At Home With: Rich colors fill Franklin ranch house.
Rather than succumbing to French décor, homeowners add texture, flowers
Laurie Maduscha admits that she favors French country-style décor.
But she’s also smart enough to know that it wouldn’t have been the best decorating choice for the modern ranch home that she and her husband, Bob Blakely, own.
So instead of adding frilly pieces to their Franklin home, she added lots of bright-colored accent pieces and metal artwork, and he painted the home’s interior walls rich colors, all of them with added texture. Then, she softened the look just slightly by placing orchids she grows throughout the house.
The look — which says Southwest — is bright and cheery and extends into the patios and gardens that surround their home. There, they have brightly colored furniture, lots of terra cotta pots, a variety of metal garden art, plenty of flowers and an expanse of well-manicured lawn.
Laurie said that she built the home in 2002 with her former husband, but they divorced soon afterward. She is vice president of loan operations at the North Shore Bank corporate offices. Her current husband is a semiretired sales manager but works part time as a shuttle driver at the airport.
“Bob and I were married in 2003, and the first thing we did here together was to put in the yard,” she said.
“We laid the sod, planted bushes and trees and put in four gardens,” he added. “One of them is a raised vegetable garden.”
They also added a large patio made of bricks that leads to a second small patio area with a bright yellow bench and to gardens that surround the home.
Next, they painted nearly every room in the house, adding accent walls throughout.
“It’s important to have accent walls — it adds interest,” Bob said.
In the living room, they used a sandy gray colored paint with an olive sage accent wall. In the kitchen, on one wall in the dining room and on the underside of an archway between the rooms, they used Tuscany orange. The other walls in the dining room are olive brown.
“In the master, we painted one accent wall a deep plum color, the others a dark caramel, and in one guest bedroom, Bob painted a small section of an angled wall chocolate brown, but
the rest of the walls are a putty color,” said Laurie.
The second guest bedroom is all sage green.
“That’s because I didn’t get to paint that room yet,” said Bob.
They also bought nearly all new furniture and accent pieces.
In the living room, there are olive green distressed leather sofas and two wrought-iron tables topped with squares of granite.
For the dining room, they purchased a mahogany table with straight, highbacked chairs covered in a faux suede fabric in a color very similar to the accent wall in that room.
Accent pieces include brightly colored pottery mainly from Portugal, Sedona and Mexico and metal artwork that is scattered throughout the house.
“We bought the pieces from Sedona and Mexico when we traveled there, but the pieces from Portugal, we got online. We picked the color of the walls in the kitchen to match the pottery,” she said.
Metal artwork was purchased mainly from local artists.
“I love metal stuff,” she said. “In the dining room, we have a piece with four pieces of copper put together in a wavy pattern, and we also have a piece that has three long strips of metal. Each is a different color and patina. We have the same piece in the living room, but we had it hung in a different configuration.”
She also added decorative pillows throughout the house. Possibly a nod to her love of French country?
“I have a lot of pillows in different sizes, colors and fabrics. Some are beaded, some have lace. A neighbor made most of the pillows in one of the guest rooms. I picked out the fabric, and she made them. We call them the earrings of a room because they add a little style and panache to a room, and they can be changed out easily like earrings.
They recently talked about their home just before heading out on a golf outing. Q. Tell me about the stained glass windows in your living and dining rooms.
Laurie: We have a large window in the living room that has great views of the backyard and gardens. I hung panels of leaded glass in them. The frames around the panels are from an old barn, and they have some of the original hardware on them.
The panels add a lot of color and brightness to the room. They’re like prisms when the sun comes through. We have similar panels in the dining room. Q. What kind of tile is on your living room floor?
Laurie: Italian ceramic tile in larger squares. We had it laid in a decorative pattern. There was carpeting in here when the house was first built. Q. Did you make changes to your fireplace too?
Laurie: Yes, it’s a gas and wood fireplace, and there is cream city brick and wood on the front. It had glass doors, but we took them off and found this heavy wrought iron screen.
Q.
Any changes in the kitchen?
Laurie: A year ago, we put in a new tile backsplash. But the rest is original. We have a Corian topped island with a double sink and two chairs, and the floor is maple.
When I built this home, I got goodquality custom maple cabinets, so they didn’t need to be updated. On top of the cabinets, I added lighting. That accents the Southwest-style pieces we have up there now. In addition to the cabinets, we also have all six-panel maple doors throughout the house.
Q.
Your favorite spot outside? Laurie: There’s a tiny recessed area against the house just before we step down onto the patio. We can sit out there in winter because it’s protected from the wind.
Bob: It gets all afternoon sun.
Q.
Your favorite room inside? Laurie: Probably the living room. It’s comfortable and has a lot of the orchids in it. In winter, we have the fireplace going Q. You have a lot of artwork in your home. Did some come from trips?
Laurie: Some of the artwork in our living room we got from a museum in Barcelona when we were there. We go to a lot of art fairs when we travel, and we buy art locally. A lot of our artwork is also from IKEA Q. You have a lot of metal pieces outside, too. Where do you get them?
Laurie: Mostly craft fairs. Some are rusty, others aren’t. We even have some that are stainless that do not rust. Q. Your front entryway is charming. What did you all add there?
Laurie: We have large pots filled with giant begonias and a sunflower doormat. I have a bench there that I painted blue and added green accent pillows. On the other side of the bench, we have a modern water fountain that I made of granite.
Q.
Tell me about your orchids. Laurie: It’s a hobby, and they are all grown indoors. I have 25 to 30. They are so easy to grow. I bought one, and I watered it weekly, and I had it for two years. It became an addiction to have flowers year-round.
Bob: Once a week, I haul them all to the sink and water them. Q. What is the framed piece of sports memorabilia in the guest bedroom?
Laurie: That’s from when Bob was inducted into the Toronto Ultimate Frisbee Hall of Fame in 2012. He was born in Canada.
Do you, or does someone you know, have a cool, funky or exquisite living space that you’d like to see featured in At Home? Contact Fresh home and garden editor Nancy Stohs at (414) 224-2382 or email nstohs@journalsentinel.com.