Home is Carnival on the outside, art-filled on the inside | Entertainment/Life
It was with the history of their Esplanade Ridge neighborhood in mind that Melissa Warren and Tania Hahn in 2019 designed their double-galleried four-bay home in the French West Indies style.
They collaborated with architect Kenny Gowland at Metro Studios to bring to fruition a home that would look aged and in keeping with the architecture of the area, which dates to 1784.
Part of that same neighborhood history, concerning the transformative transportation routes that started along Bayou St. John around 1700, more recently inspired the couple to costume their home for Carnival, working with Stronghold Studios in 2021 to design their Steamboat Natchez house float.
The more formal dining area includes a wall installation of glass by artist Dale Chihuly.
First, the neighborhood history
The neighborhood’s story dates back to 1699, the Choctaw and Houma tribes shared with early French explorers the “shortcut” that is Grand Route St. John. At that time, the primary access to the Mississippi River from the Gulf was via its treacherous, unpredictable mouth.
Once introduced to the shorter route, it quickly became crucial to 18th-century trade and contributed significantly to the development of New Orleans. It functioned as a sort of pre-automotive Interstate 10 for the city and led directly to the French Quarter via present-day Bayou Road.
The bayou served as a vital transportation corridor for vessels, including schooners and smaller, shallow-draft trading ships that docked along the banks of Moss Street. The area developed around this route in the early 18th century was an early suburban enclave for wealthy residents and features significant colonial, Creole, French West Indies and, later, Greek Revival architecture, including the Pitot House and the Spanish Custom House.
By the early 1800s, larger steam-powered ships became standard and the Mississippi River became the dominant waterway, with the first steamboat reaching the main port in 1812.
The kitchen, Melissa Warren’s domain, would be the envy of any chef. Counters are topped with Cristallo quartzite. A 36-inch Le Corneau cooktop with antique brass fittings and an elegant custom-made vent dominate one wall.
Designing the home
Hahn and Warren, who had previous experience working on commercial projects, completed the buildout of their 4,200-square-foot home in a year.
“We wanted the architecture to fit the context of the portage style that was historically on the bayou,” said Warren, a native of Gulfport, Mississippi, and a commercial real estate agent with Stirling.
The house faces the bayou. Its design follows the irregular layout of the lot, which had been vacant since 1984 after a house fire. Hahn bought the lot in 2017.
The antique heart pine floors that run through the first and second floors of the house were reclaimed from a demolished house. (There’s also a finished attic, used largely as a costume closet.)
The rustic whitewashed exposed ceiling rafters in the open kitchen/breakfast/living room were salvaged from a textile mill in Missouri. Each of the home’s 19 doors is 9 feet, 6 inches tall and made of solid, hand-rubbed natural cypress. They were custom-milled by Period Millworks: The Woodwright Shop in Covington.
Tania Hahn, left, and Melissa Warren, right, in the dining room of their home on Bayou St. John. Behind them is a painting by Pippin Frisbie-Calder.
Built-in bookcases in the living room display a rare, carved cachepot by Walter Anderson, pieces of Newcomb OHR pottery and Warren’s deep collection of decade-spanning works by McCarty Pottery, of Marigold, Mississippi. Both of Warren’s parents hailed from the Mississippi Delta, where McCarty Studio operates.
Warren developed her passion for cooking and entertaining from her mother and grandmothers. Her paternal grandmother’s deeply scarred slaughtering table from outside of her smokehouse holds a place of honor in the home.
It is centered to be visible as one traverses the hall that leads from the front to the rear of the home. It is topped with a sculpture by Enrique Alférez. The rusticity of the table is juxtaposed with the elegance of the sinuous bronze sculpture of a nymph playing a guitar.
Melissa Warren has a deep collection of works by McCarty Pottery of Marigold, Mississippi, spanning decades. Both of her parents hailed from the Mississippi Delta, where McCarty Studio operates.
The two also have created a resplendent art collection, with works by Alférez and Anderson, as well as Lin Emery, David Harouni, Dale Chihuly, Clementine Hunter, Hunt Slonem and many more.
The kitchen, Warren’s domain, would be the envy of any chef.
Like the abundance of linear counter space, the uncommon 8-foot by 8-foot square island is topped with Cristallo quartzite.
“My friend Troy Scroggins has a passion for design,” Warren said. “He really guided me through the process of thinking about the layout of the kitchen. We laid out the room and all the appliance placement with blue tape. We started off with a rectangular island, but changed it because Troy foresaw that I would be fighting to open the oven doors with the island so close. There are so many details you just never consider.”
The primary bedroom has French doors that open onto a deep second-floor galleried porch overlooking Bayou St. John.
A stunning 36-inch Le Corneau cooktop features antique brass fittings. Its elegant custom-made vent, also trimmed in antique brass, rises to the 12-foot ceiling and dominates one wall, with the backsplash clad in Cristallo quartzite to stunning effect.
“Melissa really was responsible for the design of the house as well as the interior design,” Hahn said. “All I wanted was an island where the edge overhung the cabinetry so I could get a stool all the way under the counter when I am sitting at it. I love (working), so I just show up.
“Melissa takes care of so much around here. She makes this house a home.”
‘We wanted the architecture to fit the context of the portage style that was historically on the bayou,’ said Melissa Warren of her West Indies Style house. The house faces the bayou, and its design follows the irregular layout of the lot. Stronghold Studios installed the Steamboat Natchez house float on the exterior.
More about the house float
With help from Stronghold Studios, the couple adds new elements to the Steamboat Natchez house float each year.
This year, the paddlewheel at the rear of the steamship came to life and now turns in a languorous manner. The home’s galleries have been enhanced to better resemble those on the historic steamship, with filigreed brackets installed at the corners of each support column to frame the spaces between them.
Partitions suggesting Dixieland jazz musicians — depicted as alligators — harken to the era when paddle wheelers routinely plied the waters. The suggestion of waves crosses the home’s front lawn to frame a permanently installed large-scale, wind-powered kinetic sculpture by Lin Emery, part of the couple’s extensive art collection.
A metal “bow” extends from one end of the lower gallery, a “hull” from the other. Red, white and blue bunting is suspended from both galleries. A smokestack completes the display, which Stronghold Studios will disassemble and store, then reinstall next year.
“We felt like the Steamboat Natchez deserved a tribute,” Warren said. “The Steamboat Natchez has arrived at her Mardi Gras berth.”
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