Jean Holwagner | J Marie Design

Jean Holwagner opened J Marie Design 19 years ago. “I started my business with the intention of being able to be a mom of two fantastic kids and being very involved and then being able to do what I love. I have an interior design degree and wanted to use that,” she explains. Even before opening her own design studio, Jean’s work and her passion allowed her to accomplish some amazing things in her 32 years of design work.

One of Jean’s more unique projects is this featured home, which the homeowners wanted built as closely to the original 1908 home that once stood on the property as possible. “The homeowner had a very clean, clear concept of what she wanted it to look like,” Jean explains, “very similar to the original house.” While the family lives in the home, the process is not quite finished, and has taken about two and a half years so far. Much of this is due to Jean and the homeowner’s dedication to sourcing materials that match the original home, finding antiques, and matching the current home to the old one. Jean says everyone who has been working on the project has been similarly dedicated to recreating the historic home. “The set of sub-contractors that worked on it were amazing,” she says. “Everybody was very focused on making it as original as possible.”

While staying true to the original home’s design was important, so was making the home practical and durable for a young family of five. The kitchen is one area where more obvious modern modifications were made. “The kitchen is the one area the homeowner wanted it to be a little bit more current and user-friendly, like the appliances,” says Jean.

The kitchen’s bright and light atmosphere makes it also look more modern. “We wanted it very mono-chromatic, soft, but when you walk in here, the natural light that floods this space is amazing,” Jean describes. However, much of the kitchen’s design is still faithful to the original home’s design, such as the island having no bar stools, dark wood, and a custom stove hood. Similarly, in the dining room, the wallpaper was chosen for its vintage look. The light fixture is a true antique from the early 1900s, and the built-in hutch is almost identical to the original home’s.

Finding all these vintage and antique pieces, looking for inspiration from other early 20th century homes, and trying to replicate a 1908 home is not a project designers get to work on every day. Jean says it has been a fun project to work on and is grateful for the opportunity to help this family build not only a house, but a home. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime project,” she says.