Columbia County Magazine

Category: In The Home

  • Window on the World

    Window on the World

    Photography by Sally Kolar

    Influences from near and far drove the design of this Columbia County home.

    Drawing on her Italian heritage, plus a dash of her Louisiana roots, Barbara Frantom has brought a touch of Tuscany to the custom home she and her late husband, Sam, built in Evans.

    Collecting items for two years before they moved into the house in 2017, she made sure everything had a place before she brought it into their home. And she knows the history of every piece as well.

    “I know where everything in the house came from or who gave it to me,” Barbara says.

    European Inspired

    While she was collecting furnishings and décor for their home, which includes many family pieces, Barbara had the design in mind all along. The art, cathedrals and homes of Europe were her inspiration for the interior of the Tuscan-style house. A large veranda lines the back of the house, and the spacious rooms are filled with elements of nature such as wood, stone, wrought iron accessories and earth tones.

    Barbara wanted an open floorplan, where European oak flooring runs throughout much of the home, but she looks up to two of her favorite architectural features.

    The dining room has a cove ceiling, a design that Barbara borrowed from European churches, and a brick barrel ceiling brings character to a long hallway. Sharing travertine tile flooring with the foyer, the dining room also includes a double pedestal table, another dropleaf table against one wall, a serpentine buffet and two china cabinets.

    “I like a mix of furnishings. I’m not a minimalist. I’m much more traditional,” says Barbara.

    With a wooden French seamstress doll atop a table and a German grandfather clock against a wall, the foyer includes slices of Europe as well. The tapestry on the wall belonged to Barbara’s mother.

    In the barrel-ceilinged hallway, the Stations of the Cross wall hanging came from a mission church in New Mexico. A friend of hers made an angel picture, one of many angels throughout the house, for her out of diamond glass beads because Barbara, a four-time cancer survivor, has an affinity for angels.

    Arched entryways from the hallway lead into the great room, and the Frantoms designed the house around the spacing of three sets of double doors that lead from the great room to the veranda.

    The great room features a two-story ceiling with beams and two large oak bookcases. One of the bookcases was built to accommodate a TV, and the other was built around a secretary that belonged to Barbara’s mother.

    Originally in an old house in south Georgia, the wood fireplace is built on top of a travertine tile base to meet code specifications.

    “We couldn’t have wood on the floor, so we had to cut off the base of the fireplace,” says Barbara. “We elevated it by putting Travertine beneath it.”

    Two antler-shaped light fixtures — they’re actually made of wood that Barbara hand-rubbed — came from the Jones Creek clubhouse.

    The slate coffee table belonged to Barbara’s mother, and mix and match chairs are placed intimately side-by-side in the great room.

    “I like lots of little private sitting areas. I like for people to be able to have conversations,” Barbara says.

    A wrought iron wall hanging occupies space above each bookcase, and artwork featuring two outstretched arms reaching toward each other is made of copper and black metal.

    Open Space

    The great room leads into the adjoining kitchen – Barbara’s favorite spot in the house – and the floorplan gives the kitchen easy access to the rest of the house.

    “I don’t like for the cook to be excluded from all the activity, so I wanted an open area,” says Barbara. “I love to cook. I cook Italian food, Louisiana food and Southern food. I’ll try most anything.”

    With a countertop that is made of a single piece of granite, the large island serves as the prep area when she entertains friends and family. The kitchen also features stainless steel appliances and a travertine tile backsplash.

    The connecting hearth room features a cathedral ceiling with oak beams, a stone fireplace and a bar with a wine rack and shelves that are draped with illuminated decorative grapes.

    Furnishings include a 1917 German credenza that the Frantoms bought in Louisiana. An old working cutting table, which came from Cleveland, serves as the spot for casual dining. Barbara found it at the Atlanta Market, and, from wine bottles and glasses to grapes and cutting boards, she has arranged the tabletop with all the makings of the perfect Tuscan picnic.

    In other nods to her Pelican State roots, Barbara has a collection of clowns such as the two that sit on the German credenza. A Mardi Gras mask hangs in a window in the hearth room.

    A large stained glass window – a focal point in the room – faces the pool area. The Frantoms bought the window, which originally was in TGI Fridays in New York, at an antique shop in Florida and stored it until they were ready to build.

