In an era where the monochromatic “Millennial gray” color scheme has conquered so many homes’ interior design, the dark and elaborately carved wood decor in this Minneapolis house feels boldly different.
Cris DuBord’s 7,405-square-foot Lowry Hill East home is filled with all sorts of elaborate ornamentation popular among affluent homeowners in 1906, when the house was built. Penny tile, stained glass, an engraved fireplace grate with a hummingbird design.
But most prominent are the dark wood carvings that embellish the beamed ceilings, crown moldings, wainscoting and door and window frames. They’re also present in the ornamental plate rails with grooves to display dishes and the large fireplace mantel adorned with what Minneapolis professional wood-carver Erik Wyckoff called “the scrolly stuff.”
“It’s really kind of a feast for the eyes to see all the different styles, all the original things that were still in place,” DuBord said. “It is an absolute love-at-first-sight kind of house.”
She enjoyed being in the house after buying it in 2018. But she is no longer living with her former husband, and their four kids have left home. So DuBord downsized to a home in Edina and listed the Minneapolis house at $849,000.
The house has six bedrooms, four on the second floor and two in the attic. There’s a bathroom on each floor.
The main floor also holds a mud room; large living, kitchen and dining rooms; and a music or sitting room. There’s a grand staircase leading to the second floor along with a stairway at the back of the house that climbs up to the attic.
The primary bedroom on the second floor includes a little bump-out room likely designed to hold a baby’s crib or bassinet. DuBord didn’t need it for that purpose — her kids were teenagers at the time — so she put a TV in it. That helped turn the room, which also has a fireplace, into “a grown-up’s sitting room, with an office, TV room and reading room,” she said.
