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Dana and Dan Kleinschuster relax in their light-filled living room with pups Roman and Willow.
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The living room ceiling was hand painted with a high-gloss paint to create contrast between the classic architecture and contemporary furnishings.
The historic Italianate home at the corner of Brook Road and Walton Avenue has been referred to over the years as “the Grand Dame of the North Side,” “the pink house” for its Venetian red stucco that had faded over the years and “the Beethoven house” for the composer’s bust peeking out of an attic window. Now Dana and Dan Kleinschuster, their four children and two dogs call it “home.”
The family previously lived south of Cary Street Road near Windsor Farms, but they wanted to live closer to Veritas, the children’s school. Furthermore, Dan says that though they’ve lived in a handful of great homes throughout the Richmond area over the course of their 23-year marriage, “We wanted to have something that has a story.”
Indeed, this home has a story. Bought in 1914 by George Gibson and Julia Pilcher Worsham, the home’s construction began circa 1911 for A.C. Bedford, a masonry contractor engaged in rebuilding The Jefferson Hotel after the fire of 1901, and his wife, Florence. It is believed they abandoned the project, unable to finance it. The bank then hired renowned architect Charles M. Robinson to complete the home that caught the Worshams’ eye. For the next 100-plus years, six generations of Worshams would live in the home, entertaining dignitaries and hosting parties — one annually on Beethoven’s birthday — that have become part of local lore. With their purchase in 2017, the Kleinschusters have resumed writing the history of this house with their own family.
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The Kleinschusters' new kitchen is large enough to host their pizza-, sushi- and cookie-making parties.
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In the dining room, vintage family pieces — a traditional Duncan Phyfe-style table and chairs and a sideboard — are paired with modern accessories and statement lighting.
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A secret door in the library leads to a mud room and pantry.
The New Traditional
The home was in need of a serious update for modern family life. To make it suitable for their busy family, the Kleinschusters enlisted architect Mark Spangler of Spangler Architecture and Joe Fowkes of Wateredge Construction to complete a massive renovation, including an addition with a kitchen and a master suite.
One of the first things they did to set the house to rights was reconfigure the foyer, closing off a stairwell to the basement, adjusting several interior doorways, and swapping the front and back entrances. Now the home is accessed from Walton Avenue in a spacious, light-filled foyer through a front door that is an exact replica of the original, gifted to the Kleinschusters by a family friend in the millwork business.
Though the goal was modernization, original details and charm remain throughout. For example, Spangler incorporated columns that graced the original front foyer into the design of what is now the “back foyer.”
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When the house was reconfigured, the original entryway was transformed into the "back foyer" and bar area, connecting the public rooms with the kitchen, master bedroom and basement family room.
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Byrd played with color and scale in the master bedroom, pairing a large print on the drapes with a small-scale print on the wing chair to add interest.
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The design of the large master bathroom centers around a luxurious, free-standing soaking tub.
Interior designer Kenneth Byrd, whom the Kleinschusters met at the Richmond Symphony Orchestra League’s Designer House in 2018, also honored the original structure in his work on the home. “I felt it was necessary to pay homage to the history and architectural style of the house while gently modernizing whenever possible, striking a balance that feels as fresh and modern as it does classical and sophisticated,” Byrd says. “The house has a sort of barefoot luxury about it; it’s quite polished and sophisticated, but it’s also warm and inviting.”
Byrd used bold paint and lighting schemes to juxtapose traditional features like the ornate moldings and fireplaces in every room. He says he wanted to “go off the rails” with statement lighting, which he says provides “a needed departure from the formal nature of the bones of the spaces.” To furnish the home, Byrd worked with a few existing pieces and selected new ones with “the new traditional” in mind. He defines this as incorporating “classic pieces, such as an exaggerated wingback chair, modernizing it with a graphic textile and pairing it with a sleek side table or ottoman.”
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A contemporary lacquered arm chair paired with a Moroccan-style occasional table creates an eclectic, welcoming vibe in the foyer.
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The new front entrance facing Walton Avenue
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The Kleinschusters turned a vintage door into shelving behind the downstairs bar.
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Roman, a Rhodesian Ridgeback, relaxes in the basement family room.
No Place Like Home
Underlying every design decision was Dana’s mandate that everything feel like home, and to the Kleinschusters, home means comfortable and welcoming for family and friends. “I said, ‘If we’re going to do this, I want it to be filled with people,’ ” Dana says. As one of about 80 families within a square mile of Veritas’ Brook Road campus, their home is often the hub of school activities with students and parents alike.
The new kitchen — the original, which was small, outdated and lacking storage, now serves as a mudroom — is large enough to host their pizza-, sushi-, and cookie-making parties around a generous island with room to spare. A family room in the original part of the house is another hang-out hot spot with two seating areas: a large sectional for TV viewing and a table, bench and chairs in the back of the room. Here, family and friends can be together but doing their own things.
“The house has sort of a barefoot luxury about it; it's quite polished and sophisticated, but it's also warm and inviting.” —Kenneth Byrd, interior designer
The refurbished outdoor space is also ready for gatherings, with a covered porch, a stone patio and a built-in gas firepit. What was going to be a later phase was executed with the rest of the original project. “We pushed it up to enjoy it all while the kids live at home,” Dan says.
Though the Beethoven bust is gone, and the pink stucco has been painted gray, the Kleinschusters feel that in creating their ideal family home, they have been good stewards of an important piece of local history. “We have a property that means a lot to us, that means a lot to the neighborhood,” Dan says, “so let’s do it once and do it right.”
