1. COUNTRY FRENCH STYLE
LOCATION: HOLLY HILLS • YEAR BUILT: 1929 • ARCHITECT: UNKNOWN
In addition to the fairytale turret and brick-and-stone façade, this remarkably well-maintained historic home has a spectacular multihued slate roof. The owner, Steve Larsen, stays on top of things by having the roof inspected each year; he says that he typically needs to replace a couple of tiles. “I guess they don’t have as many of the red ones now, so as time goes on, you see less of the red.” The jumping horse weathervane atop the turret is also original to the home.
The narrow stone walk, an original feature of the home, leads from the corner of the property across the expansive lawn. Larsen has had some tuckpointing done on the walk, but otherwise it remains as it was when the house was built.
Larsen’s wife, Dorothy Larsen, an avid gardener, maintains the rosebushes that line the stone wall of the elevated front porch, as well as the ivy and other front landscaping. The couple loves to sit on the porch and watch the goings-on in Carondelet Park, which is across the street. A pair of lamb garden statues she ordered from a catalog “graze” on the ivy in a nod to the home’s Country French style.
Alise O'Brien
2. LANDSCAPING & LIGHTING
LOCATION: SHAW NEIGHBORHOOD • YEAR BUILT: 1914 • ARCHITECTS: RAYMOND E. MARITZ AND GALE EVANS HENDERSON (MARITZ & HENDERSON)
The original horseshoe sidewalk, steps, and handrails—all of which appear in early photos of the home—wrap around a mound of well-trimmed ivy that lends drama and style to the entrance while serving as a pretty barrier between house and street. Flagstone surrounding the concrete softens the edges.
Owner Lee Kling chose custom-blended Sherwin-Williams paint in dark forest green and two shades of beige for the trim, window, and door frames. The lighter beige is used on the primary elements, such as the columns, and the darker one is used as an accent. “When I bought the house, it was painted in very similar colors,” says Kling. “I just tweaked them a bit.” The use of multiple hues highlights the home’s unique architecture and complements the brickwork.
Some of the trees and bushes were already on the property, but Kling worked with Abigail Ullmann of Landscapes by Design to impose a more organized and low-maintenance landscape design. Rounded boxwoods and holly provide year-round foliage; periwinkle Endless Summer hydrangeas add color in the spring. “They were also designed as a buffer to the house next door when we’re sitting on the side porch,” says Kling.
Three recessed lights in the eaves over the front door draw attention to the entrance. Kling added a hanging lantern, whose lines mimic the pergola slope of the roof, to the cozy side porch. Strategically placed lamps indoors illuminate the stained glass windows at night, producing a homey glow.
Alise O'Brien
3. PAVING A PATH
NEIGHBORHOOD: WEBSTER GROVES • YEAR BUILT: 1929 • ARCHITECT: C.W. SCHULER AND COMPANY
“I designed the bluestone path to be meandering,” says homeowner Dr. William Mehard, noting how the pathway tapers near the street and grows wider as it approaches the house. “It has more appeal than a completely straight walk.” The bluestone requires maintenance: In addition to tuckpointing every few years, its thin profile requires that it be sealed annually.
String lights are an inexpensive way to add nighttime ambience. Mehard bought his at Menard’s for around $100. He hangs them from eyelet anchors screwed into the window headers or masonry and plugs the strings into an outlet near the garage. “This is an easy DIY project for any homeowner,” he says.
The Webster Groves–based landscape company Kelce and Pedley Design is responsible for the colorful plantings in the yard. Once partial to two-tone flower combinations, Mehard now opts to paint with a “broad stroke,” using a single color throughout the space: “If you do too much and make plantings too busy, it detracts from the house.” This year he’s chosen SunPatiens in Hot Coral in the front yard and Whopper begonias in Red in the window boxes.
For years, Mehard has searched for ways to transform the north corner of the house, which was too stark for his liking. The solution: a Bob Cassilly-cast cement maiden commissioned for the landscape designer Kim Kelce 30 years ago. “The sculpture helps soften [the corner],” he says. “I know of no others like this, but there are probably a few around.” With time, the statue will weather. For now, Mehard cleans it once a year with water and a soft-bristled brush to remove moss.
Alise O'Brien
4. GREEK REVIVAL
LOCATION: KIRKWOOD • YEAR BUILT: 1854 • ARCHITECT: UNKNOWN
The limestone gravel circle drive, which is original to the home, makes for a grand entrance. “It gives the house that country estate feeling,” says the owner of the long setback from the road. The gravel means there’s no unsightly cracking of a traditional cement driveway, she notes, and it’s cost-effective: “It needs more maintenance more often, but it’s really cheap to maintain.”
