Houzz Tours
Houzz Tour: Tudor-Inspired Outside, Open and Contemporary Inside
A designer shows respect for a home’s historic St. Paul neighborhood with a fresh take on Tudor style
Charlie Simmons, founder and principal of Charlie & Co. Design, knows the oldest neighborhood in St. Paul, Minnesota, like the back of his hand. In fact, he did a study of the blocks surrounding this home and counted 13 styles of homes, including Victorian, Queen Anne, Tudor, Federal, Georgian, Colonial and a few 1950s bungalows that had replaced original homes that had burned down. Burning down was the case with this particular lot. The challenge in creating a new home was to be respectful of the eclectic historic mix in the neighborhood while creating the more modern, open and light interior his clients preferred.
“We exaggerated some of the Tudor elements,” Simmons says. For example, the peak of the gable is a steep 18/12 pitch. Significant headers over the French doors and windows help line things up and recall the timber headers that would have been used in Tudor construction hundreds of years ago.
Even though the house has an asymmetrical facade, there are a lot of careful alignments and organization. The cantilevered bay over the garage gives the facade dimension and lines up with the sliding French doors to the right of the front door. These doors lead out from an office to a small terrace that overlooks the original granite cobblestone street. The recessed flat-roof dormer breaks up the facade.
Even though the house has an asymmetrical facade, there are a lot of careful alignments and organization. The cantilevered bay over the garage gives the facade dimension and lines up with the sliding French doors to the right of the front door. These doors lead out from an office to a small terrace that overlooks the original granite cobblestone street. The recessed flat-roof dormer breaks up the facade.
The front door adds an interesting Gothic touch. “It’s a good example of the juxtaposition between the old and new,” Simmons says. The door has the traditional shape, but its detailing is very clean, and it is crafted of walnut and leaded glass. Simmons gave the long gallery-like hallway rhythm via a coffered ceiling appliqué and flush-mount lights overhead. “Stairs and hallways are important spaces that are often overlooked,” he says. “This hallway is 6 feet wide, and the rhythm draws you into the house.”
The flooring is composed of rift-sawn and quartered white oak planks with a matte polyurethane finish. “The dull finish on the floor stands up to all of the snow we get here in Minnesota and is more of an old-school finish that the client wanted,” Simmons says. “The light floor is more contemporary than the dark floors you typically see in a Tudor, and it keeps the space cheerfully bright and open.”
The flooring is composed of rift-sawn and quartered white oak planks with a matte polyurethane finish. “The dull finish on the floor stands up to all of the snow we get here in Minnesota and is more of an old-school finish that the client wanted,” Simmons says. “The light floor is more contemporary than the dark floors you typically see in a Tudor, and it keeps the space cheerfully bright and open.”
The three-story stair tower is Simmons’ favorite part of the design. Look through the lower windows and you can see where the team built a retaining wall. This allowed for the windows to extend down into the lower level and provide more light.
Speaking of light, Simmons designed a 2-foot gap down the stairs and placed eight pendants in different sizes at eight different heights from the second floor all the way down to the lower level. These entice travel up and down the stairs.
The windows themselves are aluminum-clad on the exterior and wood painted black on the interior. They pick up on the black steel stair railings.
Windows: Marvin
Speaking of light, Simmons designed a 2-foot gap down the stairs and placed eight pendants in different sizes at eight different heights from the second floor all the way down to the lower level. These entice travel up and down the stairs.
The windows themselves are aluminum-clad on the exterior and wood painted black on the interior. They pick up on the black steel stair railings.
Windows: Marvin
If you look to the right side of the house, you can see how the stair tower breaks up the massing of the house. “The stair tower glows like a lantern at night,” Simmons says.
A door to the left of the stair tower leads to this powder room. “Since the door is often open, we used the opportunity to create a wood backdrop,” the designer says. The shiplap wall is constructed of the same white oak used on the floors with reveals between the planks. “The horizontal reveals create texture and shadows,” Simmons says. A narrow shelf provides a spot to add color via flowers and framed photos.
Suspended elements offer views through to the large window that’s part of the stair tower block, while clever landscaping provides complete privacy.
Suspended elements offer views through to the large window that’s part of the stair tower block, while clever landscaping provides complete privacy.
The dining room is to the left as you walk in the front door. It sits two steps down from the hallway, which gives it a grander presence. Simmons used a thick-wall strategy to add architectural details. In the narrow bay to the left are the windows we saw on the exterior over the garage. While he originally considered a built-in buffet for the spot, he decided two free-standing pieces of furniture felt cleaner and made the room feel more open.
