At Home: Clintonville Craftsman
Erin and Ben Johnson fell in love with old homes while they were living in Grandview. When they decided to look for a house to own, they knew they wanted an older home with lots of character that was also close to the city. Their house hunt mainly included Grandview and Clintonville but they were not finding anything quite right. When they decided to expand their search to include the area east of Indianola Avenue, they found many beautiful old homes. The one they decided to buy was a 1,365 square foot Craftsman built in 1925. It has three bedrooms and one and a half baths, a nice sized backyard and a garage. For over two years, they have been working to restore the natural feel of the home by using wood, slate and stone with earthy paint colors and botanical accents. They had always thought that they would live here until they had kids and then look for another home, but now with a baby on the way, and having their house almost exactly how they want it, they can’t imagine leaving. The neighborhood has many young families as well as people that have lived there a long time and they love living there.
When you first walk up to the house, you are greeted by the large friendly porch that has plenty of seating for relaxing and enjoying nice weather. The doorway opens into the family room where Erin and Ben have restored the fireplace into a beautiful stone focal point. It had been covered in drywall and the built in shelves on the sides were looking awful. They learned how to do the rock-work and wood-work for the shelves themselves and are very pleased with the result.
The family room leads into the dining room that is open to the kitchen and a breakfast nook. A large bay window in the dining room provides plenty of light for their indoor plants. Some of their favorite places to shop for furniture include Crate & Barrel, Pier 1 and West Elm; they splurged on most of their lighting fixtures at Restoration Hardware. Lighting is really a good place to spend your money, great lighting fixtures really finish a room and in their house, they accentuate the natural theme.
Upstairs, the rooms take on a relaxing tone with cool blues and grays. The home was built with plenty of storage and large closets which are a really nice feature. Some of the nursery furniture came from IKEA. The rocking chair was Ben’s grandfather’s and Erin reupholstered it herself. She also made some of the other linens for the room.
In the backyard, they built a patio from reclaimed bricks that were once the chimney in the kitchen. They grow a few vegetables, fruits and flowers themselves and also belong to a CSA through Sippel Family Farm. They love that they are able to walk to the Clintonville Farmer’s Market or to High Street for the bus to easily get around town. They have become good friends with many people in their neighborhood and see themselves living there for quite some time.
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Related Tags: at home • Clintonville • csa • decorating • farmers market • home renovations
March 7th, 2010 at 12:44 pm
Nice! Erin was my personal trainer last year& I was thinking of giving her a call for a spring session but since she is preggers, I don’t know if that’s possible. She is awesome. Glad to see they are doing well& what a beautiful home!
March 7th, 2010 at 3:49 pm
Absolutely lovely home. One of my favorites I’ve seen so far. Love the relaxed, understated yet attractive colors, lots of plants, looks like a nice place to grow up! ;)
March 7th, 2010 at 5:59 pm
did they take out the wall between their dining room and kitchen! I would be interested in seeing more pix or even a video of the area between the two - we have a 4 square and that’s the one thing I really want to do - combine the dining room and kitchen or at least open them up.
March 7th, 2010 at 7:43 pm
Yes, there was a wall between the dining room and kitchen that was taken out before they bought the house.
March 7th, 2010 at 8:14 pm
Michelle: Yes, pregnant and less mobile, but still training clients! I’ll take a few weeks off once the baby arrives in July, but I’m not going anywhere! I’d love to see you again!
Lisa: Yes, the wall was removed, but by a previous owner. Having the updated and expanded kitchen was one of the biggest selling points for us (the eating nook/half bath used to be a small back porch). Glad we didn’t have to do the work ourselves, but we would have chosen different cabinets and countertops. The layout is perfect though, and the small details can always be changed later. Some day, we’d like to change the cabinet door style, add hardware, and get new countertops… some day!
Thanks, everyone, for the kind comments! I’ll check back later to answer more questions…
March 8th, 2010 at 9:15 am
Love it!
March 8th, 2010 at 9:23 am
Great house! Love that it’s colorful, but subtle. I struggle with that :)
March 8th, 2010 at 9:50 am
What a lovely home. Really love the curtains in the family room. Am curious if you had those made by someone local or if they were just a great find? Best wishes on the upcoming arrival of your little one.
March 8th, 2010 at 10:21 am
What a cute house! I love the collection of leaves on the wall in the dining room–are those pottery pieces?
March 8th, 2010 at 11:25 am
wow, well done. especially love the fireplace refacing!
March 8th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Thanks!
Emily: The curtains in the family room are from Pier 1, and yes, I knew they were “the ones” the moment I saw them. Unfortunately I got them over a year ago, and I’m not sure they’re still available.
Marit: The leaves on the wall in the dining room are ceramic - all picked up at my usual treasure hunt places like TJ Maxx, Crate & Barrel, Target, World Market, and small boutiques. The fish in the nursery are ceramic as well. The leaf plates came first, and I used spring plate hangers, but I’ve since discovered adhesive disc plate hangers (Google them - very cool), and used those for the fish, as I like them a lot better.
David: Hardest.Thing.Ever!
March 8th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
Wow, that’s gorgeous! The decorating is beautiful; it’s pretty and comfortable-looking. The fireplace and bookshelves are impressive. Those are one of my favorite features of Clintonville houses, and yours is one of the most striking I’ve seen. I love seeing Clintonville houses; they give us inspiration for ours. Nice job!
March 10th, 2010 at 2:33 pm
The longer I live in these old neighborhoods the more I notice a lot of similar architecture. I have to wonder if some of these types of homes architects copied each others designs, or if they were companies or families that built them. It is fascinating, and there’s very little out there to explain it. Here’s a similar one in Highland West, there happen to be dozens of them that I know of. I wonder if the state library has more info on this stuff. http://www.trulia.com/property/1042335658-294-N-Ogden-Ave-Columbus-OH-43204
Very nice job with the stonework and color scheme. Looks great!
March 15th, 2010 at 12:54 pm
Great looking place!! I love the balance between the “clutter” (nice decorative items I mean), and the cleanliness.
Matthew - I believe a lot of the houses in some older hoods went up at the same time. The home inspector who came to our place (a 1910 in M.V.) and I mentioned that our house was identical to the 3 next to mine he commented that a large section of my hood went up all within the same year, notice the one you linked to was built in 1925 as well, maybe by the same builder.