Decatur couple restore 1912 bungalow

Photo: Alison Church / Special

Eight-year project revealed home’s elegance

By H.M. Cauley

For the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

He’s a filmmaker. She’s an interior designer who works with the Johnson Studio, a local firm noted for putting its imprint on many of the city’s top restaurants. They met in Saudi Arabia, where their parents worked for oil companies.

Together, Eric and Karen Blue unleashed a torrent of creativity and love of Eastern motifs and color to restore a 1912 bungalow in Decatur. The challenge was significant: The one-story house had been cut up into a duplex and had missing moldings and a rotting front porch. But the two looked at the property with a good deal of imagination, not trepidation.
“So many old houses have been torn down, we wanted to keep it,” said Karen Blue. “We loved trying to bring it back to its original character.”

The couple did much of the work themselves since moving in eight years ago. They started with the interior, stripping the trim and floors and replacing missing moldings with ones that matched what was intact. A former parlor was transformed into Eric Blue’s office, decorated with slates of the various films he’s completed and a tiled gas fireplace. The dining room, lit by one oversize window, was warmed by red velvet drapes made by Karen Blue. An Oriental rug was hung as a piece of art on one wall near the walnut dining table.

Just off the dining room, a door leads to the second bedroom, now a nursery for the Blues’ first baby, Dylan. Butterflies and animals are stenciled on the wall and on an old chest that has been refinished as a changing table.

The kitchen had been a bedroom when the couple bought the house, but it’s now a sleek, functional space with stainless steel appliances, concrete counters, pale wood cabinets and a terra-cotta-tiled floor. A butcher-block table acts as a center island, and a desk area provides another work area.

“We were lucky to have a friend build some of the glass-fronted cabinets and some bookshelves,” said Eric Blue. “We tried to make everything look custom, but we actually got most of the cabinets at Home Depot,” he said.

Off the kitchen is the bath, redone with new octagonal tiles, a pedestal sink and white subway tile. Down a short hallway is the master bedroom and bath, with the original claw-foot tub. New beadboard molding gives the space a period feel. Stained glass that repeats a pattern in the front door sheds light from the bath into the narrow hall.

Across the back of the house is a sunroom the Blues believe was added sometime in the 1930s. It now doubles as a den and home office for Karen, with a desk area, a soft sofa, a trunk for a coffee table and a desk area. A door leads to a deck with a curtained sitting area, furnished with woven wicker chairs from Target. The deck leads to the overhauled backyard, complete with a hammock in one corner and a pond with a small bridge across it.

Wherever possible, the Blues kept the original brass or crystal doorknobs. They also rebuilt the front porch and spruced up the front yard, adding stone walls to create terraces.

“Honestly, our first thought when we bought this was, ‘What did we get ourselves into?’ ” said Eric with a laugh. “We went five months without a kitchen. But it was a project we could work on together — though Karen did most of the creative work. I love the way she used the Oriental rugs and colors to make this a home.”