Allegra Bennett, The Examiner
2008-08-03 07:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

BALTIMORE -

Don’t look for brass, glass and trendy objets d’art in Marty and Lone Azola’s Roland Park home.

Do expect to find familiar items pressed into service in new ways. A handy example is the intricately designed, knee-wall height twin wrought iron gates in the kitchen.

They once were decorative storm doors that were discarded when they fell out of favor with their owners. Marty, a visionary contractor known for his historical restoration skills and ability to see beauty in castoffs, salvaged the doors, refashioning them into latched safety gates to keep the family pets out of certain rooms.

The gate design is repeated in the sitting room where it functions as the lower shelf of the glass and wrought iron coffee table and again as a large grate front for the nearby stone fireplace.

From kitchen countertops made from reclaimed heart pine, bead edge cabinets, 100-year-old Georgia pine flooring, wainscoting from the old milking stalls and corrugated tin ceilings, “Everything in the house is home made,” says Lone in a summary that understates the teamwork, patience and talent it took to turn a dreary 19th century dairy barn into a unique home over a decade. “All the work was done by the two of us.”

In 1988 just before they moved in, the dilapidated dairy barn built in 1883, was a critter infested, uninhabitable structure that Marty had used as his workshop.

To make the place livable, he began by building a kitchen in the breezeway between two barns to close in the house.

Over time, the couple reworked the space, using all Victorian period materials. Eventually they raised the roofline, and installed a wall of windows that reveal trees installed in the 1800s by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. At the foot of the grassy hill is the springhouse where the family makes pinot noir, chardonnay, merlot and chamborcin from grapes that Marty, a wine enthusiast, cultivates in the small vineyard.

An outside view of the U-shaped house reveals an architectural profile of an Italianate Victorian pop-up dormer built to create useful space within the original low pitched, hipped roof.

Throughout, Marty’s furniture finds and Lone’s collection of tin plates, clocks and crockpots reveal a compatible style. “When it comes to developing your home style there’s no quick fix,” Lone says. “Our tastes evolved by walking through antique stores and looking at magazines. It took many years.”

MARTY AND LONE AZOLA

• STYLE PHILOSOPHY — Interiors should be casual, comfortable and compatible with the character of the building. Use of materials that have relevance to the house is important (stone, beaded wainscot, heart pine, soapstone in our case).
• STYLE SECRETS — Period and primitive beats glass and brass every time.
• GOT STYLE FROM — Great professional design advice plus years of recycling old house parts, antiques and countless house tours.
• COMFORT VS. STYLE — Style follows comfort.
• COLOR VS. TEXTURE — Both are necessary. A subdued backdrop and trim color with vibrant furnishings and an occasional in-your-face accent color works for us.
• FAVORITE COLOR — Blue-green.
• WHAT DOES COLOR SAY TO YOU? — Like good spatial design, the right color application simply feels good.
• MUST HAVES IN YOUR HOUSE — Family photos, hand-me-downs and pieces and parts from other historic rehabs.
• MOST BELOVED OBJECT — My Rolex (kidding). Our first antique — an oak kitchen clock.
• WHAT PEOPLE WOULDN’T KNOW ABOUT US — We have friends in every economic strata.
• WE WOULD NEVER — Scrimp on quality.
• FAVORITE DESIGNERS — Ronnie and Tayne Renmark (Richmond), Kim Coale, and Johnson/Berman.
• MOST UNUSUAL THING ABOUT US — We do all our own work.
• HOT TIP — Remodeling can be difficult. Get expert advice.
• LIFE ADVICE — Be happy with the “glow from within” after successfully completing a difficult project. Sometimes that’s all you get.

>> WORDS TO GROW BY — Work hard, be honest and good things will follow.