    Sam made most of the other stained glass windows in the house, and one with birds, which hangs outside, came from the top portion of Barbara’s mother’s back door. Barbara makes all of her own floral arrangements, including the matching pair on the front doors.

    More artwork can be found in a hallway that serves as a canvas for a collection of prints from Louisiana and two paintings by Barbara’s aunt, who was an artist in Baton Rouge.

    The furnishings in the “monkey” bath, which features several decorative monkeys, give this room a European feel as well. They include a bench and an armoire that was hand-carved in the Philippines.

    “In Europe, they don’t use built-ins in the bath,” Barbara says. “They bring in furniture.”

    She also furnished the master bath with a dresser and another armoire. The crystal chandelier in the master bath, which includes a soaking tub, walk-in shower and travertine tile floor, came from her mother’s dining room.

    Architectural features of the master bedroom include a trey ceiling and a bay window.

    The sitting area in the room includes her hope chest, a gift from her mother that was carved out of camphor wood. Although the armoire, circa 1912, came from the Woodrow Wilson house in downtown Augusta (it includes a brass plaque as authentication), Barbara found it at an antique store.

    She didn’t just scout out antique shops to find treasures for her home, however. She found many of her pieces at consignment stores as well.

    “Someone else’s loss has a new home with me,” she says.

    Game Day

    While traces of Europe are prevalent throughout the interior, the covered outdoor kitchen and sitting area are pure Americana. Especially on game day during football season.

    Behind the pecky cypress bar, Barbara hung flags that her friends have given her to represent their favorite schools.

    Of course, the purple and gold Louisiana State University flag from her alma mater, where she majored in art and was Miss LSU, is larger than the other flags along the brick wall. However, she is happy to display the banners of the rival schools – and UGA’s national championship season in 2021 – as well.

    With one TV in the outdoor kitchen and another in the adjoining covered seating area, her backyard is the perfect spot for football fans to watch the action.

    “I like to have chili parties during football season,” Barbara says. “I love to entertain. I love everything about it. I work well under stress. I don’t do well when I have too much down time.”

    By Sarah James

  • Living Large

    Living Large

    Photography by Sally Kolar

    Contemporary, colorful, versatile and fun – this Jones Creek Plantation home is designed for entertaining.
    The Jones Creek Plantation home of Michael Siewert and Justin Resley is so strategically laid out that it’s hard to imagine it any other way. However, the sitting room once was the dining room, the living room became the dining room, the kitchen used to be a porch and the small foyer to the master bedroom started out as a bath.

    And that fabulous shoe wall in the master bedroom closet? Well, it didn’t even exist when they moved into the Evans house in 2005.

    Michael, who owns Signature Interiors & Gifts, and Justin, a cardiovascular perfusionist at University Hospital, have done extensive renovations to the house where they like to unwind after work or entertain with ease.

    Employing his construction and design talents, Michael, who created and did many of the renovations himself, approaches the interior décor of their home the same way he does the house of a client.

    “I like for my clients to show me a space and tell me how they’re going to use it, and then I can fix the problem,” he says.

    Raise the Bar
    A stroll down the main corridor of the home offers a nod to their travels, where Chinese terracotta soldiers stand guard, a Cirque du Soleil-inspired half bath adds whimsy and entry into a Louisville bourbon bar beckons.

    Michael also put his building skills to work in the hallway, where he constructed individual wall niches for the terracotta soldiers. They purchased the figures on a trip to Xian, China, where the famed warriors are interred, before traveling on to Thailand several years ago when Justin gave a medical presentation there.

    For the half bath, they adopted a Cirque du Soleil theme, featuring a funky chandelier and black-and-white wallpaper, after seeing a show by the high-flying performers in Las Vegas.

    The Louisville bourbon bar, formerly the laundry room, features memorabilia that pays homage to Michael’s Kentucky hometown. Although he has a preference for white walls, the red walls in the bar create a different vibe.

    “I wanted a dark, smoky bar,” says Michael, who once worked in a bar in Louisville.

    Colorful giclée prints of Muhammad Ali and the Kentucky Derby hang on one wall. On the opposite wall, four black and white prints depict a map of Kentucky and three Louisville landmarks – the Belle of Louisville steamboat, the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge, which crosses the Ohio River into Jeffersonville, Indiana.

