During the winter, Martha O'Hara often worried about slipping on icy stairs. To reach their detached garage, she and her husband, Steve O'Hara, had to walk down a staircase on the outside of their home.
"It could be treacherous," said Martha, an interior designer and owner of Martha O'Hara Interiors in St. Louis Park. "Steve got up early to put salt on the stairs so I wouldn't fall in my high heels."
The couple's need for safer, easier access to the backyard helped drive the recent renovation of their Georgian-style stucco home in south Minneapolis. The project included a back-entry addition accented with a curved staircase, as well as a stylish kitchen makeover. On the second floor, the O'Haras reconfigured bedrooms to add a laundry room, and also updated three bathrooms. As a final flourish, many of the rooms have been restyled with new furnishings and artwork.
You can gather ideas and inspiration from the O'Hara home, and eight others, at the Midwest Home Luxury Remodeling Tour on Aug. 15-16 and Aug. 22-23. The upscale projects have budgets of $300,000 and up and include whole-house renovations, master-suite additions and state-of-the-art gourmet kitchens.
For her home redo, Martha switched roles and became the client. She gave interior designers on her staff "carte blanche" to pick out materials, surfaces and furniture that would jell with her design aesthetic.
"I lean toward contemporary," she said, "but I can go traditional in a second."
In the living room, for example, designer Carrie Rodman mingled an iconic Knoll Platner metal easy chair with comfy upholstered sofas, reflecting Martha's fondness for traditional, with "a bit of a modern edge," said Rodman.
Next weekend, tourgoers — and Martha — will be in for a few surprises; all the rooms won't be finished and styled until a few days before the tour opens. Last week, workers were still hanging De Gournay silk wallpaper hand-painted with a wisteria pattern in the dining room.
