“My heart hurts when houses get torn down, says homeowner and designer Chanel Tarlo. “I couldn’t imagine that happening here, just because of its potential.”
When this house in Austin’s Hyde Park neighborhood went on the market in 2020, a lot of people assumed that it would be bought and torn down. It had been built 70 years earlier, and it showed its age—the front yard was overgrown, and dirt, or mold, or both, crawled up the exterior board-and-batten siding. The lot was large—almost two-thirds of an acre—so the possibility of subdividing it loomed, and the real estate agent marketed it as a “rare developer opportunity.”
Before: Front Exterior
Before: This house in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Austin, Texas, was originally designed by architect George L. Walling and built in 1950.
Courtesy of Scott Parks Studio
This was during the early days of the Covid pandemic, and Chanel and Eric Tarlo were taking a lot of walks around their neighborhood. They were only a block away from their own cute Craftsman bungalow, when Chanel noticed this house.
After: Front Exterior
After purchasing the home in 2020, Chanel and Eric Tarlo worked with architect Scott Parks of Scott Parks Studio to restore it.
Photo: Casey Dunn
The architect removed the clunky addition enclosing the front door and reinstated the original door and sidelites. The new and restored board-and-batten siding is painted Roycroft Bronze Green by Sherwin Williams.
Photo: Casey Dunn
See the full story on Dwell.com: Before & After: They Saved Their Quirky Texas Midcentury—and Its Surprising Rear Addition
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