    The wet bar also features a granite countertop, a hammered brass sink, a wine fridge and an icemaker.

    Pops of Color
    Steps just beyond the bar lead down to the sunken living room, which features white walls. “As a designer, I enjoy having white walls. It gives me a neutral palette to work off of,” says Michael. “I like clean, white walls from one room to the next because they reflect the light. I’m all about light reflecting in room to room, whether I’m working with fabrics or furniture.”

    He calls a trio of abstract prints, which are spotlighted by wall-mounted lamps, “the inspiration for the room.”

    “I love this artwork,” says Michael. “I liked the variety of colors that I could play with. It was simple to create a palette around that artwork. It’s black and white with pops of color.”

    The colorful palette in the living room includes a pair of orange lacquered tables behind white leather couches with footrests and headrests, which create a theater-like experience to watch movies.

    A remote controlled-screen lowers down in front of a large silverleaf fiberglass sculpture that hangs in a lighted wall nook. To enhance the movie viewing experience, Michael made blackout window treatments, featuring sequined fabric, for the living room as well.

    Upholstered chairs with zebra-print backs and hot pink cushions surround a table, which is great for playing cards, in a corner of the room. A faux Chihuly blown-glass chandelier hangs above the table, and the seating area includes a small TV as well.

    “It’s a perfect Masters house because there are lots of little gathering spaces,” says Justin.

    Another nice Masters rental feature is the addition of a pool house that includes private living quarters with a full kitchen and bath. Connected to the main house, the addition also houses the laundry room, a sewing room and an “outdoor room” that shares a see-through, wood-burning fireplace with the pool.

    “We spend a lot of time out here in the winter,” Justin says of the outdoor room. “It’s nice with the see-through fireplace.”

    Suite Spot
    As part of the renovations, they also created a buffer between the master bedroom and the main corridor. The room originally opened directly into the hallway, but they turned the adjoining bath into a small foyer that leads into the master suite instead.

    In the master bedroom, Justin says, the bed did not fit properly between the two windows. To solve that dilemma, Michael made hotel-style blackout draperies to cover the wall.

    The bedroom also features hardwood flooring with an ebony stain. The stars of the suite, however, are the expanded walk-in closet and the new master bath. As part of the renovations, Michael broke out the openings to the spaces and did the door framing himself.

    For entry into the spacious closet, they took out a small single door and replaced it with double doors into the space that resembles an upscale clothing boutique. Belts hang tidily from hooks on one side, and ties hang just as neatly on the other side. Their dressers are in the closet, and Michael’s collection of shoes is lined up on shelves along the back wall.

    In fact, Michael calls the closet his favorite spot in the house.

    “I say that because of my shoe wall,” he says. “I had shoes from the Salvation Army when I was growing up. When I look at 100 pairs of designer shoes, it just sends a message to me that I’m OK.”

    In the master bath, they built a water closet in the space that the shower occupied and replaced a garden tub with a new tile, walk-around shower. A Japanese soaking tub is situated in front of the shower.

    The bath also features a two-story trey ceiling, porcelain tile flooring and chandeliers above the vanities.

    The Kitchen is Open
    The kitchen underwent major renovations as well. Originally, the house had a galley kitchen. For two people who love to entertain, however, a much bigger space was in order, so they enlarged the kitchen and extended the space to the pool. 

    “I wanted this look in the kitchen, but we were never going to get it with the footprint we had,” says Justin. “The whole idea behind the addition was to have a gourmet kitchen and to connect our pool use to our main house so we would have one contiguous space.”

    The kitchen features a galley sink with accessories that include solid cutting boards, a board with a hole cut for a colander and a drain rack. “We can do all the cooking in one space,” Justin says.

    The room also has a full dishwasher and a drawer dishwasher (there’s a third dishwasher in the pool house), a vegetable sink, a microwave with a warming drawer underneath, spice rack pullouts by the stovetop, a pot filler, a tile backsplash with a basketweave pattern and open shelving.

    “We wanted a restaurant feel with open shelving,” Justin says.

    To add versatility to the adjoining breakfast area, the space includes two rounds tables that can crank up to double as cocktail tables and built-in, upholstered banquette seating.

    “It’s a great place for people to gather whether it’s just the two of us or we’re having a fundraiser for 200 people,” says Michael.

