The Eyes Have It
A Victorian dream house is a vision of silk and stencils and period pieces galore
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 BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES Practically every inch of the exterior has been treated with embellishments in carved wood, metal, paint and stained glass. The major addition is the turret on the southwest corner.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES In the second-floor hall, the window curtains with a heraldic design are by Liberty of London, ca. 1885. The red silk panels, ca. 1850, have jet and mother-of-pearl beading.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES The living-room wallpaper is a custom color in gold and burgundy of a John Burrows reproduction design. Above the picture rail is a Lincrusta frieze that took three painters two weeks to complete. Vintage Victorian textiles, mostly American, include a variety of techniques, including crewel, beaded, needlepoint and appliqué on velvet, linen, silk and cotton. A slipper chair is upholstered with green fabric from a Victorian silk dress.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES The focal point of the exotic Moorish room, inspired by those popular in the 19th century as a male retreat for smoking, cards and billiards, is a turret. Coleman's is papered with a custom colorway of an Islamic or Persian pattern.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES The turret walls are hand-stenciled with a Victorian pattern on a copper ground. The chandelier has the face of a Turkish man looking down.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES Framing the dining room are exquisite silk portieres designed by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema for the New York home of art collector Henry Marquand. Suspended from the multi-patterned ceiling is a Victorian gas-light chandelier that came from a Snohomish mansion. The white peacock on a pedestal is one of a number of peacocks displayed in various rooms.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES The stair and newel post are original to the house, but the newel post lamp with the dragon globe was added. Besides the three patterned wallpapers used here, 40 yards of hand-painted frieze was cut out by hand for the ceiling.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES The dining room has a varied collection of American silver and silverplate that includes flatware, urns, servers, knife rests, butter dishes and place cards that reflect Victorian interest in owning every possible convenience for the art of dining and setting a proper table. |
Brian Coleman is the editor-at-large of Old House Interiors magazine and has written numerous books on architecture, design and decoration published by Schiffer or Gibbs Smith. His works include:
"The Victorian Dining Room" and "Vintage Victorian Textiles" (Linda Svendsen, photographer); "The Best of British Arts and Crafts" (Brian Coleman, editor, Huntley Hedworth, photographer); "Extraordinary Interiors: Decorating with Architectural Salvage and Antiques" (Dan Mayers, photographer) and "Classic Cottages: Simple Romantic Homes" (Douglas Keister, photographer). Due out this fall: "Small Gardens" (William Wright, photographer).
It's an eye-popping Seattle icon that causes people to stop in their tracks. If the wrought-iron gates and exotic plantings, decorative shingles, bell-topped turret, hand-carved finial, sunflower and sea serpent carvings don't make it clear, then the motto carved into the turret says it plainly for those who know their Latin, "The more the better."
Who would guess that all this excess sheathes a modest 1906 frame house? Psychiatrist and author Brian Coleman has spent 20 years turning it into a unique Victorian period piece with dazzling interiors. The transformation began shortly after Coleman bought the place in 1986. He had been drawn to the house because, despite its white vinyl siding, the interior retained much of its original oak flooring, molding and hardware. His dream had been to own a turreted Victorian house, but hardly any of these remained in Seattle because most had been built in areas close to downtown and had disappeared along with fires, regrades, freeway construction and commercial building.
He was determined not to let that stop him from fulfilling his wish. For 10 years, he worked from one room to the next, removing the remnants of past remodels and decorating choices, repairing and replacing missing woodwork, and letting his imagination run free. His increasing curiosity about Victorian architecture and decoration, his love of ornament, and an unabashed willingness to explore the juxtaposition of colors and patterns inspired him. What he's ended up with is an amazing assortment of custom-colored Victorian papers, hand-stenciled friezes and murals, and layers of sheer, velvet, embroidered and beaded textiles for window treatments, furniture, pillows and throws. His initial local shopping expeditions expanded to every corner of the United States and Great Britain to yield a never-ending treasure trove of Aesthetic Movement and Victorian-period stained glass, furniture, portieres and draperies, silver plate, chinaware, plumbing fixtures and oddities that were a part of etiquette and domestic life in the last half of the 19th century.
Brian Coleman is the editor-at-large of Old House Interiors magazine and has written numerous books on architecture, design and decoration published by Schiffer or Gibbs Smith. His works include:
"The Victorian Dining Room" and "Vintage Victorian Textiles" (Linda Svendsen, photographer); "The Best of British Arts and Crafts" (Brian Coleman, editor, Huntley Hedworth, photographer); "Extraordinary Interiors: Decorating with Architectural Salvage and Antiques" (Dan Mayers, photographer) and "Classic Cottages: Simple Romantic Homes" (Douglas Keister, photographer). Due out this fall: "Small Gardens" (William Wright, photographer).
The exterior of the house waited, but when he tackled it, Coleman did it with equal imagination and flair, starting with a decorative shingle pattern for the roof. His eye for architectural salvage brought glazed brick, cast iron and stained glass from far and wide to find a place in the evolving project. The turret was built off site in three sections by Jim Docherty, a specialist in handcrafted woodwork, and crowned with a hand-carved finial. But that wasn't enough.
As he examined other Victorian residences in his travels, Coleman became enthused about incorporating additional decorative embellishments. The front gables are now adorned with sunflowers carved out of Honduran mahogany. A sea serpent slithers along the south side of the house. An arched screen with ball-and-stick spindles based on a Portland Victorian frames the front entrance; a window box was inspired by a design from Cardiff Castle in Wales.
Given the Latin motto, this is a house that may never be truly finished. The kitchen, still clothed in its 1970s cabinets, awaits transformation to a glassed-in conservatory with a prospect of the garden. The narrow stairway leading to the side entrance awaits wood molding based on the trim in the Cohen-Bray house in Oakland. And if he wins the lottery, Coleman says only half in jest, "I want to have another turret on the opposite side of the house." Given his track record, it would not surprise anyone if someday a forklift raises a turret up to the roof.
Larry Kreisman is program director of Historic Seattle and author of "Made To Last: Historic Preservation in Seattle and King County." Benjamin Benschneider is a Pacific Northwest magazine staff photographer.
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