Home is Where the Art Is

The riverside home of Jorenda Stone is a special place of collected journeys and of collaborations past, present and future. After Mother Nature destroyed her grandmother’s home, she salvaged what she could and rebuilt her modern day redux around her love of art.

ARTICLE AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARÉ BRENNAN

When Mother Nature felled an old-growth oak through the center of Jorenda Stone’s ancestral West Monroe home during the EF-2 tornado of October 13, 2014, she had but one choice in light of the devastating effects to the home’s foundation. The day started like any other, but October 13, 2014 had long lasting effects for community activist and patron of the Arts, Jorenda Stone. Stone, who divided her time between her family’s Synope Plantation in Columbia, LA and her grandmother’s turn of the century home on Trenton Street in West Monroe, was home alone when the skies darkened and a tornadic event, producing winds up to 125 miles per hour, barreled across her property, heading across the Ouachita River like a freight train. No match for the tornado, a huge oak upended, landing squarely on Jorenda’s home, trapping her momentarily inside. Like the real-life heroine that she is, Jorenda called for extrication help, but managed to free herself from the tangled mass of branches. It was only when she made her way outside that she realized the extent of the damage that had just befallen our communities.

With her home looking more like Dorothy had just dropped it into Oz, Jorenda donned the proverbial ruby red slippers and set out to find a way to restore her home. Now as you may know, Jorenda, who was profiled as one of the original Bayou Icons in BayouLife, is hailed for her unflinching commitment to the Arts in northeast Louisiana. Her homes in West Monroe and Columbia serve as modern day salons for critical thinkers, artists, musicians, historians and the like, celebrating diversity and the richness of culture we share here in the Delta. A consummate hostess who serves up conversation and thought-provoking questions alongside delicious heart-warming food and beverages, Jorenda first began to explore the idea restoring of the Victorian-era cottage and putting the puzzle back together.

After the 107-year-old home’s foundation was deemed unsafe and the home declared a loss, Jorenda thought, ‘why not look to the future’ for inspiration for her dwelling. Shocking friends and pushing envelopes, for Jorenda, modern it would be. Salvaging pieces of her grandmother’s home took on deeper meaning, as it became apparent that the destruction from the tornado had been irreparable. Carefully and methodically, Jorenda directed her friend and salvage specialist Bennie Sims to help her save as much as they could for potential use in the house that was to come.

In her own defense, Jorenda explains that Synope Plantation, a Greek Revival structure built in 1857 with Creole and Anglo-American influences, has more than enough history to keep her grounded in her roots. In particular Jorenda Stone fashion, the tornado which upended her home, helped her break new ground and push the limits of her own thinking, helping her galvanize her collective of collaborative friends to find the new, the unexplored. Here is where Jorenda Stone, the Icon, shines. She brought together her network of very capable architects, builders, painters, artists, landscapers, carpenters, upholsterers and craftsmen and fielded a team to make her dream of an architecturally daring and significant home a reality.

Local architect and Jorenda’s long-time family friend, Fred Bennett of Architect Associates and was a first responder to Jorenda’s emergency quest for developing plans. Her good friend and architect emeritus Cookie Cookston provided guidance and reassurance along the way as well. Says Fred, “Jorenda was a joy to work with. She’s a free spirit and was very open to creating something new that would push the boundaries of residential design.” Fred’s preliminary concept sketches dating from March 2015 show the voluminous Great Room for entertaining with a private Master Suite connected by an entry Vestibule. The initial front elevation sketch from Trenton Street shows masterful proportions with soaring angular rooflines, which holds true with the finished residence. Instead of a typical garage, Jorenda challenged Fred to design a free-standing Party Pavilion that could double as a carport connected by a covered breezeway to the main house.

Working with contractor Brian Ragan, Jorenda and her architect were soon posed an interesting question. A steel fabricator, Mark Harris, had stopped by and inquired about the build-out, offering a steel skeleton as an alternative to using lumber as the internal construction. Again, Jorenda asked, “Why not?” and pushed Fred to find a way to acknowledge visually the internal steel structure. His response was to expose the trusses in the vaulted vestibule and to add open-air steel transoms above the vestibule doors leading to public and private spaces of the home. After breaking ground on the new construction, the sight of shiny steel beams reaching sunward created quite the sensation, as onlookers slowed down to view the futuristic structure.