    Overlooking the pool, three sets of full-length windows were designed to look like doors.

    Neutral Territory
    The adjoining dining room features a stacked stone fireplace, and Michael put up all of the stone himself. Built-ins flank either side of the fireplace, and oversized blue and white ginger jars and vases line the top shelves. White columns extend above the fireplace to the two-story ceiling, where a beaded chandelier hangs above the large, round pedestal table.

    “The table was mahogany, but we refinished it to be a little more neutral in that space,” says Michael. “With all the color in the living room, we wanted the dining room to be neutral. It allows you to pop color in certain rooms, and it draws your eye into that space.”

    In front of each upholstered chair sits a quirky, colorful canvas featuring an animal such as a cat, dog, pig, deer, chipmunk or squirrel. A porcelain animal sculpture candelabra serves as the centerpiece.

    “So many dining rooms can get boring and stuffy,” Michael says. “I wanted something fun.”

    Featuring gray walls, the neutral dining room highlights the silver lamps in the living room as well.

    “With neutrals, you can pull in metallics. They reflect light and color,” says Michael. “I think it brightens up a room.”

    The sitting room furnishings include a studded couch, a round wicker coffee table with a glass top and cube-shaped end tables with mirrored tops. Michael made the silk draperies for the window and the arched entryway into the room. On a pagoda etagere, they have an engraving of the Great Wall of China, which they visited during their trip.

    Another memento on display is a photo of Michael, who once owned the world’s largest collection of Judy Garland memorabilia, with the late Karl Slover, one of the Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz. Slover was a guest at their home several years ago when he was 92 years old.

    In Good Hands
    Justin has a passion for growing things, an interest that blossomed during his childhood weekends and summers at his grandparents’ farm and ranch near his hometown of El Paso, Texas. And it shows in the Evans home.

    He planted all of the trees, including the palm trees in the front yard and in the pool area, and the creeping fig on the garage and the front steps. He also planted a row of fast-growing, disease-resistant Green Giant arborvitae trees alongside the pool area.

    “My favorite part of living here is that our home is very private,” says Justin, who also plays the cello for Augusta Symphony.

    He started playing the instrument in the fifth grade, thanks to those music education company types that visit elementary schools. Both of his grandmothers played the fiddler, so he had his heart set on playing the violin. However, no one had selected the cello, and the observant music representative recruited Justin to play it.

    Michael designed the pool, which includes a sun shelf for lounge chairs, hot tub and stamped concrete surround, with a resort ambiance in mind. He also designed the balustrade around the area. An Atlanta company made the cement pieces, and they brought them back by U-Haul and put them together themselves.

    Justin’s green thumb also is on full display in the Charleston courtyard, where staghorn ferns and bromeliads fill orchid boxes mounted on the brick walls of the house and the garage.

    “The staghorn ferns and bromeliads are epiphytes, or air plants. They’re don’t need soil to live. They’re spread by spores,” Justin says.

    An open-air porch between the pool and the courtyard features an overhang ceiling with wood paneling.

    “The builder originally wanted the house to be a Charleston home with a narrow side porch,” says Justin. “If the side porch is open, it means ‘We’re accepting visitors.’ If it’s closed, we’re not.”

    Suffice it to say, no wonder the side porch at this house is open permanently by design.

    By Betsy Gilliland

     

  • Respite from the Fast Lane

    Respite from the Fast Lane

    Photography by Sally Kolar

    A couple that has plenty of get up and go can put on the brakes at their Clarks Hill Lake home when they’re ready for some down time

    For two people who live life to the max, empty nesters Christine and Chris Walker took a minimalist approach when they downsized to a two-bedroom home on Clarks Hill Lake two years ago.

    The exterior of the contemporary house is made of stucco, hardy board and 1-inch-thick cultured stone cut into 12-inch-by-24-inch pieces. Inside, the clean lines and open spaces offer the perfect backdrop to showcase the Walkers’ collections of art, sports memorabilia and automobiles.

    “We have a fast life with the business we have,” says Chris, who owns Southeast Utilities of Georgia and also builds custom Ford F650 super trucks. “When we’re not working, we can spend time at the house for quiet and solitude. The lake is our passion. It’s our release.”

