Story of A House
The Love Nest
Stylish, modest, and oh-so-thoroughly-modern By Maria Johnson • Photographs by Stacey Van Berkel
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he’s a collector. He’s a minimalist. She likes to get out. He likes to stay home. She leans toward buying. He salvages every chance he gets. Knowing that the marriage of Suzanne and Edgar Cabrera holds this kind of dichotomy, you might think their home would be a schizophrenic mess. But that would ignore the unifying principle: Both of them are designers and illustrators, which explains how the young couple — both graduates of UNCG’s interior architecture program — have fashioned a stylish, thrifty love nest from a modern ranch home in north Greensboro. Because they live and work in the 1,600-square-foot space, which they share with their beagle, Pokey, and their twin 20-month old sons, Max and Miles (aka the interns), the Cabreras aim to make their three-bedroom home functional, beautiful, restful and, to a toddlerish degree, indestructible. “It’s a work in progress,” says Edgar. “That’s part of what we enjoy — constantly working and doing what we can, whenever we can.” The changes they’ve made — including painting the front door yellow and brushing black paint over the vertical wood siding to mimic the barns that Suzanne admired on a trip to Kentucky — are laid over good bones. Edgar saw them the moment Suzanne showed him the angular house in the Natchez Trace neighborhood off Pisgah Church Road. They’d looked at about 20 listings, and Suzanne had already stalked the latest prospect, peering through the windows of the 1981 home and liking what she saw. “This is it,” Edgar told Suzanne as they pulled up. “Don’t look at any more. This is our home.” The house had clean lines. It wasn’t too big or too small. It sat on a cul-desac lot backed by a curtain of trees. Inside, the former owners had made some improvements. They’d installed stainless-steel appliances and added a sizable deck. The hardwood floors were in good shape. Ditto the great room’s vaulted ceiling with exposed beams. The yard was planted with azaleas, rhododendrons and camellias, and it had an attractive gravel sitting area off the deck. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Someone had taken good care of the place. The Cabreras, who were frustrated by years of living in rentals, were ready to take over. “We wanted something with character, something we could give our touch,” says Edgar. Their touch is a fusion of tastes rooted in their childhoods. Suzanne grew up in North Carolina, near Grandfather Mountain. She spent much of her youth riding with her parents to flea markets and antique sales where Mom and Dad prowled for vintage toys and kitchen items while Suzanne gathered Wizard of Oz memorabilia. “I thought if you didn’t have a collection, you were pretty boring,” she says. Enter Edgar, who arrived from the Dominican Republic at age 18. He traveled light, with one suitcase. It was a habit borne of necessity in his impoverished native country. “We had only what we really needed,” says Edgar. He lived in New York City for several years, then relocated to Raleigh and met Suzanne at the apartment complex where she worked. A graduate of the journalism school at UNC-Chapel Hill, she had discovered she was a better designer than writer. She was headed for the interior architecture graduate school at UNCG. Edgar appreciated design. As a boy, he was enchanted by the hand-drawn sketches in an architect’s office where his father, a photographer, worked. But architecture school was too expensive, so Edgar shelved his dreams. They stirred again when he saw sketches in the design studios at UNCG. With Suzanne’s encouragement, he got his academic footing at Guilford Technical Community College, then transferred to UNCG, where he, too, studied interior architecture. After graduation, Suzanne taught at UNCG, and Edgar worked for furniture maker Natuzzi. Then they started a business: An Open Sketchbook. Working together while the boys sleep and trading shifts when they’re awake, the Cabreras create illustrations for freelance clients. They’re also developing their own stationery, which they sell on their website, www. anopensketchbook.com. They’ve been accepted as exhibitors for the upcoming National Stationery Show in New York. They hope to offer their wares in retail shops soon. February 2013
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