porch. We designed the "Tree of Life with Peaches" stained glass piece since the original glass was long gone, Kara O'Brien said.

This is a Victorian organ that someone converted into a desk with a pull-out oak slab for writing. The lion's head chair (on the right) is from the 1840s and is walnut and part of a set that my parents gave me. The walnut Eastlake Victorian chair, on the left, is an antique store find.

The sun room: "When we purchased the house, this room had been converted to a small ugly kitchen," said homeowner Kara O'Brien. "The original windows were gone or rotted and there was a dropped water soaked accoustical ceiling. We took down the beaded board wainscotting and ceiling beaded board, insulated and reframed everything, planed the boards and reinstalled them. We milled the windows from heart of pine beams from the back of the house, and installed stained glass squares."

"The lion's head chair (on the right) is from the 1840s and is walnut and part of a set that my parents gave me," said O'Brien. "The other pieces are throughout the house. The walnut Eastlake Victorian chair, on the left, is an antique store find from Virginia's Shenandoah Valley."

"The tin ceiling I found on ebay and it was "new" in the box from a Muncie, Ind. hardware store. Someone found it still in the box in the basement and there was the perfect amount to cover the kitchen ceiling," said Kara O'Brien.

This is an antique Victorian front door from the West End that was pulled out of a dumpster and coated in paint. "We stripped it and had stained glass reinstalled in the door. The sink is an 1890s Victorian with a modern reproduction bronze faucet. The medicine cabinet is a quartersawn Craftsman piece from the 1920s," said Kara O'Brien.

This is oak wainscoting salvaged from a mansion in Chattanooga. "We forgot that we had it. But when we moved our basement filled with architectural salvage, we pulled it out, refinished it, and installed it in the hallway. We had just the perfect amount for the hall. We milled the plate rack shelf and brackets from the same reclaimed oak joists that we used to mill the kitchen cabinets," said Kara O'Brien.

The upstairs hallway originally was plaster, but Walker and her friends were getting the walls smudged with hand prints. "I had antique heart of pine sheathing boards from a roof in Virginia Highlands and so I ran them through a planer and installed them as wainscot to solve that problem, " said Kara O'Brien.

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Built by local architect Frank Ruggles in 1911, Kara O'Brien's Kirkwood home is an artful blend of old and new that retains the integrity of its original Craftsman and Victorian architectural styles.

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