    Sporting Life
    The Walkers, who used to spend almost every weekend at Clarks Hill, knew they wanted to build a house on the lake. When they first saw the property they now call home, however, they didn’t like it. “The lot was completely wooded,” says Christine. “You couldn’t even see the water.”

    After a second look, however, they reconsidered. Now the footprint of the house occupies space that once was filled with giant boulders, and the front door marks the spot where a giant white oak tree stood.

    “Everybody in the family helped prep the land for the house,” says Chris. “After the land was prepped and organized, then we built the house. It made the placement of the house easier. I oversaw or built everything.”

    It took the Walkers about a year to build the house, and they moved into the Appling home two years ago. They also took a collaborative, but unorthodox, approach to the design of the house.

    “We designed the garage, and then we designed the house around it,” says Chris. “I designed and engineered the house, and Christine was in charge of the interior design.”

    A garage-first approach might be unconventional for most people, but not for the Walkers. Chris raced formula cars in the 1980s, and the custom truck builder also collects vehicles, which he houses in the 4,000-square-foot garage.

    His collection includes a special edition, handmade Rolls Royce, which has a special sound system for opera and classical music with copper speakers and coils; a handmade, all carbon fiber 2019 McLaren 720s; a 1958 Jeep pickup, which was fully restored for Jay Leno’s garage; and a 110-year anniversary 2019 Morgan three-wheeler. He also has a fully electric, carbon fiber Lito Sora fighter bike – the motorcycle that Daniel Dae Kim’s character, Chin Ho Kelly, rode in “Hawaii Five-O.”

    Chris collects professional sports memorabilia as well, and the garage is full of jerseys from pro athletes. “I’ve been collecting jerseys half my life,” says Chris. “I built trucks for a lot of these guys.”

    He has signed jerseys from super truck customers including NFL stars Albert Haynesworth, Chad Ochocinco, Plaxico Burress and Irving Fryar and NBA greats Shaquille O’Neal and LeBron James. His collection also includes jerseys worn by professional athletes such as Dan Marino, Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Russell Wilson, Joe Montana, Larry Bird and Greg Maddox.

    Another sports memorabilia display in the garage features a collection of frames that each hold a photo of a Masters Tournament winner, his autograph and a badge from the year he won.

    Other wall displays include boating memorabilia – Chris races boats now, with Christine at his side as his navigator. He stores his 45-foot and 47-foot race boats in Lincolnton, but the Walkers, who love to travel, keep their 26-foot Chris-Craft Catalina at their Chigoe Creek dock. The dock bears the name “Walker’s Cay,” which they fittingly call their lake retreat after the northernmost island in the Bahamas.

    During the winter, they go out on the lake about twice a month. The rest of the year, they’re on the lake four times a week.

    “There’s a little island where we like to go to meet friends,” says Christine. “When we’re at home, we’re usually on the lake.”

    Designed to Entertain
    Even though the house only has two bedrooms, it was designed for sleepovers and entertainment. The house features four-and-a-half baths (including a full bath outside), and all of the couches turn into beds so friends and family who come over to play are welcome to spend the night.

    Frequent guests include their children, Savannah Walker and Cameron Morbey, who live in the area. Their other two children – son Christopher, his wife, Alejandra, and their son, Eliah, who live in Florida, and daughter Whitney Weathers, her husband, Jim, and their daughter, Sadie Jane, who live in North Carolina – visit as well.

    Just inside the front door, a floating staircase leads up to the entertainment room – a favorite hangout for the Walkers when they’re not traveling or on the lake. To build the staircase, they put that giant white oak tree from their property to good use. Chris had it milled, and he used the wood to make the 18 steps and the railing for the staircase.

    “I would say what I wanted, and he made it,” Christine says. “He’s detail-oriented and romantic. And he listens.”

    The entertainment room features a black bamboo floor, which is made up of planks that are 4.5 inches wide. “I like the sexiness of black hardwoods,” says Christine.

    The room also features black trim work, teal walls and exposed A/C and heat duct. “It’s the one room that pops out from the rest of the house,” Chris says.

    Railed openings on one wall overlook the living room on the first floor, and big picture windows on the opposite wall offer a view of the lake. Furnishings include white couches and a stamped aluminum coffee table. A chalkboard barn door opens to a full bath, which includes a vessel sink and a shower.

