Family Matters

Extensive renovation breathes new life into a St. Charles home chosen with the family in mind.

Candice Wideman reconfigured the kitchen’s layout, moving the cooktop to this wall. Craftsman Charles Lanford built the custom hood and stained the wood accent piece in the same tone as the custom LED light in the adjoining great room. “We really didn’t need upper cabinets on this side, which allowed us to take the backsplash up the wall and edge it with the ledge, where we could add art and accessories for a little more color,” says Wideman.

At a time in life when many people are downsizing, these homeowners did the opposite. They upsized to a grand, five-bedroom home with more than 7,000 square feet so it could be the gathering place for family. In fact, that’s what they call the house—the Gathering Place. “Our whole goal in purchasing this home was to be the anchor home for gatherings,” says the wife, noting their family includes three adult children and four grandchildren with another on the way.

Empt y nesters still in the workforce, the couple sold a home in St. Charles they’d remodeled with the help of Candice Wideman, owner of Youtopia Designs. The wife’s work took them out of state but, after a few years they realized they needed a larger, St. Louis base for their trips back here to see family and their eventual full-time return to the Show-Me state. They found a stately home in St. Charles with

Opposite page: Designed by Candice Wideman and built by Berkley Construction, the ceiling detail is one of the ‘wow factors’ in the great room. “He has a great eye for attention to detail,” Wideman says of Bob Berkley. The homeowners had requested making the vast room feel more intimate. “It brings the visual of the ceiling down a little, yet you can still enjoy the floor-to-ceiling windows and the sense of openness and airiness in the room,” says the wife. “These ceiling beams and the fandeliers are my husband’s favorite elements.”

This page: Vinny, the homeowners’ goldendoodle, doesn’t mind bath day with a shower space designed just for him (and his dog parents). Built by Lanford’s Custom Cabinets, retractable steps allow Vinny to walk up to the bath space and then close so the humans can reach him easily. “We utilize this space routinely,” says the wife.

20-foot ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows allowing natural light to pour into the public areas of the home, a first-floor primary suite, fully finished basement level with kitchenette and a mature landscape with plenty of room for grandkids to run around.

“I t was about location, space and that we could envision ourselves living here until we needed to downsize,” the wife says. “There were lots of good things about the house.”

At the same time, however, the outdated house “felt a little hollow,” the wife says. “We wanted to make the space more modern and create what we call our sanctuary, one that’s warm and inviting.”

The couple again called Wideman to work her magic in creating a warm, homey environment, a kind of “rustic-meets-modern” look, the interior designer explains. Wideman worked with Bob Berkley, owner of Berkley Construction Company, and Charles Lanford, owner of Lanford’s Custom Cabinets, to extensively remodel the main level of the home. A top priority was transformation of the two-story great room. With such tall ceilings, a bow window overlooking a small lake, and more than 20 feet in length, the room looks and feels massive. Yet, “this room was the most hollow with no personality,” says the wife. “The challenge was how to take that room and bring a coziness to it?”

I t was a challenge Wideman met and far exceeded. She visually lowered the ceiling with a custom beamed-ceiling treatment. “It’s basically two rectangles inside each other with an oval in the middle, and diagonal lines connect it all,” Wideman says of the architectural element. “I drew it up and Bob Berkley built it. We’ve been working together for years. He has a great eye for attention to detail.” The great room’s ceiling is a favorite of both the husband and wife. “When you walk into the room, it’s kind of a ‘wow’ factor,” says the wife. It's not the only wow factor, however. Wideman refaced the marble fireplace with stacked stone and framed it on one side with built-in bookshelves painted in Sherwin-Williams “Iron Ore.” On the fireplace’s other side, Wideman designed a modern custom light featuring a diamond-shaped pattern. Wideman echoed the ceiling’s design in the dining room. “We repeated the oval and the beams angling away from the oval,” Wideman says of the geometric shapes. Staining the beams wouldn’t produce the desired effect, so Wideman contracted with Sue Greene, owner of Paint Imagery to faux paint the beams. Greene also did a faux treatment on the ceiling inside the architectural elements. “We’d found a fabric wallpaper but then realized it would have visible seams after installation,” Wideman explains. “Sue painted the ceiling to look like that wallpaper.” A linear light fixture with the look of netting mimics a similar motif on the breakfast area’s chandelier.

Clockwise: The ceilings are lower in the breakfast room than in the nearby great room, so Wideman wanted a light fixture that made a statement yet felt open and airy. “Adding the mirror helps open the space, allowing your eye to fully move around the room,” she adds. The round wood table from Hooker adds a rustic element. Cambria quartz covers both the countertop surface and the backsplash area.

Painted in Sherwin-Williams “Iron Ore,” the new kitchen cabinets were built by craftsman Charles Lanford. An existing chair in great condition from the homeowners’ collection sits in front of new wallpaper with the appearance of grasscloth. “I loved all the blues, whites, grays and taupes in this paper, and the dandelion print adds a touch of nature to the space,” says interior designer Candice Wideman.

The great room’s ceiling treatment is echoed in the nearby dining room, where Candice Wideman repeated the design with beams angling away from the oval. Staining the beams wouldn’t produce the desired effect, so Wideman contracted with Sue Greene, owner of Paint Imagery to faux paint the beams and the ceiling. “We had a lot of fun with this room,” Wideman says.

“We needed something to break up this massive room,” says Candice Wideman. She solved the design challenge beautifully by extending the shower’s marble tile mosaic to the floor and bordering it with a semi-circular shape. “This also draws the eye to the tub area which we also wanted to highlight,” says Wideman. Painting the tub alcove in Benjamin Moore’s “Hale Navy” further defines the space. The light fixture and valance fabric’s delicacy balance the look of weathered metal on the soaking tub.

The homeowners hoped to do a light refresh of the kitchen and primary bathroom, but after considering the possibilities, decided on a gut renovation of both spaces. “We wanted all new flooring to replace the original tile and carpet, so we decided now was the time if we were going to do it,” says the wife. In the kitchen, Wideman introduced dark cabinets in the same hue used for the great room’s built-in cabinetry. Wideman rearranged the space, adding functionality by moving the cooktop and obtaining more storage even though she removed some of the upper cabinets. Lanford built the custom range hood as well as the cabinetry. “He is so conscientious about his work and making sure the homeowners get exactly what they want,” says the wife, noting Lanford always provided samples of door styles, paint hues, stain colors and other elements for choosing the perfect option. “The work is not only beautiful because of a particular crown molding he did or the details he did on the front cabinetry, but he also thought of functionality such as something specific for Keurig cups and making sure we had the proper drawer space.”

The primary bath was spacious but had a dated drop-in tub and an oddly shaped shower unusually small for such a large bathroom. “We ripped everything out and started fresh,” says Wideman, placing a soaking tub with the look of weathered metal in an alcove and painting an accent wall in Benjamin Moore “Hale Navy.” Reconfiguring spaces resulted in room for a new, nearly 12-foot-long shower clad in 2-foot-by-4-foot porcelain tile. She broke up the room visually and drew the eye to the shower’s beautiful, polished marble mosaic by repeating the mosaic pattern on the floor in the shape of a semi-circle.

Using the same shapes, forms and colors throughout the home ties the spaces together in a cohesive way, Wideman says. “Candice sees things I couldn’t imagine we could do,” says the wife. “I liked most everything she suggested. There were very few revisions from her proposals.”

When the couple bought the home, the wife says they did wonder if it was too big. “We laugh now because we use every room,” she says. “It’s just been wonderful to have a house that lends itself to gathering as a family.” See stlouishomesmag.com for resources and additional photos.