Summer is the season for home tours in Indianapolis and again this week I was able to get a preview of a truly spectacular home, which means you get a look at it too.
This home owned by Jackie Nytes and Michael O’Brien is in the Historic Meridian Park neighborhood of Indianapolis, an area full of amazing houses that are often overlooked because some nearby areas are more troubled.
Still, Meridian Park is lovely and is hosting its first home tour in four years to remind city lovers why they should consider moving to the area.
The tour is noon to 5 p.m. tomorrow and Sunday (June 26-27) and features seven homes – six that have been renovated and one that is just in the beginning stages of an overhaul.
The event’s theme is “Front Porches: Reflecting & Connecting” and attendees can stop along several front porches in the neighborhood. Antique cars will be on display as well. Go here for information about locations and tickets and here to visit the tour’s Facebook page.
Jackie & Michael own one of the neighborhood’s largest and most striking homes – a 6,000-square foot, five-bedroom stately brick house that was housing a design firm when they purchased it three years ago. It had no kitchen and no working tubs or showers.
But Jackie & Michael are no strangers to renovation. They’d worked on two previous Meridian Park homes and were ready for the challenge.
Working with architect Robert Kennedy and contractor David Decker of Affordable Kitchens & Baths, they’ve rebuilt the large main floor – replicating wainscoting, knocking down walls and laying new floors.
Now the space is perfect for entertaining and Jackie & Michael have used it to full advantage, hosting charity events, parties and even a wedding reception with 120 people. The latter was a little crowded, Michael acknowledged. But the space can comfortably hold 80-100 people for a party. It’s one of the reasons the couple bought it.
I started my tour in the expansive living room and so I thought we’d start there too.
I’m really only showing you just more than half the room here. A grand piano, shown below, sits on the other side of the room. Large windows – with the original glass panes and no treatments but a valance – allow light to come streaming into the room.
Although the couple had all the radiators removed, they kept the covers, added cushions and turned them into extra seating for parties.
The living room is actually broken up into three areas – all demarcated by their own rugs: The piano, the seating area and a table and chairs ready for card players. I loved this modern touch, particularly the base of the table. Jackie said the glass top helps keep the table from feeling too heavy.
When the couple bought the house, the original wainscoting in the living room had been covered up by paneling. But when they removed the panels, they could see some of the original wood, although they had to add back several moldings that had been pried off.
The living room fireplace is one of four in the house. Above it is one of two paintings by Mark Flickinger of Kansas, who has a degree from Indiana University. The living room painting is called En Der Fume, a musical reference, and was painted in Southern Indiana.
In their previous homes, Jackie & Michael always had natural woodwork and wood blinds on their windows, which made for some fairly dark rooms. This home – with its big windows and painted woodwork – has changed their outlook and their ideas about color. Michael said it’s a pleasure to come home to the brightness.
Still, much of the furniture came from their old homes. The plates below left were a gift and a perfect match for the living room.
Just off the living room is a beautiful solarium that features another table and chairs, a wet bar and more window seats for lots of seating. Natural bamboo blinds filter the light but keep things bright. I think this was my favorite space.
When a friend saw the solarium’s paint color, she offered to give Jackie & Michael the painting in the photo below left. It’s a perfect match for the colors of the room and the wall space.
Back across the living room is the entry way with its grand stair case. The flooring had been a faux parquet – sort of a plastic version of a wood floor. Jackie & Michael had it ripped up and replaced with tile and occasional strips of wood to tie it into the new oak floors in the living and dining rooms.
I’m embarrassed to admit I didn’t turn around and take a photo of the beautiful front door. Sorry about that!
Also in the entry is some beautiful art. Below right is a self portrait by Anna Pietrzak. Below left is a photograph taken by her father, Bartosz Pietrzak. There is some amazing art in this house but these are my two favorites!
In the dining room, much of the original wainscoting remained in place when Jackie & Michael bought the house. Some had to be repaired, as did the ceiling, which now hangs just a smidge lower than in the rest of the first floor.