    For fun and games, the room includes a pool table, a poker table, a dart board and a flat-screen TV. The entertainment room is full of more sports memorabilia as well. Chris’ collection, which he has amassed in 30-plus years, includes a pair of boxing gloves signed by Muhammad Ali; a half-dozen coins used for the opening coin flip in various Super Bowls; countless autographed NFL helmets signed by the entire teams (including a Patriots helmet from Tom Brady’s first Super Bowl); and an autographed football from the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins’ perfect season.

    He also has a baseball from the 100-year anniversary of the World Series, which was signed by all of the living World Series MVPs; a case full of Hall of Fame bats; and a 1997 World Series trophy that belonged to Florida Marlins closer Robb Nen. “I taught him how to fish,” Chris says.

    He loves all professional sports teams, but the south Florida native is partial to the Dolphins and the Marlins. Since moving to Georgia in 1996 (Chris was sold on Columbia County after a convenience store clerk told him “around here, you get your gas first and then pay for it”) he also has become a fan of the Falcons and the Braves.

    The entertainment room leads to an open-air porch, where Christine and her girlfriends like to sit during “game night” at the Walker house. The porch features a fire pit surrounded by four square stools and an outdoor kitchen with a teppanyaki grill. A spiral staircase connects it to another porch below.

    Spacious & Sleek
    A vaulted ceiling brings a feeling of spaciousness to the living room, where big picture windows overlook the landscaping in the front yard. “We don’t like curtains and doors,” says Christine.

    However, the doors they have were made in Italy with solid wood, and they’re lined with aluminum strips. A two-sided, vented, propane-burning, slate fireplace separates the family room and the kitchen.

    Chris made the open shelves in the kitchen from the oak tree they had milled and mounted them with industrial plumbing pipes that he painted black. The oak ceiling was made from the tree as well.

    In addition, the kitchen features deep drawers and cabinetry with no hardware, a farmhouse sink, stainless steel appliances, a walk-in pantry with a pocket door and a chandelier, and countertops of vein-free, manmade material. A clear vase, which holds oil-based, floral décor, sits on the adjoining dining area table.

    The master bedroom also features a vented, propane-burning, slate fireplace as well as a mirrored wall, a walk-in closet with an island in the middle and a “futuristic, crazy” chandelier.

    “Every room has a chandelier, but that’s the only light fixture in the whole house that Chris picked out,” says Christine. “In the rest of the house, we have frou-frou chandeliers.”

    Two oversized Oriental porcelain vases, which had belonged to Christine’s mother, stand in the corners on one side of the room. Doors lead out to a balcony on the other side.

    The adjoining master bath has tile flooring, a stand-alone tub, a walk-through tile shower, two trough sinks and a separate water closet.

    The antiques that Christine once favored have been replaced with sleek, modern furnishings, and artwork has a constant presence throughout the house as well. “Art can be passed down for many generations,” Christine says.

    An oil painting, which they watched the artist finish on a river in Bangkok, hangs on one wall in the living room, and a hand drawing by Picasso hangs on another wall. A print called “Vintage” by Erté, a Russian-born 20th-century French artist and designer, hangs in the kitchen.

    Tucked under the floating staircase, a hand-cut bronze sculpture, “Callisto” by Michael James Talbot, sits on a granite base. An abstract oil on canvas triptych lines the wall by the staircase.

    They got a wood carving on the back porch in the mountains of Taipei, Taiwan when they took Christine’s mother there. “He is carved out of a tree root,” says Christine. “He has to be by a door because he wards off any bad spirits and brings in health and happiness.”

    In a back hallway, the Walkers grouped 25 of their favorite black-and-white family photos in black frames with white mats. Even the laundry room is a gallery, where two pictures that Chris had done for his wife for Christmas one year, hang on a wall. To honor her penchant for footwear, one of the pictures is an oil painting of a shoe and the other features hundreds of shoes hand-etched with Xs and Os in copper.

    While artwork is a necessity in the home, the couple took the opportunity to shed anything they no longer needed when they moved into their lake house. And that minimalist attitude hasn’t changed.

    “If we don’t use it, we don’t keep it,” says Christine. “Except for clothes, shoes and pocketbooks. You can’t have too many of those.”

    By Betsy Gilliland