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What originally was a bedroom was turned into a dining room with paneling painted Sherwin-Williams "Snowbound" topped by Rifle Paper Co.'s Wildwood wallpaper in navy blue.
This before photo shows the empty bedroom that was turned into a dining room. The interior wall and doors were removed to open it to the rest of the house.
The spacious kitchen has an island that's more than 8 1/2 feet wide, where homeowner Karen Lippe loves to bake and entertain.
This "before" photo shows the view into Lippe's home from the front door. At right was a bedroom (now a dining room) and the next section in was a divided space with the original dining room and kitchen.
Lippe wanted her new home to be crisp and white, with soft color accents and brass in lighting and hardware.
This "before" photo shows the living room, a space with a 4-inch stepdown because it used to be a porch that was enclosed.
Lippe purchased New Zealand-based Fisher & Paykel appliances that bring a high-end look to her kitchen at more moderate prices. Before, she had a 36-inch range; now it's 48 inches with six burners, a griddle and two ovens.
One cabinet in he kitchen is devoted to a coffee bar.
The exterior of her home was painted white for an updated aesthetic.
In the backyard, a new covered patio has a dining area and a seating area nestled around the fireplace.
The indoor fireplace was built with a glass back, so it serves the seating area outdoors, too.
A niche inside the front door used to hold a piece of furniture. Now it has a built-in buffet that serves the dining room.
Lippe went with a girlier primary bedroom, with a pink velvet bed.
Lippe's remodeled primary bathroom is a little roomier, with a big shower.
A shampoo niche inside the bathroom shower.
A small acrylic desk sits in the guest bedroom.
The new guest bathroom was fashioned from the former laundry room.
The hallway to the bedrooms is lined with photography from Lippe's frequent travels.
The hallway to the bedrooms is lined with photography from Lippe's frequent travels.
New square footage at the back of the home allowed for this laundry room, painted Sherwin-Williams "Romaine," a deep dark green.
The laundry room has a small sink, cabinets and a tall wine refrigerator.
The home originally had just one bathroom, and it was finished with blue ceramic tile.
A “before” photo of the exterior of Karen Lippe's Garden Oaks home. It had a dark exterior and an English cottage-style garden.
A decade ago when Karen Lippe decided to buy a house, she found what she wanted in the first place she looked – in Garden Oaks, a neighborhood with mostly 1940s-era homes, sprawling trees and friendly neighbors.
She wasn’t knowledgeable about design, so her mother suggested she paint the interior the same colors they had – earthy beiges that blended with the original hardwood flooring. She bought a big, brown leather sofa and other things that fit the 1,633-square-foot home.
“You know, you think someday you’ll get married and buy a house. I’m single and I had to tell myself, 'You can do this on your own,'” said Lippe, now 44 and director of corporate accounting at Occidental Petroleum. “I thought ‘If I’m going to do it, let’s just do it.’”
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So she bought the house and for nine years, Lippe, a native of Seguin, lived in her tidy home, saved her money and looked at photos of beautiful rooms, dreaming about what she someday would do with it.
In that time, her family and friends came over regularly for girlfriend nights, book club, prayer nights and other group meetings.
The numbers-oriented accountant in Lippe craved creativity, and she found an outlet through baking. She makes cookies or birthday and wedding cakes for friends and family — to the point that nieces, nephews and friends’ children call her Auntie K-Cake.
“When I think of all of the things that have happened here, I feel like God led me to this house,” Lippe said. “There’s been so much joy and so much pain worked through here. Friendships have formed here. Tears have been cried over bad things that have happened, but then there’s been a ton of comfort and love that has come through here, too. It’s been a joy that I have been able to use it in that way.”
During the pandemic, she decided she’d saved enough money and gathered enough ideas that it was time to renovate. She hired Brigitte Howell and Haley Ottmann, the mother-daughter remodeling team at Home Girls.
Lippe moved out of her home in February 2021 and construction was finished by December.
In that time, the home was gutted to the studs, with some walls removed and the footprint reshaped. The living room in the back of the house, which at one time was an enclosed porch, was ripped out so they could pour a new foundation even with the rest of the home and add a new laundry room.
The home now is 1,750 square feet, and instead of being a two-bedroom, one-bathroom home, it now has two bedrooms and two bathrooms.
What was once a bedroom at the front of the house is now a dining room, open to the rest of the house. A new built-in buffet serves as a welcoming spot in the entry where drinks or snacks can be placed during a party.
