Photography by Chip Pankey
This month’s featured home is on one of the loveliest streets in East Memphis; to my mind it has always been “a great home.” Now, following a fabulous renovation by Oscar Menzer, one of Memphis’ most prominent architects, and executed by Ryan Anderson’s RKA Construction, it has become even grander.
The homeowners, George and Julie Ellis, tell me this is the home’s fourth renovation since 1985, when they first moved in. George points out that “from the moment we bought it, my wife has been recreating it.” They suggested that the focus of this overview be on Menzer and Anderson, as well as Carolyn Jones, their talented interior designer and good friend. Accordingly, Julie Ellis arranged for us all to meet and walk through the house together.
Architect Menzer told me his objective was to take the home’s design from a “generic classic brick” to a more distinctive English Regency look, defined by “a refined and restrained classicism.” The wooden gallery at the top of the house is new, and the upper porch and previous cast-iron elements are gone. Octagonal paired columns were added, as was a large front porch.
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The new study’s décor was styled after patterned pillows which resemble a Monet watercolor. The glamorous new gallery features a barrel-vaulted ceiling and four columns on pedestals. The view through the dining room into the new gallery and beyond is stunning. Three new windows in the library give more height and let in more light than the original bay.
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The new study’s décor was styled after patterned pillows which resemble a Monet watercolor. The glamorous new gallery features a barrel-vaulted ceiling and four columns on pedestals. The view through the dining room into the new gallery and beyond is stunning. Three new windows in the library give more height and let in more light than the original bay.
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CHIP PANKEY
The new study’s décor was styled after patterned pillows which resemble a Monet watercolor. The glamorous new gallery features a barrel-vaulted ceiling and four columns on pedestals. The view through the dining room into the new gallery and beyond is stunning. Three new windows in the library give more height and let in more light than the original bay.
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CHIP PANKEY
The new study’s décor was styled after patterned pillows which resemble a Monet watercolor. The glamorous new gallery features a barrel-vaulted ceiling and four columns on pedestals. The view through the dining room into the new gallery and beyond is stunning. Three new windows in the library give more height and let in more light than the original bay.
The new ironwork was designed by Menzer and crafted by David Doss. The garage now features a handsome cupola with a copper fleur de lis on top designed by W.F. Norman. The pale-grayish blue shutters are by Twisted Dimensions. The grounds of the home — an acre in all — are beautiful, and Marley Fields, a top landscape architect, redesigned the front yard.
As we moved inside, I was told that the changes to the library at the right front of the house entailed adding three Palladian windows in place of the original bay. The entire left side of the house was taken down to the studs, principally to add a new study at the front and a downstairs master bedroom and bath at the back. Menzer designed all the ceilings and cabinetry in the addition, with an eye to adding “importance” (as he calls it) and making the new construction appear to be original.
The dining room was renovated; added on was a gallery featuring four columns on pedestals and barrel vaulting. Both the high-gloss ceiling in the dining room and the stunning peach-gloss ceiling in the new gallery are by Bridgette Speake’s company, The Finished Product LLC. The dining-room chairs were re-covered with custom Edelman leather in a pearl-pink color.
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The new master bedroom suite is a little piece of paradise with its serene linen white-colored walls, muted Lee Jofa upholstery pattern, and stunning paneled ceiling. This is surely the world's most perfect closet, complete with glass-paneled doors. Filling all the space and drawers with clothes could be the only problem here!
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CHIP PANKEY
The new master bedroom suite is a little piece of paradise with its serene linen white-colored walls, muted Lee Jofa upholstery pattern, and stunning paneled ceiling. This is surely the world's most perfect closet, complete with glass-paneled doors. Filling all the space and drawers with clothes could be the only problem here!
In the master suite, Julie Ellis’ closet is pure perfection — every woman’s dream — with its glass doors to dust-proof her wardrobe. The bedroom itself has a beautiful paneled ceiling and the walls are painted with a serene Benjamin Moore Linen White. Richard Martin painted the end table, in addition to other pieces in the dining room and gallery, and he also painted the lantern overhead “to quiet it down and allow the ceiling to dominate.”
The custom acrylic desk is by Rose Tarlow. The dreamy Lee Jofa print is a muted cream, blue and green neutral; the painting over the bed is a contemporary by Tom Clifton. This new master bath is indeed luxurious and beautiful with its H.R. Ford hardware, which Menzer calls the room’s “jewelry.”
CHIP PANKEY
Guests might be tempted to spend all day in a shower this nice. It was a real challenge to cut the mirror to fit perfectly around the guest bath’s sink by Alexander Brothers Marble: Binswanger glass to the rescue!This luxurious new domed master bath is a dream with its handsome marble, stonework, and hardware.
The finished product is every inch the quiet, peaceful retreat that Julie Ellis had envisioned. Carolyn Jones told me that her training was not about creating a particular “look”; rather it was helping her clients find their own taste by helping them think of things that they might not have thought of.
The attention to detail in Oscar Menzer’s plans for the home was little short of amazing. For him, proportion is all-important, as he feels that “it is easy to get a room too big, and lacking in grace.” As George Ellis likes to say, “When Menzer says one-sixteenth of an inch, he really means it.” Julie added that if she mentioned any problem, Menzer would find the solution and, as a result, “everything was done right.”
Both Ellises call Menzer “a Renaissance man,” and theirs is a mutual admiration society, to say the least. Julie has even become Menzer’s enthusiastic opera-going buddy at the Met Live series at The Paradiso.
It was of course left to Ryan Anderson and his superintendent, Chris Clark, to turn Menzer’s masterful plans into a magnificent reality. While the scope of the work grew (as it often does), Anderson at the end of the day knew that the finished product was worth it. He praised his employees as well as the expertise of his “A-team of subcontractors” which, to his mind, sets his high-end residential construction company apart from the rest.
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This back view shows the new bay window in the master suite that overlooks the large patio. The flirty fleur de lis is atop the new cupola over the garage.
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This back view shows the new bay window in the master suite that overlooks the large patio. The flirty fleur de lis is atop the new cupola over the garage.
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A detail of the new ironwork designed by Menzer surrounding the new front porch.
And judging by the proliferation of little green and white RKA signs on projects dotted around the city, Anderson’s company’s talents have not gone unnoticed here. For her part, Julie Ellis adds that “not one day passed” that they did not have someone from RKA on-site with the project.
The result is a stunning home, and based on the satisfaction of the homeowners I’m betting this is likely to be their last renovation — at least for a while! All were key players in the resulting perfection of the place, and, as Julie says admiringly, “George said no to very little.” If you ask me, that is really saying something.
CHIP PANKEY
Contented customers, Julie and George Ellis, pose on the porch with their “dream team,” Oscar Menzer (left) and Ryan Anderson (right).
