The guest bedroom in the Swiss Avenue home of James and Louise Finley is wrapped entirely in a French Renaissance theme: Photo by Kim Leeson
The two houses face off on Swiss where they sit almost directly across the street from each other. Both are elegant, historical homes that will be featured on the Swiss Avenue Historic District Mother’s Day Home Tour, but that’s where their similarities end.
One is a Colonial-style home with a French Renaissance-inspired interior. Throughout the house, rooms are wrapped in warm colors and finished with graceful design details, like antique chandeliers, crown molding, patterned wallpaper and even fresco paintings on the wall and ceiling in the dining room.
The home belongs to James and Louise Finley, and most of the furniture was inherited from Louise’s family. “So it’s very sentimental,” she says.
The other home is a white stucco home with a modern, minimalist interior finish. The owners, Joanna and John Hampton, are both architects, and they were interested in the home as a fixer-upper project.
Photo by Kim Leeson
“It was a foreclosure, so we’re still in the process of remodeling,” John explains. But after a year of renovations, the heavy lifting is finished.
The Hamptons had to completely overhaul the entryway, which had major water damage due to a leaking roof. Also, one of the upstairs sunrooms had been gutted in the process of turning it into a bathroom, but the project had never been completed. The Hamptons had new windows installed, and they turned the room into a laundry/workout room. On top of all that, there were no light fixtures in the home.
But all the work has been worth it to get the overall structure of the house, the Hamptons say. The house features spacious rooms that flow well from one to the next.
“We’re inspired by the sort of museum-style, modern, clean look,” John says.
See these houses and more on the Swiss Avenue Historic District Mother’s Day Home Tour.
