Cottage hits the comeback trail

Bringing a design sense home

By Lisa Taggart of Sunset

Diving headlong into a challenging project was never an issue for Catherine Bailey and Robin Petravic. The two designers found themselves having their first child, getting to know a new town and renovating a house — not to mention acquiring Heath Ceramics, the iconic Western pottery line — all at the same time.

Their open-minded attitude came in handy when they moved from San Francisco north to Sausalito. The house they bought — a pre-1900 cottage on the hillside above the harbor — badly needed an update. Attracted to the simple beauty of functional items in their work, they brought a similar aesthetic to their home.

First, to get the most out of the view, they tore down a wall that closed off the kitchen from the dining room, leaving a central tower with cabinets on one side and the fireplace on the other. They warmed rooms with fir floors and filled spaces with modern furniture whose clean lines made the most of small quarters.

Living room

Fir floors and thick wool rugs add warmth to the living room, which is accented with a modern lounge chair, mosaic coffee table and a Walter Kuhlman portrait of a bemused nun. The new staircase to the upstairs bedroom includes a reading nook on the landing.

“It’s a challenge to do modern in an old house,” Bailey says. The solution was to mix it up: a Saarinen chair next to garage-sale finds and Ikea cabinets surrounded by custom woodwork and period molding.

Entry

A bench by the front door keeps shoes in a neat row.

Fireplace

Surprising jolts of vivid color punctuate a mostly gray palette. The cabinet wall separating the kitchen and dining room is also a tiled backdrop for a vivid turquoise fireplace. Three tones of deep-charcoal tile are a rich background for the fireplace.

Kitchen

Flush-mounted lights on the soffit and under the cabinets show off hand-tooled yellow tiles on the kitchen wall. The soft-gray walls and mushroom-colored concrete counters subtly complement the tile.

Inspiration wall

Green walls provide a soothing backdrop for Petravic’s custom-built display rail of personal mementos.

 

 

Bathroom

The couple nearly doubled their space by adding a bathroom, playroom and family room in what once was an unfinished basement. There they brought in matte-brown tiles in a larger size for the floor — a practical choice for a family with a toddler and two large, black, Newfoundland dogs. Avocado-green paint brightens the walls; sea-green Heath tile gives the bathroom an otherworldly, undersea feel.

Heath tile, in two shades of glossy and matte sea green, has natural color variation that gives the downstairs bathroom depth.

Bedroom

The couple’s cozy attic bedroom has a billion-dollar view of Sausalito harbor.

Backyard

Just outside the kitchen’s back door, the terrace has a built-in tiled counter that houses a grill, sink and ethanol fireplace. In the newly terraced yard, rust-orange tile benches are brilliant against the poured-concrete raised beds and bluestone pavers.

For local Cottages in the Atlanta Region, to make into your own Paradise on Earth, contact Your Guy for That, Dustin Drabot!

 

 

Posted In : Atlanta, Atlanta Beltline, College Park, East Point, Feed, Fort McPherson, Fulton County, Hapeville, Homepage, Metro Atlanta, Real Estate, Uncategorized

This entry was posted on Friday, March 1st, 2013 at 11:26 am. and is filed under Atlanta, Atlanta Beltline, College Park, East Point, Feed, Fort McPherson, Fulton County, Hapeville, Homepage, Metro Atlanta, Real Estate, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.