The room has only canned ceiling lights and no chandelier. That’s a problem, Jackie said, because the room gets fairly dark in the evenings. But she worries that a traditional chandelier will block the view to the second Mark Flickinger painting. This one is called Cloud Burst. It was painted in Lawrence County but reminds the couple of their native Wisconsin.
The gorgeous goblets on the dining room table were gifts from the Indiana Repertory Theatre, which had an event at the house.
The couple bought the room’s unusual sideboard at a silent auction. It had been used in a production of Romeo & Juliet.
Through the dining room is a library with echoes of the couple’s previous arts-and-crafts style homes. The space had been a breakfast nook, but Jackie & Michael made the change as part of a larger overhaul of the kitchen and butlers’ pantries.
Along one wall along a hall across from the library is built-in cabinetry to accommodate Jackie’s pink depression glass collection.
The couple tore out one of the home’s two butlers’ pantries and merged the space with the kitchen, which is outfitted with Merillat Masterpiece cabinetry finished in dark cherry.
The kitchen is lined with windows that prevented the couple from installing many upper cabinets. So they used deep drawers to accommodate all their kitchen gadgets, dishware and pots and pans.
The couple’s son – a Purdue University student – helped choose all the appliances and other kitchen details.
They left in place one butler’s pantry (below), complete with the original cabinetry. They did move a door, which created a niche in the kitchen where the couple hung a clock that had been at the family farm owned by Michael’s family in Wisconsin.
Next to the kitchen is a back staircase.
And next to it is a niche where a radiator had been removed. Jackie used it to create shelves to display gifts the couple has received from the many foreign exchange students they’ve hosted over the years. (The kissing ducks have a great story…but it’s one I’ll let Jackie or Michael tell you…)
The couple has dressed the landing with a pretty rug, wicker chairs and a poinsettia that has remained red six months after Christmas. Original wainscoting runs all the way up the stairs.
At the top of the stairs is more of the faux parquet floor but the couple has not removed it. I thought it looked surprisingly nice. Old family photos line the wall and a 1970s-era pendant – left from the design firm’s overhaul of the home – hangs from the ceiling.
Down one hallway on the second floor is a sort of wing for foreign exchange students. At the end are two small rooms – each with a single bed and desk.
A beautifully renovated bathroom serves the student rooms. It features an unusual, space-saving vanity, great built-in cabinetry and a modern shower.
The hallway outside the bath is filled with beautiful art the couple collected overseas.
The couple converted another bedroom into a den and found the perfect sectional to fit in the space, even though it’s quite small.
Michael & Jackie’s son uses one of the upstairs bedrooms when he’s home from Purdue.
An attached bath also received a makeover that is similar to the one in the students’ bathroom. I love the shower tile.
Another foreign exchange student – this one in dental school – is using a fourth upstairs bedroom.
Nearby is the master suite, where Jackie & Michael have done the least amount of work. The faux parquet floor and dark green carpet that were in the area when the coupled bought the house remain.
Their bedroom had been the design firm’s conference room and the entertainment center was too large to remove. So far, the couple hasn’t changed it. “It’s functional,” Jackie says with a shrug.
The couple turned an upstairs kitchenette into a master closet and has left some built-in storage outside the bathroom.
The master bath is the one bathroom the couple has not gutted and renovated. It retains the lighting added in the 1970s.
Down the hall is Jackie’s office, a sort of upstairs sunroom where she steals away for late night work.
The cabinet was originally in the downstairs solarium, where the wet bar is located now. Jackie had contractors bring it upstairs for the office, but they had to break it into two pieces to make the move. It's like it was made for the room. And look at all that storage!
The walls are painted Wisconsin Badger red and took three coats. The pretty wind chimes are from Costa Rica and came from another former, foreign exchange student.
Finally, as we leave the master suite and the home, I want to leave you with this beautiful and unusual piece. I thought it was a small dresser but it’s actually a steamer trunk with a bottom drawer. It was handed down through Jackie’s family. It was one of my favorite pieces in the house.
Remember, this is just one of the beautiful Historic Meridian Park homes you can visit on the tour. Make sure you to check them all out this weekend!
Thanks to Jackie & Michael for inviting me to see their home and thanks to the home tour organizers who set it up.
