A Masterful Mix if Elagance and Fun: Reviving an old uptown home

When Tanga Winstead came across a run-down, turn-of-the-century double for sale near the river in Uptown New Orleans, she saw potential.

To Winstead’s artistic eye, the exterior lack of architectural detail looked like a canvas for bright Caribbean colors. In the front room filled with stored junk including a lawn mower, she pictured a luxurious living room.

With a talent for interior design and a lot of hard labor, this first-time homeowner transformed the old bargeboard cottage into her own work of art, filled with fine antiques and lots of local flavor.

A century ago, many houses near the river were built using the 1 x 12 inch planks of deconstructed cargo barges. Winstead learned a lot about the structure of the house when it suffered damage from Katrina just five months after she purchased it.

Sheetrock covering the original walls had to be replaced after the storm. In the process of removing the sheetrock, Winstead found evidence that some of the wood paneled rooms had long ago been wallpapered.

When the water damaged sheetrock on the ceilings came down, Winstead discovered old beaded board underneath. “When the original ceilings were revealed I was thrilled,” says Winstead, “they had been painted almost an absinthe green. I sanded the wood and sealed it with polyurethane."

The green ceilings forced Winstead to rethink her color scheme. Her plan to paint the bedroom walls robin’s egg blue modified to a light lavender.

The unique layout of the house resulted from a renovation in the 1930s, when the city designated the block across the street as a park. The owners expanded the typical shotgun double to function partly as a corner store, where they operated a sweet shop catering to families and children visiting the park.

The front room floor was lowered to ground level on a concrete slab and extended about six feet. The additional square footage accommodates a closet and a loft, probably used as storage for the shop. Winstead made the extension a part of the living room and put a cozy guest bed in the loft.

A door added at the corner during the 1930s renovation became the main entrance. The original front entrance now functions as a window, spilling sunlight into the living room.

Winstead likes a modification made recently by the previous owner. He cut a large opening in the wall between the living room and the bedroom, virtually removing the wall. "It makes the space more open and bright," says Winstead. She plans to attach shutters with frosted glass to the window so the bedroom can have privacy and still get light. "From the bedroom side, the shutters will look like a great headboard."

Winstead obviously spent as much time finding the perfect furnishings as she did on structural renovation. Every corner of the house holds wonderful finds, from 1930s French posters to 18th-century antiques to unusual light fixtures. A copper Moorish tabletop serves as a fire screen. Antique juggling pins sit by the stairs. My favorite is a découpage platter depicting a frog face that sits on an antique French butcher’s block table in the dining room.

"It’s fun," Winstead says of the home’s décor. As a nod to New Orleans’ status as the world’s top coffee importer, she created a coffee table by framing a burlap coffee sack and attaching baluster legs.

It is fun, and it’s a wonderful new chapter in the story of an old New Orleans house. ✦