A NEW OLD HOUSE
CONWAY ARCHITECT BUILDS HOME IN DOWNTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT ....................................................
Architect Rik Sowell and his wife, Lynne, fell in love with tree-lined Conway Boulevard and its historic homes, so they bought proper ty on the street and built a new home that’s designed to look old.
The 8-foot granite slab on the island in architect Rik Sowell’s kitchen (top left and opposite page) grabs attention, and details such as the cow’s head on the wall set the room’s French-country tone. Guests enter the home into the bright dining room. One of Sowell’s favorite details in the home is an old screen door with a Grapette push bar that he uses as a door to the butler’s pantry.To add to the historic look of the new home on Conway Boulevard, he added a metal mailbox on the front porch.
It was the eighth home they’d built together in Conway since moving from Texas in 1992.
“I promised Lynne this would be the last one,” Sowell said. Lynne, his wife of 34 years, died Aug. 8. She had a stroke 11 years ago; then was diagnosed with cancer in May.
The home, built in 2015, is full of details that Lynne wanted, Sowell said.
“We were tired of being in a subdivision where all the houses looked the same, and I wanted to be closer to downtown and my work,” he said, referring to his architectural firm located in downtown Conway.
“Old Town was a real draw for us,” Sowell said.
The couple’s first priority was the style of the home, making sure it blended into the well-established neighborhood across the street from Central Baptist College. Sowell followed Conway Historic District rules and regulations as closely as possible.
“It was important for us to build a house that looked like it belonged,” he said.
Sowell said the home’s style is best described as Old English Tudor cottage. Lynne wanted painted brick, but Sowell found a compromise with an off-white slurried-finish brick that enhances the home’s historic look.
“It gives it a little more character,” he said. Character came in other ways as well. “See the roof — it’s a catslide roof,” he said, pointing to the slope on the front
of the home. He said a catslide roof is longer on one side of the peak than the other, often seen on Cape Cod homes.
Sowell thoughtfully chose design details in the home to make it look aged — crystal doorknobs, transoms above the doors, beadboard paneling and salvaged antique bricks for the patio and part of the front driveway. Five-panel interior doors were used, “like you’d find at Grandma’s house,” he said.
On the front porch, guests are welcomed with an antique-looking mailbox that says “Post” and a vintagelooking doorbell.
Guests walk straight through the front door into the dining room.
“Isn’t that weird?” Sowell asked, smiling.
It works.
If the home were a cake, it would be angel food — light, bright and airy.
The dining room is welcoming, with a pull-up-achair-and-stay-awhile round dining table, 10-foot ceilings and light flowing through the windows. Original paintings by Nina Baker of Conway add pops of color and a happy vibe that sets the tone for the home.
Off the dining room is the master bedroom, where a cheery floral bedspread is displayed on the iron bed, which is set against a white beadboard and gray wall. A chaise lounge is situated in front of a large window.
Pine floors were used throughout the home, even though the supplier tried to talk Sowell out of using the soft wood. “I love the casualness of it,” he said.
Sowell chose white subway tile for the backsplash in the master bathroom, and a black-and-white mosaic tile for the floor. A projected window (one that extends past the exterior wall of the home) in the bathroom makes the room look larger and provides a shelf for storage. The room has a small TV on the wall — not like you’d find at Grandma’s house — and a soaking tub.
Sowell said Lynne was a big baseball fan, particularly of the Texas Rangers.
“If I couldn’t find her, she was usually in the tub, watching baseball,” he said.
The delayed entryway is just past the dining room — an anteroom, or vestibule. The ceiling in the entryway is old barnwood, given to Sowell by a friend whose mother was tearing down a barn. He also framed a mirror with the wood, which hangs above a small table in the vestibule.
The vestibule leads to the kitchen, which is open and bright. A large painting by Susan Peterson of Conway is displayed on a shiplap wall.
The kitchen’s focal point is an 8-foot island topped with a polished natural-granite slab.
“I love this; it’s God’s artwork,” Sowell said, touching the smooth stone.
He pointed out the butler’s pantry’s one-of-a-kind door, one of his favorite touches in the home. It’s an old screen door with a push bar and a Grapette advertising logo. He said he and Lynne found the door in an antique store, adding that the door reminds him of
when he was a boy in east Texas and he and his grandmother would go to grocery stores that had screen doors.
“I can still remember that slam,” he said. The kitchen has a French-country theme, and includes Lynne’s collection of roosters.
“One thing Lynne wanted was a cow head in the kitchen,” he said, pointing out the metal one above the stove. “That’s what my client wanted; that’s what my client got.”
He found cow-head cabinet pulls to coordinate with it.
“You like to personalize your design,” he said.
Sowell said he had always wanted a window seat but that he’d never designed one in any of their homes until now. The seat is not just for looks: Sowell said he often relaxes on the window seat with his dogs, Koko, a tiny toy poodle, and Charlie, a miniature Yorkie.
From that vantage point, he has a view through the covered porch into the large backyard, and can see his 8-by-12-foot garden shed.
“That little house was my recycling effort,” Sowell said, adding that he built the structure using leftover materials from the main house.
He can also see his in-laws’ backyard. RV and Shirley Cobb moved to Conway less than a year ago from Texas, and Sowell designed their home on property that he bought and subdivided.
“We have great neighbors. It’s like a park back here; it’s so peaceful and quiet,” he said, as wind chimes tinkled in the breeze.
A small bathroom off the living room, adjacent to the laundry room, has a frostedglass French door that opens to the backyard, providing easy access to the bathroom when he’s doing yardwork.
Upstairs are two more bedrooms, a bathroom and Sowell’s home office, situated in a small walk-through space that leads to a bedroom.
“Here’s my favorite room,” he said, throwing open a door to reveal a spacious floored attic.
“Storage,” he said. “My builder swears someday I’ll convert that to a theater room or another bedroom.”
Will this be his forever home? “Possibly,” he said. “That’s the curse of an architect, though. You’re always designing your next thing.”
Then again, he said, it might be nice to enclose that back porch.