Jennifer Malone has a delightfully innate talent for transforming a space into a
perfectly blended, eye-popping vision while making it look easy. Just take a
look at her newly remodeled home. Every nuance is due to her artful planning.
“I had so much fun during this remodel,” says Jennifer, who acted as project contractor during the initial re-do. Her
uncanny attention to detail turned this house into a beautiful home for her
young son and daughter and physician husband, Bob.
The Malones bought the house in August 2007 after selling their much larger
residence on six acres in Richmond near Sugar Land. Possessions went into
storage, they moved in with her parents, and Jennifer went into hyper-drive,
organizing and overseeing the mammoth task. The main part of the house was
completed in two months.
John Williams Construction was hired a few months later to bump out a rear wall
in the den to accommodate a new breakfast room. The construction company also
added a new office for Bob above the garage. And the garage was expanded to
accommodate four cars.
“It didn’t take long for the main remodel, and then we were totally in the house except
for the kitchen because cabinets had to be reordered,
” Jennifer recalls. “We used our crock pot in the bathroom… fun times! But I love doing this stuff! I’m always looking for a project.”
Bob knows this about his wife. “She thrives on it,” he says. “But she does her homework and does a really good job.”
Never mind that the Malones had not lived in their new Antebellum, Greek Revival
style home very long
—and it took four years to design and build. “Yeah, we’d only been in it two years, but I learned a long time ago that on the priority
scale of life, having a happy family is pretty important,
” Bob says.
Their Richmond house sold two weeks before the start of school. The mad dash was
on. They wanted to downsize, but still needed a house to accommodate their
needs.
“Our
The formal living room has expansive views of the backyard and pool, thanks to
new windows. Beatrice Bunyan had the silk curtains made for this space. Tiffany
and Steuben art glass mingle in this cabinet, purchased on the couple
’s honeymoon in Ireland. The sofa in a yellow silk damask was purchased at
market; a beautiful, silk oriental rug underfoot.
• The home’s exterior received a facelift, too, with freshly painted brick, new lighting
and iron work, and a new front door and garage door. The home
’s windows were replaced as well. • Jennifer and Bob Malone in the living room of their home. • A reproduction cabinet fashioned from antique cherry from Carl Moore Antiques in
River Oaks holds a collection of Majolica green ware from the 1800s. Antique
copper jugs from the Whimsey Shoppe in Dallas lie underneath.
previous house was so big. I didn’t want that again. But it seems like every house we looked at and were
interested in was getting snapped up,
” recalls Jennifer.
They had been looking in the 5,000-square-foot range. But after an unsuccessful
bid for a house, the couple set their sights on slightly smaller homes in an
area that would zone their children to the same school as their cousins. The
popular neighborhood was intriguing and Bob had done his homework.
“I knew we’d have an option to add on, according to the area’s allowable square footage,” he explains.
This home, initially 3,170 square feet, had good bones and was in excellent
shape. What
’s more, it was on a coveted greenbelt lot with a pool. The Malones were also
attracted to the established look of the neighborhood, the mature trees.
“And this house had a formal living area where not all of them did. I have formal
living room furniture that had to go somewhere! And Bob had room to build his
office over the garage.
”
An area off the master bedroom formerly meant for a study is now Jennifer’s room-size master closet, created by California Closets. “In fact, I had all the closets in the house redone by from
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