Wednesday, July 28, 1999
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 5
House gets charity make over
Decorators, artists prepare interior for public tours
By Lisa John
Kansan managing editor
Karla Nathan stretches on tiptoe to reach the uppermost leaves of a tree she is painting on a mural in the second-story bathroom in the red brick mansion at 1613 Tennessee. Yellow buds of a forsythia peek from behind a radiator, and purple iris blooms on tall stems hover near the white pedestal sink.
The red brick mansion at 1613 Tennessee is home to more than 20 designers through September. The 138-year-old home is commonly known as the Maupin house. Photo by Jamie Roper/KANSAN
Nathan is one of about 20 area decorators preparing for Designers' Showcase, working to bring back the luster of the 138-year-old. 21-room house.
The Designers' Showcase is sponsored by Cottonwood, Inc., an organization that assists people who have developmental disabilities. Kesha Larson, director of communications, said the house would be open for public tours in September and October as a fund-raiser for Cottonwood.
The designers have been working on the event for more than two years.
"The owners of the house, Terry and Elaine Reardon, came to us with the idea." Larson said. "I immediately contacted members of the Kansas City Symphony, who had been doing this for 30 years."
Their advice helped.
"Those ladies took us under their wings and showed us everything they knew." Larson said.
This month when the Reardons moved out of the house into temporary quarters, the action began. On July 19, decorators, painters and carpenters went to work.
By midweek, it was clear that changes were in progress. Amid the wet paint, ladders and equipment, the visions of the decorators were emerging.
In each area of the house, an easel sports the designers' plans, including fabrics to be used on furniture and windows, carpet samples, paint colors and pictures of furniture.
"The designers are donating their time and talents," Larson said. "The kitchen is the only thing that's separate. Kitchens by Kleweno in Kansas City is doing that at a discounted rate for the homeowners."
In the dining room Wednesday, Markie Bieri, owner of Imagine That Designs, balanced on an eight-foot-tall ladder, sponging gold paint onto the ceiling. Working from another ladder across the room was her friend, Jeannene Wyatt of Ranchview Floral, Overland Park, who is volunteering to help Bieri. Jennifer Catlin, owner of Two Girls and a Brush, Lawrence, sat cross-legged on the floor applying a fresh coat of ivory paint to the wainsoot.
Bieri said that three layers of flooring were removed before the original floor was revealed
— a hardwood painted ivory and decorated with painted red Cupids, cats, birds and horses.
"I have no idea who painted this, but what I like about it is it's very whimsical," Bieri said. She said she planned the new decor using the ivory and reds.
In the viewing room, David Gawell, stood on a ladder and dipped his brush in ivory paint to repaint the molding around a window.
"When I first moved to town 12 years ago, this house was one of the first things that I noticed. My friends told me it was the Maupin house and that I'd never get to see the inside of it." he said. "And here I am."
Gawell, who works for Painted Ambient Co., Lawrence, praised the workmanship of the house.
"If there were a tornado coming through the center of Lawrence, I'd feel safe here," he said. "They built these things to last forever."
Nathan, the artist who was painting bathroom mural, said she became involved with the project when she volunteered to help. "I ended up getting a room to do." she said.
The bathroom she's redecorating is not an ordinary bathroom. The 9-by-9 foot space directly above the front porch includes four windows that
stretch from floor to ceiling. A chandelier hangs below a plaster medallion, and ornate woodwork outlines the room. The ceilings are 14 feet.
Nathan plans to furnish the room with an antique hamper she bought at a garage sale, a cabinet and a canvas floor cloth that she said will look like a garden pond with stepping stones.
She smiles as she speaks of the activity going on in the house. Like many of the others working there, Nathan's clothes and skin are paint-spattered, but that doesn't dampen her spirits.
"It's pretty exciting to be involved in a project like this.
Every time I come here, I see something new that's been done." she said
The key for success in a project like this, said Julee Travis, Cottonwood committee coordinator, is flexibility.
"It's giving the designers enough freedom to create a really spectacular display for the public to see, but at the same time trying to protect the history and integrity of the house." Travis said.
Known to local historians as the Ludington-Thacher home, the house will be open for public viewing from Sept. 24 through Oct. 17. For information about tickets and tours, call 840-1604.
— Edited by Chad Bettes
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