Sitting on a bench full of pillows at a large, round wooden table she made with her own hands, Bolanle Adeboye smears veggie cream cheese on both halves of a cinnamon raisin bagel. The visual artist is fighting a cold, and her housemate, cellist and songwriter Wes Swing, asks if she’d prefer a cup of […]
With six previous renovations under their belts, Frank and Rebecca Gristina had lots of practice sizing up old houses. When Rebecca, accompanied by her mother, came to see a 1906 farmhouse in western Albemarle, she quickly noticed promising signs. This was despite the fact that the place had been uninhabited and was so uninviting that […]
In a county like Albemarle, where vigorous growth routinely fills in open space with new homes, it’s reassuring to know there are still places where the opposite has happened. Wilhoit Mill Farm, near Earlysville, is one of those bucolic spots: a onetime rural village that’s less populated now than it was in the past. That’s […]
The solidity of the wide brick house off Garth Road is broken in just one place: Look in the front door, and your gaze can travel all the way through the back of the house to the distant mountains. It’s a moment in which the landscape asserts itself, thanks to the placement of a large […]
Here’s one for the dreamers: Monticola, a nearly 300-acre estate on the James River, is for sale. If you’ve never heard of Monticola, you’re not alone. Despite its rich history, it claims little fame and has never really been a public place. Now, spiffed up for a turn on the market, it’s ready [...]
Jeff Dreyfus and Bob Headrick have always loved their house. It is a special place—very progressive when it was built in 1933, predating by decades most other local examples of modern architecture. Its International Style design is bold and crisp, built with geometric planes of white accented [...]
Every year since 2009, the Shelter for Help in Emergency has hosted its Design House event, taking a local home that’s on the market and transforming it with the assistance of some of Charlottesville’s best interior designers, landscape designers and local vendors. Proceeds from tours of the [...]
The February issue of Abode features a historic home overlooking the James River (it once belonged to a relative of Thomas Jefferson—yes, that Thomas Jefferson!), a mix-and-match kitchen in Ivy, a primer for wallpaper and more. Here’s what you’ll find inside: A house on Riverside [...]
The idea of a “new downtown” in Crozet has been in the air for years. With the opening of Piedmont Place—a lively, mixed-use building just across the street from the Crozet Library—it is suddenly looking like a reality. “My wife Michelle and I moved to Crozet in 2011,” says developer Drew [...]
You can often spot a Latitude 38 house from a block away. The Charlottesville company, owned by husband and wife team Jeff Erkelens and Joey Conover, has tended to build tall, vertical structures, with a fresh, quirky asymmetry. But one Latitude house, found in the Riverside neighborhood [...]
It’s almost like a mini Monticello. Situated on high ground, commanding a majestic view, the house is likely close to two centuries old. With its brick foundation and chimneys, and many other classic Virginia architectural details, it looks eminently at home among the mature trees that surround [...]
The verdict is in from the nation’s biggest kitchen and bathroom expo—kitchen sinks are trending modern. And there’s probably nothing Charlottesville can do about it. According to local designer Amy Hart of Albemarle Cabinet Co., a visit to The Kitchen & Bath Industry Show in early January [...]
It’s not easy to nearly double the square footage of a house without bulking up its street profile. But that’s just what happened at Mike and Karen Ball’s North Downtown home. Not only did the couple, and their three young children, gain a lot of living space with the renovation/addition [...]
In this month’s Abode, we talk with homebuilder Noah Bradley about his 40-year career, learn why a homeowner shouldn’t be bound by their lot size, take a look inside an Ivy cottage and more. Here’s what you’ll find inside this issue: Scarpa‘s smart reno for [...]
When Justin Rood went house-hunting in Charlottesville, he looked really hard. Many dozens of properties into his search, he still hadn’t found just the right place—but not because he was picky. Intending to create a vacation rental in an older house, he needed to find a rare combination of [...]
If your house sits on a small city lot, it may seem as though there’s little room to expand. After all, city regulations limit how much of your lot may be developed, plus the height of secondary structures relative to your house. But don’t give up hope. One recent project by Alloy Workshop [...]
![Chris Coggins, pictured here in his living room, says his favorite spot in his own home is the downstairs bath. “With the marble shower and large rain showerhead, [it’s] the perfect way to relax after a long day of design.” Photo: Amy Jackson](https://www.c-ville.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Chris-Coggins_003-320x170.jpg)
While attending the New York School of Interior Design, designer Chris Coggins embarked on an independent project: review 40 famous houses in 40 days. “I visited significant homes all along the East Coast,” says Coggins, “so I experienced a full range of styles.” But it was Biltmore, the Gilded [...]
When Lynne Roberts and her partners looked to start a sister restaurant to Route 29-based Timberwood Grill, they wanted to create a unique space while hinting at the original. The key link between the two? Look no further than the name. “The other restaurant has a lot of wood in there—the [...]
If you’re the type of person who’d like to drop five grand on a toilet, you are living in the right age indeed. Toilets have come a long way, and these days features include advanced water-saving flushing systems, hands-free flushing, self-opening and closing lids, self-cleaning bidets, drying [...]
Previously in this column, we’ve explored a graduate student’s perspective on architecture’s trajectory—one that leverages architects’ unique skill sets to address, through the built environment, uncertainties facing society today. This semester at UVA engaged this topic directly through [...]
When Noah Bradley was 15, his insurance agent father announced that the two of them would spend their summer building a house by hand, from the ground up. “I believe I swore at that particular stage of my life,” Bradley says, “that I would do anything I could to avoid building houses ever [...]
When Bonnie Bond bought her condo in the Lewis and Clark Building downtown in 2012, she faced an unusual situation. Not only was the two-bedroom unit due for routine updates—the building was built in 1989, and the flooring and cabinetry reflected their age—the condo bore the marks of its [...]
Deck the garden with half a dozen stars to ornament the darkest days of winter. In the pared-down landscape between first and last freezes, when contrasts are sharp, displays of flower, form and color take on a significance lost in the lushness of summer. If you don’t already have these [...]