Plain, painted sheetrock was replaced by a combination of paneling and wallpaper, the Rifle Paper Co.’s “Wildwood” pattern in navy blue. The paneling and most of the walls in the home are a crisp white, Sherwin-Williams “Snowbound.”
“When I told my mom I was painting everything white she said ‘You were the messiest child we had, how is this going to work?’ I can grow up and not be a messy adult,” Lippe said. “My parents came over and my mom looked at my dad and said, ‘Do not touch the white couches.’ Everything is cleanable or replaceable.”
She had already picked out a rustic wood table and French country style dining chairs, upholstered in white linen. A pair of chandeliers with brass drum shades and deep green velvet draperies hung from acrylic rods add youthful glamour to the room. A natural jute rug creates a soft base for it all.
“I love to entertain more than anything in the world and I needed a table where my family and friends can sit,” Lippe said. “And this wallpaper is my favorite pattern in the world.”
What had been a small closet in this former bedroom was absorbed into the kitchen, on the other side of the wall, to allow for more cabinet space.
The kitchen space was once divided between the kitchen and dining room – not doing justice to either. The kitchen had limited counter space, and an elevated bar on one side didn’t work well as a place for friends to gather.
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Adding function and work space to the kitchen were Lippe’s top priorities, to make baking easier and to make cooking for and entertaining friends more workable.
Ottmann said that even though many clients talk about how they want a room or home to look, her own job begins with how it will be used.
“The most important thing to start with is performance – you have to start from a place of functionality. How do you use that space? What are your current problems?” Ottmann said. “From client to client, there’s a performance problem that needs to be fixed.”
The big space now has a large, quartz-covered island, more than 8 ½ feet wide and 5 feet deep, with spacious drawers for baking sheets and pans.
Lippe wanted a place for a second refrigerator – maybe the garage or laundry room – but Ottmann had a better idea: Buy a pair of refrigerators with right and left opening handles and place them side by side so they look like a single, extra wide refrigerator with French doors.
Her big farmhouse-style sink does extra duty, and she bought a dishwasher with upper and lower drawers that can wash separately. Her old 36-inch range was replaced by a 48-incher with six burners, a griddle and two ovens.
All of the kitchen appliances are the Fisher and Paykel New Zealand-based brand with a high-end look but more moderate prices. They found them at K&N Sales in Houston.
One cabinet is devoted to a coffee bar, another holds appliances Lippe uses for baking and another holds other small appliances, so things don’t clutter the counter unless they’re being used.
In rebuilding the living room, they added space on one side for a nice laundry room – where they painted the walls and ceiling dark green – Sherwin-Williams “Crisp Romaine.”
The brown leather sofa is gone, replaced by a pair of crisp white sofas with soft green and pink pillows. Urn-shaped planters are filled with greenery, a nod to what’s outside the big glass doors at the back of the home – a beautiful backyard lined with trees and filled with fluffy zoysia grass, designed by Ted Gregory of Gregory/Henry Landscapes.
Throughout the home you’ll find contemporary abstract paintings in light soft colors, made by Kaila Elliott, an artist friend from Bayou City Fellowship, where Lippe attends church.
Her new patio has a dining table and a set of four chairs nestled around the back of her living room fireplace. They installed it with a glass back to do double-duty, looking perfectly in place when you look at it from inside or from outdoors.
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When the weather’s nice, Lippe and her friends sit on blow-up floats on the lawn and watch movies projected onto the side of the garage. Sometimes her nieces and nephews watch cartoons outdoors on the TV above the fireplace mantel.
The old laundry room was used to create a new second bathroom, filled with light colors and quartz counters.
Her own bathroom was made roomier, and while her bedroom is the same size, it feels bigger since built-in drawers replaced a dresser.
Her girly bedroom has linen draperies and new nightstands with a shagreen finish. A friend who helped with many of the design decisions convinced her to buy a pink velvet bed. A pair of small crystal chandeliers that hang over the nightstands are the room’s finishing touch.
“During COVID we couldn’t see anyone, so it’s been nice to have friends come see the house. I have cooked more dinners than I have in a long time,” Lippe said of her return to entertaining, some of which happens organically when girlfriends drop in on Friday nights when they know she’s baking. “It’s been really awesome. Everyone can sit at the bar now. I can put charcuterie on the end and everyone gathers there while I cook.”
Diane Cowen has worked at the Houston Chronicle since 2000 and currently its architecture and home design writer. Prior to working for the Chronicle, she worked at the South Bend (Ind.) Tribune and at the Shelbyville (Ind.) News. She is a graduate of Purdue University and is the author of a cookbook, "Sunday Dinners: Food, Family and Faith from our Favorite Pastors."
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