If strength and modernism is at the home’s core, Jorenda knew the exterior of her new home would need an artist’s touch and warmth. Anyone who has ever spent time with Jorenda, realizes a series of clinical, white structures is not part of her color palette. Enter Jorenda’s friend and local visual artist Anna Rowan, who devised the pattern play that draws the eye toward the entrance of the home. Based on Jorenda’s love of color and inspired by her wardrobe of vintage African kaftans and textiles, Anna’s colorful renderings provided geometry for the resulting exteriors, which are clad with a metal gridwork which holds large concrete composite panels. In order to find colors and paints that would stand up to the rigors of Louisiana weather, painter Curtis Brown of Premier One Painting and Jorenda consulted with Penny Aulds at Sherwin Williams to determine the best paint for the job. The volume of space which holds the master bedroom and bath is covered externally in a Mondrian-like pattern with rectangles and squares of primary colors. For the exterior of the Great Room, a horizontal strip of cobalt blue represents the home’s proximity to the Ouachita River. For this large expanse of space, Jorenda wanted softer, more muted tones, like a Paul Klee painting. Here, terra-cotta is warmed by reds and soft browns to achieve a dappled, more painterly effect. Site coordinator Jonathan Tucker painted the bare, sculptural tree mural, which adds diagonal movement and interest to the wall. The colors on the concrete panels of the recessed entry are deeper and more vibrant with a distinctly tribal feel. One panel was painted with a Cubist-inspired head by Jorenda’s friend and artist, Dr. Bill Rambin. The double front doors were salvaged from the original homestead. Called her “River Doors,” Jorenda had amorphic wooden cutouts made and incorporated behind the glass insets to represent the Ouachita River.

The entry hall is a light-filled space with an entire wall of glass which overlooks a petite rock garden complete with a fountain and a Paul Smith blue heron sculpture. To the right, behind a pair of swinging doors inscribed with the homeowner’s initials lies the Master Suite of the home; to the left the public spaces. An antique Tiffany globe lamp illuminates one corner of the vestibule and a large, sculptural painting is prominently hung beside an iconic Marcel Breuer Wassily chair. Reclaimed wood planks from the original home line the vaulted ceiling and provide an organic foil for the exposed steel trusses.

For the Great Room Jorenda envisioned a lofty space for entertaining, with three sets of French doors allowing parties to spill out of doors onto a wide veranda. Fred incorporated generous transoms and long clerestory windows to take advantage of natural light as well. To create a feeling of depth and produce soft light, Fred designed sets of square “light boxes” of varying sizes, which give the illusion of skylights across the ceiling in the Great Room. Clayton Head, who Jorenda refers to as the “ciphering carpenter,” did the math for creating the beautiful wells of overhead light, which take great pains to hide their light source.

The wall of the Great Room that leads out to the veranda is covered in reclaimed wide boards from the original 1907 home which were lovingly given an almost imperceptible wash of paint then sanded gently to achieve an aged, pickling effect. Bennie Sims, the salvage artist, is responsible for the soul that this wall imparts to the Great Room. Treasured photos, pieces of art and textiles, like an African Kuba cloth and an antique tulip quilt are hung with dramatic effect on this wall.
Inspired by the Parisian avant garde look of Roche Bobois’ Mah Jong sofas and loving the idea of creating seating that encouraged experimentation – and maybe even breaking the rules a little – the non-conformist homeowner chose to have each piece of a modular sectional sofa covered in a colorful array of contrasting fabrics. The lightness of the chairs makes it easy to move the party out of doors when weather permits. Solids, stripes, florals and graphic prints provide playful pops of color that encourage out-of-the-box thinking. Upholstery work was done by Richard Jackson of Jackson Upholstery. Chunky knit poofs in primary colors and a myriad of bright, patterned pillows enliven the space. Says Jorenda, “Friends’ children come in and immediate gravitate to this conversational area.” She recounts one little boy who loved reconfiguring the sectionals’ pillows, mixing and matching to his heart’s content.

