Before and After Midtown

Antiques 101: A new container from France has arrived! Reading Before and After Midtown 5 minutes Next Meet the artist: welcome back, Elizabeth Stockton

By Huff HarringtonJun 1, 20212 comments

If you have followed our journey over the last few years, you know that we Huff’ingtons never shy away from a project. For our personal projects, we welcome the challenge of finding the ugly duckling with great bones that's begging for a little facelift -- and discover that it doesn't take much to turn it into a beauty. I always love a good before and after story, and apparently you do too because you asked for more "befores" after we published our last blog about the Midtown perch.

So here goes.

The Midtown Perch, once lovingly lived in by a prominent Atlanta family, had not been touched in twenty years -- so it was a powerful attraction that I couldn’t resist. Having a team of Huff’ington designers with great advice and a fabulous contractor with lots of imagination, smoothed the path for a creative and enjoyable gut renovation.

I'm excited to walk you through the apartment, as it was on the magical moonlit evening that we saw it for the first time, and the way it is now, after the renovation. You'll see that while there were many things that we updated, we tried to respect the original bones and maintain the charm of the old while adapting it to our every day needs.

I actually found the old entry charming with the tile floors

but ended up changing them to French limestone due to a structural issue with the new wood floors we installed.

And while the old wallpaper in the powder room has become trendy again (think "Grand Millenial Style"), I knew I did want to change out the sink and the mirror, so along came the wallpaper.

The most dramatic renovation was taking the enclosed kitchen, a bright red French country style hidden behind closed doors, and opening it up to the rest of the apartment.

We took out all of the walls (above) and replaced the cabinets, below.

To simplify the renovation (and permits), we kept all the appliances in the same place and just replaced all the fixtures, countertop and backsplash.

Here again we kept the sink where it was

And we opened the space above it for a favorite piece of art.

I borrowed the handmade sculptural vessel by Giselle Hicks for the photo shoot and am seriously thinking about making it a permanent fixture in our home!

The main bedroom has a killer view of Piedmont Park and Stone Mountain so we did everything we could to frame the view ...

And maximize the storage space by adding closets surrounding the bed (photo below by CatMax)

The old bathroom had a good layout but was extremely dated

So we added a custom vanity with a nice thick countertop using a piece of the slab from the kitchen (a good contractor will help you be creative like this)

The dining room offered up another nice view of the Park

and was the perfect place to hang a favorite pair of sconces from the Paris flea market that I'd been stocking for a few years.

It's a amazing what a little paint can do ...

and we Huff'ingtons never shy away from bringing the outdoors in and the indoors out, like hanging a vintage Italian gilded starburst mirror on a 40th floor balcony!

Here is another wall that we nixed ...

To open up the room and create space for our baby grand piano.

The corner nook presented a conundrum

Until we figured out it would be the perfect place for a cozy reading nook!

This is a view of the old wall from the other side

And the open vista that was created without it (photo below, CatMax)

We always joke that my monsieur needs a room of his own

And once we reconfigured the bookcase, swapped out the TV for a favorite painting by Charles Ross, and added a few coats of Benjamin Moore Kendall Charcoal ...

his dream had come true!

One of the things I loved about the building was the vintage marble in the bathrooms. I held on to as many as we could ...

and just repainted the vanities around them.

While the renovation was a lot of fun (thanks to the Huff'ington team of designers and Jeff Fagan, my amazing contractor), the hero of this story will always be the view, That didn't go away, before or after!

And although the Perch has been a perfect place to call home for the last few years, I am starting to feel that familiar itch again. In fact, this was a such a fun renovation that I'd do it all over in a heartbeat! So stay tuned because, who knows, there may be another little duckling lurking in our midst - and I will always, in the words of a favorite children's book author, make way for the ducklings!

Thanks for coming along for the ride.

Ta ta,

All "after" photos, unless otherwise indicated, are courtesy of Kevin Grieco, Atlanta Fine Homes.