Shotgun Home Tour in Faubourg St. John

I am so looking forward to the weekend. One of the things I am doing today is attending the Preservation Resource Center's Shotgun Home Tour in beautiful Bayou St. John. I love a good home tour.

The shotgun house is a New Orleans staple. It is a narrow rectangular domestic residence, usually no more than 12 feet wide, with rooms arranged one behind the other and doors at the end of the house. It was the most popular style of house in the Southern United States from the end of the Civil War through the 1920s.

The PRC celebrates the restorations of these timeless homes. The tour is a self-guided tour through the Faubourg St. John neighborhood.

The homes on tour this year are:

Daniel Samuels and Nona Epstein - 1450 Moss St.
Sara and Mark Landrieu - 1260 Moss St.
Ben Gauslin - 908 N. Rendon St.
Ken and Aimée Gowland - 3104 Desoto St.
Missy and Bill Dalton - 3100 Desoto St.
Dr. Kenneth Sumner and Mr. Booth Pohlmann - 2918 Esplanade Ave.
Laura and Sophie Vagianos and Lynn Reeves - 2819 Bell St.
Shawn Kennedy and Hal Brown - 2805 Bell St.

Thanks to the PRC by way of the Visual Vamp for some great pictures of today’s shotgun home offerings. Tickets can be purchased at the headquarters, The Pitot House.

Happy Touring y’all!

Friday Flashback..... My Front & Rear Porch at Wisteria Hill

As I continue my love for the pleasures of the front porch, today I flashback to Wisteria Hill, my Atlanta home. The joy and excitement that a front porch brings is equaled to the satisfaction given by a back porch or patio.

In today’s post, I feature my Atlanta home’s front porch and the rear patio.

Upon moving to the newly built house in 2004 in the trendy West Midtown, I quickly found furniture, a rug, planters, and ferns to completely fill the space. The large cast iron urns were purchased from one of my Atlanta favs, Hill Street Warehouse. The “wicker” loveseat and chairs were ordered from Overstock.com. I am a firm believer that a front porch or rear patio should mirror what’s going on inside the home. The addition of a lamp, an indoor/outdoor rug (Frontgate), and accessories complete the look. The wreath is one of my custom designs.

Check out:

www.theacornatwisteriahill.com

The spring after we moved in, J and I decided to get plans and tackle the landscape design of the rear yard. First thing was a custom fence, second were the plantings of Leland cypresses and Natchez white crepe myrtles, third came the larger, fluid –shaped patio and custom arbor. All building and landscape work was completed by Top Hat Nursery.  The patio was then surrounded by rows of boxwoods, our sugar kettle/pond, and a charming herb garden filled with rosemary, thyme, and basil. The back patio soon became the neighborhood gathering spot. Many cocktails and bar-b-qs later, the rear patio felt like “home”.

Designing the perfect look of the patio consisted of long cotton drapes from IKEA, a granite dining table and chairs from Lowe’s, a fountain from a local Atlanta nursery, concrete rounded benches from Lowe’s, umbrellas from Pier 1, pillows from Pottery Barn and Frontgate, and glass cloches from Hill Street. A clock from now defunct Smith & Hawken and transferware plates complete a rear wall of the home. A small accent table from Frontera completes the vignette. From the arbor  an outdoor chandelier from Target was hung. An outdoor lamp was also added. Hanging baskets of macho ferns from Pike’s Nursery filled several spaces and added the greenery I so admire. The indoor/outdoor rugs are from Frontgate at Phipp’s Plaza. The patio changed with the seasons and always complemented the interior of my home.

Friends, neighbors, and family alike seem to love our gatherings. There is nothing better to me than a perfect spring day to share conversation, cocktails, and laughter.

Here are more pictures of our front porch and rear patio at Wisteria Hill:

Linger more, y’all!

Southerners love a porch.....

In the spirit of the front porch this week, Southern Living.com recently featured some of their favorite porches from recent publications.

Porches are an integral part of Southern culture. Classic porches are always inviting and inspiring. Whether it’s for conversation, dining, or resting, a Southerner’s porch should always be comfortable and stylish. The porch should always reflect the personalities of the homeowners.

Here are some of my favorite porch photos from southernliving.com:

What is a necessity on your porch?

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No Minimalist Here

Linger on, y’all!

He's got okra! He's got cantaloupe!

In yesterday’s blog about my front porch, one of the sights and sounds in Uptown New Orleans is the sound of Mr. Okra, Arthur Robinson, a roving produce vendor who patrols the streets of Uptown and other parts of New Orleans in an old Ford truck packed to the top with an organized collection of seasonal fruits and vegetables. I can hear his deep, baritone voice coming from the P.A. system mounted in his truck from blocks away.

Watch Mr. Okra here!

It is easy to witness his distinctive call of “I got bananas. I got oranges and broc-oh-lee”. He continues, “I have eggplant. I have pears, strawberries, and mango.”

Mr. Okra has become an iconic part of the New Orleans scene. His sound and slow paced, parade-like puttering along our street is welcome any time of the year.

Mr. Okra is just one of many sights I can observe sitting on my front porch.

Watch another Mr. Okra video here!

Get your bananas, y’all!

Ma Maison.....The Front Porch

I’d like to introduce you to the house we call home on Perrier Street. I will take you through each part of the home showing you rooms, finds, and some of my favorite things. I will also do my best to include “where to purchase” for each of my favorite finds.

Today, I will start you on the front porch.  The front porch is often considered the quintessential icon of Southern culture, and I have always dreamed of living in a home with a front porch across the entire front façade. I think that probably the original concept of a front porch was to capture a stray breeze on a warm Southern evening, but there is much more to any modern front porch than that.

J & I rock away on each of the black rockers each spring and summer evening with a cocktail in hand.  Our front porch has become the neighborhood meeting spot and is filled with much conversation, laughter, and a lil gossip, of course. As walkers, runners, and bikers pass by, we love greeting all with a kind “hello”, “how ya do?”, or just a simple wave.

Besides the rockers (Sunbrella cushions from Frontgate), the porch consists of two cast iron urns (Hill Street Warehouse, Atlanta) always filled with seasonal annuals and/or décor, two painted black rectangular planters (Ganier’s, Houma) filled with foxtail ferns, and two wire baskets lined with cocoa liner filled with one macho fern each (Green Parrot Nursery). I always start off with the smallest macho fern that I can find and by summer’s end the ferns are actually too big to walk from one end of the porch to the other. I then have to move them to the backyard for winter. The windchimes are in a perfect location to capture the winds, and the sound is very soothing (Perino's, Metairie).



Macho fern. From this...



...to this!



The door décor is changed seasonally also. As a maker of numerous front door designs, I admire classic wreaths, badges, or wooden creations welcoming any guest to my home.

J & I continually enjoy the front porch and getting to see the sights and hear the sounds of living in Uptown New Orleans.

Happy Rockin’, y’all!

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A Stroll Through Life