After 16 years of busy family life in their 1870-built historic Kirkwood home, Kim and Tim Willi were ready for a refresh. Recent empty nesters, the couple was considering moving and starting over, but they love the neighborhood, so ultimately decided to stay and update their home with the help of Kirkwood-based interior designer Allison Williams of the Cheerier Interior.
The Willis are veterans of the renovation process, having rehabbed and lived in old homes in University City and Clayton. They purchased this house, just a few blocks from downtown Kirkwood, in 2006 and spent six months renovating it before moving in. They had previously been living in a new build in nearby Des Peres.
The Willis worked with interior designer Allison Williams of the Cheerier Interior to update their open-concept family room and dine-in kitchen. Williams went with a transitional style that honors the home’s history while bringing it into the present with modern furnishings and accessories and a light, neutral palette.
“We wanted all of the new things, but we got there and we were like I don’t think this is for us,” Kim says. Ready to take on another older home, they began looking again, concentrating on walkable neighborhoods. They searched in Clayton, but there wasn’t much land around the homes and they wanted a big yard and a big house in which to raise their three kids. While taking her son, Drew, to camp in Kirkwood one day, Kim started walking around.
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“I thought this could be a good spot for us. It wasn’t very far, it’s community driven, there are lots of great shops,” she says. She strolled past this house, and it was for sale. Tim was traveling, but Kim looked at it and immediately told him he needed to take a look. Once Tim saw the huge backyard, he was sold.
“It had everything we were looking for, so we thought let’s give it a whirl,” Kim remembers.
The house had been well-maintained but needed a lot of updates, mostly to the décor. The very first thing the Willis did was remodel and relocate the dated, small and closed-off kitchen, opening it up to a family room and adding an eat-in dining area where the old kitchen used to be. They re-used the old kitchen’s cabinetry and countertops to update the laundry room in an adjoining addition.
To update the kitchen, which hadn’t been remodeled since the Willis moved into the house in 2007, Williams had the dark wood cabinetry painted fresh white and updated with modern brass hardware. A timeless marble backsplash makes the black granite countertops (left from the previous remodel) pop. The island, which previously sat at an angle, was realigned, expanded and topped in white quartz.
When the Willis remodeled the kitchen in 2007, it was “modern” for the time, but all these years (and a pandemic quarantine) later, it felt worn and dated once again. Simply put, they were sick of it. That’s when Kim decided to reach out to designer Williams — their kids attended the same school and Kim had been following her design business on Instagram and liked her style.
“I wanted a fresher look — the old vibe but a new vibe all in one,” Kim says. “I didn’t want to lose track of the history.”
They focused on updating the main living area — the open kitchen and family room that overlooks the backyard — and carrying the look through to the formal living room. The space is flooded with light from large windows on the back and sides of the home, but dated dark wood cabinetry, black countertops and dark wood built-in shelving made the space feel darker and more closed in.
Williams worked with Kim to brighten up the space with minimal construction. She had the dark wood cabinets painted a fresh white and updated them with modern brass hardware. Dark built-ins were removed on the sides of the windows in the eat-in dining area and replaced with fresh millwork that gave a nod to the home’s history.
After updating the family room and kitchen, designer Allison Williams brought in some new modern art and accessories to the adjoining formal living room for a seamless transition between the old and new. Kim and Tim love to sit by the fire in this room in the wintertime.
In the adjoining family room, Williams replaced a faux stone fireplace surround and more dark built-ins with clean, white millwork. Modern furnishings and accessories bought through the trades helped complete the updated look.
“We kept the bones traditional with the millwork and the fireplace, but with modern art, rugs, clean lines,” Williams says. “I call this look transitional — it has a foot in the past but with modern furnishings and fairly neutral colors.”
She helped blend the updated area of the home seamlessly into the adjoining formal living room by bringing in more modern art and accessories in similar color schemes. Kim painted the room herself in a soothing, neutral gray that highlights its crown molding, high ceilings and original hardwood floors. “It has a lot of history to it,” she says of the living room, where she and Tim love to spent cozy winter nights by the fireplace.
Off the living room is another sitting/TV room in what was once the side of a wrap-around porch, now enclosed. Leather furniture that was in the old family room provides comfortable seating.
With a window-lined billiard room, a formal dining room, butler’s pantry and powder room making up the rest of the main floor, the house is an ideal place for entertaining family and friends, which the Willis love to do.
In the home’s spacious and private backyard, the Willis replaced a basic brick patio with a multi-level paved patio space including this fire pit sitting area.
In addition to the updates they’ve made to the interior, the Willis also had a two-tiered patio built in the back of the house including a comfy sitting area, dining area, fire pit and hot tub, still leaving an expansive tree-lined yard beyond it. Another favorite relaxing spot is the wide front porch that is so classically Kirkwood.
With all three of their kids off at college, the Willis are uncertain what their future may hold, but for now, they are happy with their choice to stay and enjoying their updated historic home.
Photos: At Home with Kim and Tim Willi in Kirkwood
The upper tier of a multi-tiered patio the Willis had built behind the home includes pillars made from brick that was the original patio. The outdoor entertaining space includes this comfortable sitting area, a dining space, fire pit and hot tub.
A butler’s pantry has a window that looks into the kitchen at the home of Kim Willi and Tim Willi on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023, in Kirkwood. Photo by Christine Tannous, [email protected]
A staircase leads to the second floor at the home of Kim Willi and Tim Willi on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023, in Kirkwood. Photo by Christine Tannous, [email protected]
A billiards room sits on the first floor of the home of Kim Willi and Tim Willi on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023, in Kirkwood. Photo by Christine Tannous, [email protected]
A chandelier hangs in the front entrance at the home of Kim Willi and Tim Willi on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023, in Kirkwood. Photo by Christine Tannous, [email protected]
A sun room connects to the living room at the home of Kim Willi and Tim Willi on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023, in Kirkwood. Photo by Christine Tannous, [email protected]
The dining room connects to a butler’s pantry at the home of Kim Willi and Tim Willi on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023, in Kirkwood. Photo by Christine Tannous, [email protected]
One of several seating areas sit in the backyard at the home of Kim Willi and Tim Willi on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023, in Kirkwood. Photo by Christine Tannous, [email protected]
A living room connects to the sunroom and kitchen at the home of Kim Willi and Tim Willi on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023, in Kirkwood. Photo by Christine Tannous, [email protected]
Before the Willis bought the home, this cozy sitting room had been created in what was once the side of a wrap-around porch, enclosed and finished. Comfy leather furniture that was previously in the remodeled family room now provides a great spot for relaxing and watching TV.
Decorations sit on the shelves of the butler’s pantry at the home of Kim Willi and Tim Willi on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023, in Kirkwood. Photo by Christine Tannous, [email protected]
A lion head hangs on the wall in the dining room at the home of Kim Willi and Tim Willi on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023, in Kirkwood. Photo by Christine Tannous, [email protected]
To update the kitchen, which hadn’t been remodeled since the Willis moved into the house in 2007, Williams had the dark wood cabinetry painted fresh white and updated with modern brass hardware. A timeless marble backsplash makes the black granite countertops (left from the previous remodel) pop. The island, which previously sat at an angle, was realigned, expanded and topped in white quartz.
A billiards room sits on the first floor of the home of Kim Willi and Tim Willi on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023, in Kirkwood. Photo by Christine Tannous, [email protected]
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