Antique garden urns flank the driveway, echoing the home’s Greek Revival architecture (“the same style as The White House,” says the owner). The family typically fills the urns with colorful annuals and oleander, which are replanted every year for a fresh look.
To give the landscape a cottage garden aesthetic and lend structure to the property in the winter months, the owners have added slow-growing English boxwoods, which line the front porch and surround the urns at the driveway entrance.
Most of the intricate crown molding below the roofline was rotted when the current owners purchased the home. Restoring it was one of their very first projects. While repairing the porch decking, they opened up the solid rosewood columns and discovered rot up to 8 feet; those were also restored. Using less expensive materials for repairs wasn’t an option. Says the owner: “Because we’re on the Historic Register, it all has to be wood.”
Alise O'Brien
5. PATRIOTIC PANACHE
NEIGHBORHOOD: ST. LOUIS COUNTY • ARCHITECT: MARITZ & YOUNG • RENOVATION ARCHITECT: FENDLER & ASSOCIATES • LANDSCAPE DESIGNER: LANDSCAPE ST. LOUIS AND TWIGS & MOSS
The owners decorate the house with red, white, and blue bunting by Top Flags. “Bunting works best on a white house, because the colors show better,” says one of the owners. “It’s best to place it on windows, if the windows are symmetrical.” If the house is dark—say, redbrick—or the windows are asymmetrical, place the bunting above the door or along the porch railing. The owners install the bunting themselves—“Fairly easy if you’re not afraid of heights,” says one—on Memorial Day weekend and take it down Labor Day weekend.
In 2014, when the owners purchased the home, the original wooden shutters were in neglect and repairs were too expensive to undertake. Instead of replacing them with a cheaper but less attractive all-weather alternative, the homeowners decided to forgo shutters entirely. “The shutters are stored safely in the basement. Someday I’ll make the investment to restore them,” says one of the owners.
“We added the copper gutters when we bought the house and left them untouched,” says one of the owners. Right now they’re dark brown, but they’ll gain patina with age. The gutters aren’t suitable for guards, so once a year they must be cleaned out by hand.
The homeowners replaced the original wooden door with a more modern steel-and-glass door that helps bring light into the foyer and updates the façade. The topiaries, set in galvanized metal planters, are ficus trees. They wouldn’t survive a St. Louis winter, so, come fall, the homeowners bring them inside. They’re trimmed twice a year: in the spring and just before being moved indoors in the fall.
Alise O'Brien
6. MID-CENTURY MODERN
NEIGHBORHOOD: CENTRAL WEST END • YEAR BUILT: DESIGNED IN 1948, COMPLETED IN 1952 • ARCHITECT: FREDERICK C. DUNN
Boxwood hedges planted in right angles complement the lines of this modern home. The hedges are hand-trimmed (with shears, not electric trimmers, the owner notes) twice a year to remove small areas within the bush, allowing sunlight to penetrate the inner branches and soften the look.
The home’s pink brick was painted a custom white more than 20 years ago. The homeowner, an interior designer, recommends a soft white, not too harsh or bright. The look can be achieved by adding yellow and gray tints to white paint.
A sculpture by the Neo-Expressionist artist Allan McCollum is a focal point of the front yard. The cast concrete piece is coated in fiberglass and painted. “What the garden and sculpture do is help create exterior rooms and expand the view, drawing the eye to the outside of the home,” says the owner.
“The windows, which are exact replicas of the original ones, are floor-to-ceiling and made of commercial plate glass, so they’re stationary,” says the owner. The large panes do show dirt and require frequent cleaning, but they’re also easier to clean than many smaller windows: With just a few swipes of a big squeegee, the work is finished.
Alise O'Brien
7. SPANISH REVIVAL
LOCATION: UNIVERSITY CITY • YEAR BUILT: 1926 • ARCHITECT: MARITZ & YOUNG
Homeowner Pat Little hired Jefferson Tent & Awning to build custom striped awnings on steel frames for her stucco-clad Spanish Revival home. The Sunbrella awning fabric is a more durable alternative to the brand’s traditional outdoor fabrics, ensuring years of extended use. To remove sap and other stains and secure longevity, Little has the awnings taken down and professionally cleaned every three years.
