It’s all about what you don’t see when walking into the home of Phil and Sarah Cossich after a 15-month renovation of their two-story, three bay circa 1900s Victorian-era home in Uptown.
With two children under 10 and careers as an internal medicine hospitalist and a private financial adviser, function is a priority for the Cossich family.
“The team we worked with really heard us,” said Sarah Cossich. “They worked so well together to meet our goals and bring my vision for our family to life.”
The Cossiches wanted to preserve as many architectural details as possible while maximizing energy efficiency and storage. These tasks fell to architect Jennifer Zurik, a partner with MZ Architecture, a firm that specializes in historic renovations. The firm worked with Entablature construction company to execute it all.
Visual harmony and a neutral color palette were a must, but the Cossiches also wanted impactful colors to keep things lively, all with fresh furnishings that would withstand the demands of a young family. These tasks fell to interior designer Whitney Wilkinson, with whom the family had worked before.
“Whitney used performance fabrics in the dining room, the kitchen, the breakfast room and the back family room. The front of the house has more formal fabrics,” said Sarah Cossich.
Everything, down to after-school snacks, needed a designated place, and a logical organizational system was to be implemented before the family moved back in. This fell to Victoria Tran, founder of Sorted, a professional organization company.
“We walked through the house while it was still under construction to learn how their (Cossich) family lives and discuss their goals for the space,” Tran said.
“The snack drawer is a perfect example,” Tran said. “We didn’t create it. Instead, we gave it a purpose that fit their family’s routine. More than a year later, everything is still functioning exactly as intended.”
Evolving a historic home to function with style
When the Cossiches bought the 3,500-square-foot home in 2018, it already had established landscaping of evergreens and tropical plants in the front, rear and side yards, which are maintained by Landscape Images. Occasional installations of seasonal annuals keep things colorful with minimal maintenance.
Despite the lack of the customary stained glass, a fixed pane glass window at the turn of the staircase is emblematic of the home’s Victorian provenance. The foyer is illuminated by a timeless Ralph Lauren globe fixture with beautiful brass detailing.
“When we bought this house and decided to renovate, we thought we were going for a midrange renovation,” said Sarah Cossich. “But Jenny (Zurik) showed us what it really had the potential to be.”
“One of the biggest goals of this renovation was to make the house feel connected again,” Zurik said. “Over time, it had become very compartmentalized.”
As opposed to adding square footage, they focused on improving sightlines, creating stronger relationships between rooms, and bringing in more natural light.
“We spend a lot of time talking with clients about how their families will live not only today, but 10 or 20 years from now,” Zurik said. ”Much of this project centered around highly customized millwork that was designed specifically for this family, while remaining flexible enough to adapt as their needs change over time.“
From the front door, there is a clean sightline to the back of the house and into the garden beyond through a series of cased openings. Guests can access the porch and swimming pool via a row of collapsible glass doors by Marvin. The doors fold back in an accordion fashion to create a seamless flow from the informal family room to the outdoors.
“Another major transformation was reconnecting the house to the outdoors,” Zurik said. “We opened the rear of the house, allowing the porch to become a true extension of the family room.”
Inside, on the north side of the property, the same shade of warm white was used on the walls, trim and ceiling. It contrasts pleasantly with the dark, stained hardwood floors, which are original to the front of the home. The floors at the rear were matched via salvage from other structures.
“The whites throughout the house actually presented the biggest challenge,” Wilkinson said. “The spaces intended to be white — the entry, kitchen, breakfast room, and family room — received very different qualities of natural light than other rooms in the house.”
The solution was the paint color Harvest Moon by Backdrop, which was warm and inviting without reading yellow.
To create a contemporary flow, Zurik eliminated a scullery and a narrow spiral staircase and moved the formal dining room and a powder room to the south side of the house. She then opened the wall between the kitchen and the dining room through a large, cased opening.
The flow of the rooms is heightened by Wilkinson’s masterful use of color. She used the same unmistakable chartreuse, Farrow & Ball’s Churlish, on the walls and trim in the living room, painting the ceiling in a similar shade, Benjamin Moore’s Chameleon.
Chocolate brown draperies with an abstract pattern in a Champagne hue hang over four original French doors. The two doors across the front open fully to the porch, which was lost during a prior renovation but restored at the suggestion of Zurik.
As the living room segues into the dining room, Farrow & Ball’s Parma Gray takes over on the walls and trim, and a textured wallpaper in a pearl finish covers the ceiling. Built-in cabinets bracket a window covered in a Roman blind above a buffet counter.
Underneath, there is climate-controlled wine storage, a beverage refrigerator and an ice maker. The mesh fronts of the cabinetry offer a glimpse of the formal dinnerware and glassware within. The space is illuminated by a Currey & Co. chandelier.
The wooden floors in both rooms are partially obscured by low-pile neutral rugs.
Both rooms have cased passageways leading to the north side of the home.
The dining room gives way to a kitchen, also painted in Harvest Moon, but here it reads as a cool white, and the floor-to-ceiling cabinets are a dove gray. The room is centered by a seated island topped with Fantasy quartzite. The same material covers the counters and backsplash that rises from behind the La Cornue range. Beyond is a tidy breakfast area with banquette seating.
“We did not really want to move from our old house when we found this one, but the kids can walk to school,” said Sarah Cossich. “But now it is the perfect house for us.”
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nola.com ’
