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Deana Petersen
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Deana Petersen
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Deana Petersen
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Deana Petersen
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Deana Petersen
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Deana Petersen
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Deana Petersen
Kristin Kaser doesn’t see a lot of art nouveau — a decorative, ornate and organic art style most prominent in the early 20th century — in today’s interior design. She certainly doesn’t see a lot of it in Akron.
But when Kaser, the owner of Pillowtalkk Interiors & Upholstery, had a chance to redesign a 1905 house on West Market Street in Akron, she saw a lot of art nouveau and arts and crafts designs displayed in the home, which once belonged to Edward P. Werner, son of German immigrant and local publishing giant Paul E. Werner. She also saw the job — readying the 1,500-square-foot four-bedroom building for its recent launch as a short-term rental for up to 10 people — as a chance to be experimental with other vintage designs. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Swiss chalet-style home required little construction, but the kitchen counters and sink, Kaser says, were replaced as an aesthetic choice. This offered a palette for the Pillowtalkk team’s full creativity in selecting furniture, wallpaper and fixtures. “It looks like a big cool old house, but as soon as you walk in the door, you are transformed to another era,” she says. “It’s a hidden gem. … I gravitate to these types of projects. I can take larger risks. We were able to do a lot more of layering designs from different eras.”
Bathrooms: The rental has three bathrooms, each featuring a clawfoot tub. Kaser lightly cleaned and repainted them. New chrome plumbing and light fixtures — whimsical, while staying true to the vintage motif — were added during a renovation by a previous property owner, a plumber by trade. All three bathrooms have porcelain pedestal sinks and some have toilets with separate tanks — both features are period correct. “We tried to keep the bathroom simple and historic,” Kaser says.
Woodwork: The most striking overarching element of the rental is its woodwork — which only required wiping down. The large glazed tile and wooden fireplace in the living room — one of three original glazed tile fireplaces in the house — features inlaid tile and rounded wood with a floral and ginkgo leaf motif. Also see art nouveau elements in the staircase's newel post, decorated with flowing, curving designs, and the entryway's mahogany archway, complemented by scrolled ancons. Original pocket doors open to reveal ornate scrollwork, detailed trim, wood-paneled walls and inlaid decorative parquet floors. “It’s the best woodwork I’ve ever seen in a private residence in Akron,” Kaser says. “It’s almost like they went to Europe and found different things to bring back. They had money and wanted Akron to know it.”
Walls: The redesign involved replacing the wallpaper in several rooms. The living room now features a floral, damask-like emerald green wallpaper — its color chosen to emphasize the green in the fireplace’s glazed tile inlay — from January Paint & Wallpaper. In one room, removing old wallpaper revealed a mural painted on the plaster — it depicted a hillside village. The designers wanted to use the image as part of the new decor, so they took pictures of it and displayed them in other rooms of the house. “We wanted to preserve its history and keep the memory alive and going,” Kaser says.
Furniture: While art nouveau style can be seen in the wallpaper, woodwork, mirrors and more, the furniture and accessories in the house are more eclectic. Kaser likened their discovery to a scavenger hunt. Trying to find items in West Akron and Northeast Ohio, she searched for antiques from a variety of eras and mixed the older pieces in with furniture bought at local stores. A black-and-white houndstooth sectional came from Facebook Marketplace, while an orange upholstered chair, embroidered with a bird and flowers, came from an Anthropologie outlet in Pittsburgh (as did the fan-patterned wallpaper in one of the bathrooms). Hanging above the chair is a needlepoint portrait of a butterfly that Kaser found at a West Akron garage sale. “I also drew on some Victorian elements,” she says. “I felt like the house was telling me to do that. I try to listen to the whispers of the house.”