Other design moves the thick-wall strategy allowed are the recess for the windows at the far end of the room and the “picture frame recess” for a large piece of art on the right.
Other design moves the thick-wall strategy allowed are the recess for the windows at the far end of the room and the “picture frame recess” for a large piece of art on the right.
In the kitchen, the range hearth nods to Tudor-style kitchens, but it is rendered in a simple and clean modern way. A marble wall backsplash is accented only by a pot filler and light from overhead. The surround is the same shiplapped wood we saw on the powder room wall. This view is open to the family room, so the symmetry provides a clean, modern backdrop that flows with the other rooms.
Forgoing upper cabinets for windows allowed views through to the beautiful French Burgundy Tudor next door. Flanking the windows are a refrigerator and a tall pantry cabinet. A separate pantry and butler’s pantry just out of view on the left provide plenty of storage.
Forgoing upper cabinets for windows allowed views through to the beautiful French Burgundy Tudor next door. Flanking the windows are a refrigerator and a tall pantry cabinet. A separate pantry and butler’s pantry just out of view on the left provide plenty of storage.
A breakfast banquette is tucked into a 2-foot bay that cantilevers out over the backyard. The light fixture was made by a local artisan.
Counters: Silestone
Counters: Silestone
In between the kitchen and the great room is another one of those exaggerated Tudor details. The wide, deep archway with quarter rounds and a few stairs delineate the two spaces.
The fireplace is right on axis with the range hearth in the kitchen. Another thick-wall strategy combined with the white oak planks provides built-in shelves and a media wall on either side. The built-in cabinet on the right is a bar.
The fireplace is right on axis with the range hearth in the kitchen. Another thick-wall strategy combined with the white oak planks provides built-in shelves and a media wall on either side. The built-in cabinet on the right is a bar.
A 16-foot-long expanse of sliding doors provides a large opening to a covered porch.
The covered porch the family room opens out to is tucked under the back facade’s large swoop. Simmons designed the porch in a way that it could be screened in someday if the homeowners decide that’s what they want. To the right are the windows in the breakfast nook. The dormer over the kitchen is off the master bedroom.
Upstairs, French doors open the master bedroom to a private porch. Again, Simmons used a thick-wall strategy to add architectural details around the windows and on the headboard wall. “In a Tudor, a bedroom was often more of a sleeping chamber than a large room,” Simmons says. He used the space up here strategically, adding a dressing corridor full of built-ins between the master bedroom and the bathroom.
In the master bath, the windows are the dormer we saw over the dining room windows on the front of the house. The quarter-round Tudor-mimicking detail we saw downstairs has been cleverly repeated on the custom vanity.
“Our cabinetmaker, Brian Grabski, came up with that idea and really put marble to the test,” Simmons says. He executed the vanity beautifully. Another Tudor-inspired detail is the herringbone pattern on the floor, rendered in a ceramic tile that looks like bluestone.
“Our cabinetmaker, Brian Grabski, came up with that idea and really put marble to the test,” Simmons says. He executed the vanity beautifully. Another Tudor-inspired detail is the herringbone pattern on the floor, rendered in a ceramic tile that looks like bluestone.
Simmons says that the view from the water closet window, right, is one of the best in the house. Because of the height of the house on the hilly street, it looks out on tree canopies.
Builder: Detail Design + Build
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Builder: Detail Design + Build
Browse more homes by style: Apartments | Barn Homes | Colorful Homes | Contemporary Homes | Eclectic Homes | Farmhouses | Floating Homes | Guesthouses | Homes Around the World | Lofts | Midcentury Homes | Modern Homes | Ranch Homes | Small Homes | Townhouses | Traditional Homes | Transitional Homes | Vacation Homes
Houzz at a Glance
Location: St. Paul, Minnesota
Size: 5,000 square feet (464.5 square meters); four bedrooms, 5½ bathrooms
Designer: Charlie Simmons of Charlie & Co. Design
With a three-story Victorian to the right and a French Burgundy Tudor-inspired house to the left, Simmons had the task of being respectful without doing a strict historical replication. In addition, he was dealing with a narrow hillside lot.
The elements of the facade make big nods to Tudor style, and the color palette was designed to fit into the neighborhood. The facade has Tudor elements but exaggerates them, and there is balance in the asymmetry.
The most dramatic element on the front of the house is the long swoop. It takes attention away from the tucked-under garage and draws you toward the front door. The swoop provides a carved-out archway that covers the front door.