Extra tall pocket doors original to the 1907 home were repurposed and hung on a barn door-style track to provide privacy for the study beyond. Jorenda accentuated the graphic-ness of the doors by painting the edges of the inset rectangular moldings a crisp black.

The home’s study is a quiet work space, where Jorenda develops amazing humanities concepts for our communities like 2019’s Year of the River, a yearlong celebration of the 200th anniversary of Fort Miro’s name change to Monroe. An adjacent guest bath features her grandmother’s original clawfoot tub and a cheery sunburst stained glass window. As a cheeky reminder, guests are encouraged to leave their John Hancock or even a little poetry on the bathroom door.

In Jorenda’s kitchen, minimalistic chic rules with a daring punch of color. Sleek white lower cabinets and island with honed black soapstone countertops set the tone. A thick black open shelf runs the length of the kitchen. A zebra painting by Lissy Sanders Compton and a graphically composed painting of calla lilies by the late Linda Rambin are hung on either side of the shelf. A figurative painting on the top left of the shelf inspired the colorful kitchen backsplash which was painted by muralist and project site coordinator Jonathan Tucker. Working quickly, Tucker painted loosely to render the brushstrokes that add organic movement to the glass and walls above the sink and counter. Tendrils of color peek above the wide shelf, reaching for the clerestory window. The kitchen ceiling received special treatment as well, with the “ciphering carpenter” devising a unique grid which incorporated pressed tin ceiling tiles from the old house.

Rescued from a law office, the Chinese red painted cabinetry provides extra storage for Jorenda’s dining area within the Great Room. Filling its open shelves are treasured books and photographs, woven baskets, objets d’art, and paintings by her late husband, Gregory Stone. Sinuous, Italian-design upholstered dining chairs provide a neutral foil for Jorenda’s mosaic-patterned Italian silk textile, a house warming gift from her cousin. Jorenda’s table is set with handmade, crackle glaze earthenware and silverware in a kaleidoscope of colors.

In the private wing of the home, the Master Bedroom is as colorful as its inhabitant. A headboard of woven reed adds a hint of neutral to a bed made with a colorful hand-printed striped duvet and piled high with tropical print pillows. A painting by the homeowner’s dear friend and artist, the late Phoebe Mathys, is given a place of prominence above the headboard. A ventless gas fireplace beneath a multi-media work is a modern extravagance. Brightly hued luggage stacked from large to small are an improvised bedside table. In the en-suite bathroom black painted cabinets with a white marble countertop continue the graphic theme. The master closet is well-organized with neat built-in racks for shoes, open shelving for hats, bags and sundries, and an antique armoire and chest of drawers.

Once the structure was in place, Jorenda’s knew she wanted to include a bocce ball court to run parallel with the veranda. Guests frequently gather beneath the bright yellow triangular sail shade to wait their turns throwing the weighted balls down the gravel court. Others lounge along the low wall of the veranda to cheer on their favorite competitor. Contractor Brian Ragan custom-made a live-edge cypress and steel bench for spectators, and it is positioned beneath a sculptural tree. Naturalist Kris Kelley helped Jorenda select the perfect native Louisiana plants for creating a meadow feel for the grounds surrounding the modern structure. A winding gravel path leads guests from through a metal “moon gate” toward a central rondel centered by an enormous piece of cypress topped with a yellow-painted iron heron sculpture by Choudrant artist Paul Smith. Guests can continue meandering through the gardens by traversing the gravel path or follow the generous walkway to the front entry. Along the garden path, a wooden bridge to the right carries one past yet another red heron sculpture by Paul Smith that points toward a bamboo trellis and more paths that beckon to be explored.

When the quote “Architecture is inhabited sculpture” is inscribed above the transom that leads to the Great Room, you know that initial feeling you had upon walking into Jorenda’s home was correct. This is a special place of collected journeys and of collaborations past, present and future.