A Graceful Update on a 1938 Moderne Home
Meet your neighbors - Jon Georges and Robert Sandoval - they’re so many things at once, a handsome couple with warm smiles, they’re both funny and fun and their house is a paragon of 1938 Moderne style that’s come of age in Franklin Hills.
Sitting down with them is to see a partnership in life and a joint venture in the art of living. This is what happens when two people understand the exterior of Moderne architecture and create an interior that perfects it.
One step past the door and you can see they took a methodical approach. It’s clear they studied and contemplated and got to know the house first, because every choice and detail feels like the right decision. There’s nothing off key, not one flat note. The home is a perfect balance between the beauty of 1938 and the way we live now. Social formality has shifted from a dining room toward a multi-purpose central space. Unlike the 1930s, it’s all about the open kitchen today, where the prep and presentation of entertaining feeds off the laughter and conversation. It’s a difficult vibe to pull off in a Moderne space and yet, they not only structured a solution to an au currant demand, they put our classic Franklin Hills view front and center.
Moderne emerged in the 1930s and echoes the rise of industrialization. The style was inspired by the sleek designs of automobiles, trains, and ocean liners and sought to convey a sense of speed, efficiency, and modernity. Recurring motifs are rounded corners, horizontal lines, and smooth, shiny surfaces like chrome and glass. It often has a maritime motif which symbolized the cultural fascination with travel, progress, expansion and technological advances.
As homeowners when they talk about the process, how they searched for inspiration and explored variations, there’s still a sense of excitement in their voice that answers who they are as partners. It’s clear they enjoyed the project, blending necessary functions like closets and storage into the existing curves and gleam of the original style and the result is sublime. The ultimate Franklin Hills gem.
