Cincinnati Couple Honor Their 1897 Home’s History

Photos by Sarah Parisi Dowlin

House at a Glance
Who lives here: Kevin DiNarda (left) and Barrett Evans and dogs Jack, a Jack Russell terrier, and Ted, a Bulldane (mix of American bulldog and Great Dane)
Location: Westwood neighborhood of Cincinnati
Size: 2,800 square feet (260 square meters); five bedrooms, 2½ bathrooms

Original leaded glass in the front door, sidelights and transom immediately conveys a sense of the home’s historic past. There are pops of blue in the rug, chair and a door leaning against the wall behind a small antique desk, an heirloom from DiNarda’s family. “The old door with a crystal handle we found in the basement. It needed a blue accent on that wall,” he says.

“A lot of the pieces in the house are from my family, Kevin’s family or friends’ families,” Evans says. “We like having stories behind things. We’ve always felt that way, but finally are able to express it when we moved into this house.”

The decorative wishbone on the wall is from Cincinnati pottery company Rookwood. The couple like to collect art made locally. Evans points out that the blue rug is similar to others in the home. “We liked that it looks preworn and vibrant at the same time. It looks like it belongs here,” he says.

DiNarda is particularly fond of the entry area. “I absolutely love the staircase and leaded windows. I’m a big fan of Grey Gardens,” he says, referring to the 1975 documentary about Jacqueline Kennedy’s relatives who lived in a decaying mansion in the Hamptons.

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Both men have worked in retail (Evans is currently in human resources for Macy’s) and DiNarda has a degree in architecture and environmental design. They’ve added their unique style to the home while preserving its vintage features.

“We read lots of Houzz posts on color choices as we were designing the palette for the house,” Evans says. “Especially when we decided to go as dark as we did in the bedroom.”

The foyer includes a number of nautical-inspired pieces. “It’s like a sea captain went abroad and collected items,” DiNarda says. Two of the decorative balls on the floor are actual buoys and the others are oversize Christmas ornaments.

The wood secretary came from a friend’s grandparents in Canton, Ohio. “We were happy to take it off their hands. It fits perfectly,” Evans says.

Wall paint: Blue Stream, Behr

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The ivory button featuring a drawing of a ship on the staircase newel is a “mortgage button” and is original to the house. “When you paid off your mortgage, you’d put the deed in the newel post and cap it with a button,” DiNarda says.

Everything in the living room except the couch is vintage, including the octopus bowl on the pedestal. Evans purchased the 1939 Kimball piano this year. “A local real estate agent was selling it on behalf of her client, who was moving,” Evans says. “So I drove Kevin to the residence, without telling him why, until we were walking in the front door.” They both liked the aesthetics of it, and Evans is the one who plays it.

“I’m looking forward to this year’s Christmas party, and I recently started learning pop songs,” Evans says. The pendant above the piano is from Turkish goods store Karavan in the Short North district of Columbus.

Wall paint: Sparrow, Behr

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The 1920s dining table and chairs were purchased at auction. The black-and-white framed photos are of parties held by the couple — they like to hire a photographer so guests don’t have to always have their cellphones out. “It’s family and friends having a good time in our house. It’s kind of an Italian-restaurant wall,” Evans says.

According to neighbors, the home has always been popular for parties, Evans says, which is perfect for the couple, who love to entertain. They throw several parties a year, including one last June to celebrate their wedding anniversary.

The kitchen was remodeled by previous owners sometime in the early 2000s. A wall to the adjacent family room, visible in this photo, was removed, opening up the space, which was also modernized with custom cabinets, black quartz countertops and new appliances. The most recent owners didn’t do a lot of the maintenance required with a 120-year-old house, DiNarda says, but the kitchen was in good shape, so what the couple tackled were easy fixes. They painted and switched out old farmhouse pendant lights for new matte black ones with a gold finish inside.

Opposite this photo is a brick wall that in the early days of the home had a cast-iron stove and stovepipe chimney that vented up through the second floor; it was eventually plastered over.

Evans is particularly happy with the space. “My favorite feature is the kitchen. I love the appliances, but the space itself too because I like connecting to friends through feeding them. We cook everything. It’s one of the special ways to connect to people,” says Evans, whose father was a chef.

Larson pendant lights: Safavieh

Upstairs, the couple share this dressing room, whose walls are the color of a gray flannel suit. They modeled the space after their favorite menswear stores, with vintage items that include sewing machines, a typewriter, shoe racks and a cash register. “It has things we felt a men’s store would have from the late 1800s or early 1900s,” DiNarda says. The fireplace runs off the same chimney as the living room fireplace.

Wall paint: Broadway, Behr

The master bedroom features walls in the same gray as the dressing room, which connects via a pocket door. The architectural line drawing over the bed was meticulously created by DiNarda when he was in school. It sat in a flat file for years, he says, just waiting for the perfect spot to display it.

A guest bedroom upstairs features walls painted a custom blue from Behr. DiNarda says they purposely chose soothing dark tones for the sleeping rooms. “We wanted to do a clean, almost B&B feel,” he says. “It’s large with a walk-in closet, a pub table, and it has great light in the morning.”

The striped wall art is actually wrapping paper the couple framed. “We had gold frames and we didn’t know what to put in them, so decided to see how blue wrapping paper would look,” DiNarda says. The bump-out between the windows contains the old chimney coming up from the kitchen.

The bed in this guest room came from DiNarda’s great-great-grandparents, who emigrated to the U.S. from Austria in the early 1800s. Having worked in the furniture industry, DiNarda says he appreciates the solid quality of the piece. He remembers napping on it when he was a child. “Nobody in my family wanted it, so it sat in my parents’ basement for a couple years before we brought it home.”

Wall paint: Vine Leaf, Behr

The antiques and fun finds in the guest room include a Nespresso item from a marketing campaign. “Working in retail, you find one-of-a-kind pieces,” DiNarda says. The big flat file has belonged to him since his dad gave it to him when he was 10. Now it’s used to store his architectural drawings and other art.