The front entry is framed in a mix of Virginia creeper and Boston ivy, consistently manicured in the spring and summer months. “These varieties lose their leaves in the fall, so homeowners wanting to create this look need to be okay with an arch of branches for part of the year,” says Little.
The flagstone driveway, original to the 100-year-old home, comes with some challenges. “It can’t be plowed in the winter due to the bumpy, uneven nature of the stones and the tendency of flagstone to splinter,” Little says. It can also be costly to maintain: the stones require occasional tuckpointing and replacement.
Built from old-growth timber and wrought iron banding, the window boxes on the curbside exterior are original to the home. Little installed PVC liners to prevent soil from clogging the drain mechanism and to prevent rot. Each year, she fills the boxes with coral geraniums, purple salvia, and sweet potato vines—plants in a range of heights whose colors pop against her white house.
Alise O'Brien
8. A GRADUATED SCHOOLHOUSE
LOCATION: LADUE • YEAR BUILT: UNKNOWN • ARCHITECT: RICHARD CUMMINGS
Originally a one-room schoolhouse, the structure was converted to a ranch-style dwelling in the 1950s. The current owners purchased it in 1985 and added the second story. Its dreamy exterior paint color, which the owners refer to as blush, was inspired by the color on a house they love in Mission Hills, Kansas, where they lived before moving to St. Louis.
The owners knew they wanted French doors throughout. After searching several local salvage shops, they found 33 sets at After the Paint (now called Architectural Artifacts of St. Louis) and had them restored. They worked with architect Richard Cummings and designer Tom Britt to have them built into the exterior and interior architectural spaces. “They came from an old building downtown. We did add to them to make them taller,” says one of the owners.
To complement the exterior, they added a wide driveway and courtyard lined with terracotta-colored pea gravel, creating an elegant entrance and a distinct separation from the main road.
Six square-sculpted Autumn Blaze pear trees and a pair of large square planter boxes punctuate the front exterior. “We wanted a very clean architectural shape in keeping with the house,” one owner says. Bill Spradley of Trees, Forests and Landscapes keeps the trees in shape with an annual trimming.
Alise O'Brien
9. FRESH PAINT & PURPOSE
NEIGHBORHOOD: OLD JAMESTOWN • YEAR BUILT: BEGUN IN 1939, COMPLETED IN 1941 ARCHITECT: STUDY & FARRAR
The home’s shutters were originally painted green, but the homeowners stripped and repainted them with black Rust-Oleum. Through trial and error, they’ve found that oil-based paint is the most durable and chip resistant. Says one: “Sometimes, especially with older homes and older materials, water-based paints won’t adhere to surfaces.”
The house was painted white in the 1940s and hasn’t been touched since. “If you want to achieve this faded, whitewashed look and don’t have 80 years, you would have to paint your house white and then go over it with a sandblaster,” says the homeowner.
“Ten years ago, the copper gutters had been painted white,” says one homeowner. “We sandblasted off the paint. They were a copper color at first. It’s taken about a year for them to turn into that aged green patina that I prefer.”
In the 1970s, the owners at the time installed a fountain in the circle drive, but the water and chemicals degraded the concrete, rendering the fountain inoperable. The current owners have repurposed the fountain as a planter. “Roses now flourish around the statue,” says one. “You can hardly tell that it was intended to be a water feature.”
Alise O'Brien
10. THOUGHTFUL STAGING
LOCATION: GLENDALE • YEAR BUILT: 1929 • ARCHITECT: UNKNOWN
Homeowner Gene Pulliam wanted to mimic the design of the original brick on the home’s façade in a new concrete walk. His intent, he says, was “to direct the eye to a consistent pattern that ties the garden together with the house, as well as create visual interest.”
Pulliam decided to incorporate electric blue into the design by way of the porch chairs and front door: “A common accent color in Spanish style homes, the blue brings an energy and appeal to the home that works well with the style and is always a conversation piece.”
An avid gardener, Pulliam designed the landscaping himself. The front walk is lined in boxwood and SunPatiens. He selected the burgundy Japanese maples on either side of the windows to complement the home’s color scheme.
Pulliam selected natural limestone for the small retaining wall framing the yard so it would blend into its surroundings instead of competing with the brick on the house. The purpose of the wall, he says, “was to set the tone for a welcoming home and at the same time raise the yard and put the house on a stage.”
VIEW PAST MOST BEAUTIFUL HOMES: 2021 / 2020 / 2019 / 2018 / 2017 / 2016 / 2015
