home
The living room, located on one side of the center hall, opens onto a side porch; a new working fireplace and a large antique mirror handed down from Winnie’s family form a focal point at one end of the room; the chaise longue from Mark’s mother’s home is an original Eastlake design; the sofa is a classic 1960s piece updated with suede upholstery; painting, Lisa di Stefano.
Clean and Crisp An edited design for a centuries-old house by Lee Cutrone photographed by Greg Miles
Winnie and Mark Brown lived in
their current house for a decade before undertaking a major renovation of the property. Winnie had lived in several other houses on the wide Uptown street before
38 february 2019 myneworleans.com
marrying Mark. Together the couple raised a blended family of five children in the stucco center hall cottage, which sat atop a hill. By the time they decided to begin the renovation they’d
been considering, they knew the house, and what they wanted inside and out – literally. They hired architect William Sonner, a friend with whom Winnie had worked before, and spent
several years refining the plans. The couple were attuned to maintaining the charm and historic character of the 1920s era home and its neighborhood setting. Therefore, a main goal, according to Mark, was “to not have a raised basement house, but rather a traditional two-story house.” “We wanted to stay true to the integrity of the architecture while at the same time making it modern and functional – and also looking at possibly selling it down the road,” Winnie said. “We wanted a fresh and well-edited floorplan. My mother used to say, take one piece of jewelry off before you leave the house.” The redesign called for elevating the house four feet and eliminating the basement. It also required building a new first floor and turning the original first floor into a reconfigured second floor, complete with a master wing, three additional bedrooms (each with a private bath), a laundry room,
