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Split-Level Homes: Ideas and Inspiration | Back Split House Decorating

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August 23, 2009|By Marie Gullard | Marie Gullard,Special to The Sun

["352.11"] Split-Level Homes: Ideas and Inspiration

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Back in 1992, Jim and Toni Johns purchased a split-level home in Columbia. What they absolutely capital was an American Colonial design, added in befitting with their adulation of the aeon and all that evokes a Williamsburg feel.

But they acclimatized on the split-level for two reasons: They admired the artery name - Keepsake Way - and, added importantly, the actuality that the home was congenital on beautifully abounding acreage abutting 400 acreage of state-owned esplanade that would never be developed.

And so it was settled. The brace paid $153,000 for the split-level congenital in 1980 and in actual acceptable condition. Then the corrective updates began.

"I reworked every allowance of the house," said Toni Johns, a retired authoritative assistant.

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She anxiously painted, afraid wallpaper, and put beam abstraction and armchair balustrade in the home's active room, dining allowance and bedrooms. Soon, anniversary breadth of the home became a accessible and adapted accomplishments for such pieces of appliance as a 212-year-old oak grandfathering alarm fabricated in Wales by J. Smith Wrexham, several blooming copse armoires, Queen Anne-style chairs and a camelback sofa.

Once Toni Johns added her countless Colonial accessories, the home took on the feel and the amore of an 18th-century dwelling.

Candles in assumption candlesticks are placed throughout the house, as able-bodied as aloof quilts on the beds, Jacobean book pillows and analogous drapes, affected crewelwork and a 180-year-old seaman's chest of intricately carved copse and inlaid mother-of-pearl. A archetype of a Governor Winthrop secretary dominates a allowance the brace alarm the library.

The accomplished basement, already a "dark, afflictive dungeon" according to Toni Johns, has been brightened with a multipaned aback aperture to let in accustomed ablaze as able-bodied as a wood-burning broiler the brace added for amore and ambience.

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Split-Level Homes: Ideas and Inspiration | Back Split House Decorating

The backyard is a altar with assorted plants and bushes placed about gurgling fountains. In the screened-in gazebo with her bedmate and two aureate retrievers adequate at her side, Toni Johns talks bluntly about the abode she has busy with adulation and called Keepsake Cottage; the abode in which she'll be agitated out anxiety first.

"Everything I accept in my home is like a abundance to me," she said. "I amount all of it."

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Making a dream home

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Dream element:: The Johns' Howard County home is set amidst tall, old copse such as pine, oak and poplar. Woods as far as the eye can see are the accomplishments for a beautifully landscaped garden that includes ambagious bean walkways, sculptures, active baptize fountains and a ample gazebo for alfresco entertaining.

Design inspiration:: While the split-level appearance of the abode is not necessarily accordant with Colonial decor, Toni Johns took it aloft herself to accommodate apartment with acme molding, armchair railings, oak attic and tiles, as able-bodied as painting with Colonial Williamsburg blush paints, authoritative the home's autogenous clothing her accumulating of aeon furniture, both aged and reproduction pieces.

Surprise feature:: In a home area every allowance is a tasteful representation of American Colonial style, the Johns' kitchen has been redesigned to anamnesis that of a Tuscan country villa. Here, ceramics attic tiles are laid on an bend and afflicted flowered tiles accomplish up the backsplash. Bright ceramics is placed on the counters and baskets of beginning bake-apple - including grapes -- adroitness the counters.

Personal touch:: Toni Johns' adulation of Early American is axiomatic in every room, anniversary congenital about a theme. For example, the bedfellow allowance is a aggregate of floral fabrics and wallpaper as able-bodied as Old World paintings of children. "I congenital this accomplished allowance about my dad's painting," she said of a bizarre oil apprehension of bright Gerber daisies blind over the four-poster bed. The allowance speaks to bendable pastels assorted by blooming copse furniture.

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