A dramatic renovation in Marietta enabled the home’s owners to embrace their appreciation for European architecture and give new life to pieces from the past.
From the front entry to the interior ceilings and beyond, Bob and Gale Koven’s home is filled with items from the past — including a chandelier from a ballroom at the Astor Estate in New York and English antiques.
“All of these items have a purpose, if you can be creative and find out where to put them in your architecture,” Bob said. “It gives you a feeling of having something that was famous or important in someone’s life 100 years ago. It’s kind of fun to bring it back into your house.”
Snapshot
Residents: Bob and Gale Koven. Bob is retired; Gale is a business manager and CPA.
Location: Marietta
Size: About 6,000 square feet, five bedrooms, four and a half baths
Year built: 1979
Renovations: They completely remodeled the home in 2011. The updates included transforming the exterior from a stucco front to a mostly stone exterior, which reflects the architecture styles they grew fond of while traveling in Europe and in the northeast U.S.
Builder: Mike Nelson
Architectural style: Classical European
Favorite architectural features: The columns around the front door, which create a grand entrance, and the diamond pattern on some of the windows that reflects an English influence.
Design consultants: Don Easterling and Nina Nash, interior designers at Mathews' Furniture Galleries & Design
Interior design style: Classical European
Favorite outdoor feature: The front doors, which date back to the Civil War and were refurbished. "They were picked up in North Georgia out of a church that was being destroyed," Bob said. "They were built in 1862."
Favorite repurposed items: The heart pine beams on the living room ceiling came from an old warehouse, and the windows are from a Victorian house in Atlanta, near Turner Field. The fireplace had been in a plantation home in Alabama; they added the French tile. The black walnut used in the study is recycled from various places in Atlanta. The stairway also is an antique, believed to be about 200 years old.
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