Photos by Josh Grubbs
dinning area
Designer Anne McDonald considers the dining room to be an in-a-nutshell representation of the overall house design. It pairs modern with old: Sleek Italian chairs sit with an old oak table, which homeowner Abigail Greenheck says has “a thousand little nicks from a rousing game of quarters” when she was in college. Texture comes in with an organic feel (the cowhide rug), and the room is finished with a statement-making light fixture (here, the industrial pendant). The mahogany sideboard, a family piece, was updated with glossy black paint—a way to subtly differentiate it from the black doors and kitchen cabinets. “It’s very practical design,” Abigail says of refreshing family pieces.
It took a soul-crushing loss for Abigail Greenheck to gain a house filled with soul. As she and her sister cleaned out their childhood house after the sudden death of their mother (and having lost their father 10 years earlier), Abigail reflected on what home means. “My parents’ place was full of every memory and every piece of furniture we had grown up with,” says Abigail, a Twin Cities public relations pro. That connection resulted in her sister deciding to keep the house for her own family, and Abigail and her husband, Michael, deciding to move from their small bungalow. “I did exactly what they say you’re not supposed to do—I dove headfirst into making life-changing decisions for my family in the midst of grieving my mother,” Abigail says. “But in all honesty, we needed a big distraction.”
After considering the country, the couple decided to stay in the city to raise their daughter in an old house in an established St. Paul neighborhood that celebrated diversity. Before they had even found that place, Abigail enlisted interior designer Anne McDonald, who she felt could guide them through a remodel and help her edit and refresh the many family pieces she had stashed in a storage unit. The couple landed on a neighborhood not far from the University of St. Thomas, where they met. “I started looking at the neighborhood and signs that said ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘All Are Welcome Here,’ and it felt like these were our people,” Abigail says. “It felt good.” The catch: It would require tearing down an unsalvageable house and building new.
And so the couple pivoted. Working with builder John Sharkey and McDonald, they came up with a design that didn’t feel trendy or too new, even though it incorporates modern concepts, such as the open kitchen, living room, and dining room. Lots of wood, marble, and unlacquered brass—“real materials,” as McDonald calls them—lend a classic feel. “They give the home history and patina right off the bat,” she says.
But the game-changers were the old family furnishings and accessories, some of them with Abigail’s initials scribbled on the backsides from when she long ago staked claim to her favorites. Working off a library of photos Abigail compiled, McDonald figured out ways to refresh furniture with paint or fabric, and found landing spots for things as small as a wooden cheese box. “They helped give the house soul,” Abigail says. “Before we moved in, the kitchen felt a little modern. But as soon as we rolled out a vintage runner, I was like, ‘OK, here we go!’”
For Abigail, the best part is that the house feels like home—a place she can put down roots in a neighborhood that feels like a small community. And she has no doubt her mother would approve. “Her house was always the entertainment capital, so I think she would love to see how we are able to really welcome people into our home,” she says. “She would be proud we stayed in the city.”
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church pew
Years ago, Abigail wrote her name on the bottom of the church pew in her parents’ house, claiming it as her own. Today, it has a prime spot in her entry. “The original design for the house had built-ins, but we wanted this space to have more soul—plus it was a cost-saving measure to remove a lot of the built-ins from the plan,” Abigail says.
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A chipped arch-top door
Old Meets New: A chipped arch-top door (sealed for protection) that McDonald sourced on a vintage shopping trip to Round Top, Texas, slides on custom hardware to close the kitchen from the mudroom. “It felt like we might be going really farmhousey, so I balanced that with modern touches, such as the barstools,” McDonald says.
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powder room
Punched-up Powder Room: “I love, love, love this room,” Abigail says of the powder room. The wallpaper (Above the Palms from Anthropologie) reminds the couple of vacations to Grand Cayman. The vintage medicine chest came from Bauer Brothers Salvage, in Minneapolis. The art (partially visible) is a collapsed gift box from Young-Quinlan Co., an iconic Twin Cities department store that closed in the 1980s. Abigail found it, already framed, when cleaning out a closet in her mother’s house. Raised panel doors are classic; painted black, they look more unique. “It was an easy way for us to infuse personality,” McDonald says.
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kitchen with large center island
The north-facing kitchen cabinets are painted in Benjamin Moore’s Onyx 2133-10, but to ensure the room wasn’t too dark, McDonald nixed upper cabinets and brightened with white shiplap-style paneling and the polished marble backsplash and countertops. The paneling, installed vertically, reminds homeowner Abigail of the walls in her childhood home.
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family of three on steps with dog
Welcome Home: Abigail and Michael Greenheck, with daughter Sidney, enjoy sitting on the front swing and visiting with neighbors on their wide-open porch. “It’s like having an outdoor living room,” Abigail says. “Everyone is outside all the time.”
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the house floor plan
Fresh Start: The newly built 3,250-square-foot two-story house blends in with the surrounding 1920s and ’30s homes. A gracious porch out front gives it a welcoming old-school look. Inside, the open-plan main level gives the home better livability for the young family.
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living room
“A wink at the unexpected” was one of the notes McDonald had jotted down in an initial conversation with Abigail. The green ceiling (Benjamin Moore’s Hunter Green 2041-10) that defines the living room delivers that. “It’s kind of funky and unexpected—an alternative to an accent wall,” McDonald says. The couple had a gas fireplace insert roughed in, but in the meantime, the salvaged piece still adds architectural interest. Family treasures include the wingback chair, re-covered in teal fabric, and 1970s pencil sketches of Twin Cities landmarks. Local furniture maker Marvin Freitas created the live-edge walnut table below the sketches.
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child's bedroom
Daughter Sidney, 4, drifts off to sleep in a bed that belonged to Abigail’s grandfather and under a ceiling covered in butterflies (York Wallcoverings’ Papillon wallpaper in black and white from Anthropologie). “She loves butterflies and was so excited after she snuck in the room and saw it as we were working on it,” Abigail says. Gray paint on the lower walls mimics wainscoting. The goal with the room, McDonald says, was longevity—nothing too childlike or cutesy.
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primary bedroom
Light ShowInteresting lighting was key to McDonald’s design. “The lighting in general went more modern and on trend and helped to balance everything out,” she says. The primary bedroom’s pendant from One Kings Lane is an exception: It’s vintage-inspired, but with enough of an update to look fresh. The framed 1970s pencil sketches flanking the headboard are part of a collection that belonged to Abigail’s mom; others are grouped on a wall in the living room.
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bathroom
Warming Trend: Small touches—a vintage throw rug and the Brendon Farrell wood hook rack from Rejuvenation—do their part to visually warm the primary bath’s white walls and black marble floor. Soft curves on the Juno soaking tub from the Wyndham Collection also provide visual contrast.
Interior design: Anne McDonald, Anne McDonald Design, 651-248-6368, annemcdonalddesign.com // Builder: John Sharkey, Sharkey Design|Build, 612-327-4457, sharkeydesignbuild.com
