DAVID ARCHIBALD REMEMBERS THE HOME FONDLY. Decades ago, as a young boy from Greensboro, he visited his older sister at her college friend’s home in Myers Park, a stone’s throw from The Duke Mansion. “To this day, he remembers that home,” says his wife, Laura, of the home built circa-1916. “He’s never forgotten it.”
Years later, the Archibalds learned through a friend that that very home was about to go on the market. “We weren’t looking for a new house, nor did we want to move,” says Laura Archibald, an interior designer. “But as soon as David heard that it was going up for sale, we knew we had to see it.” And just like a scene from the movies, the moment the Archibalds walked through the doors, they knew it would be their forever home. Having grown up in a turn-of-the-century home in Reidsville, North Carolina, the designer has always had an affinity for older homes boasting architectural details and heavy doses of character often missing from newer homes today. “This home reminded me of my childhood home with its large formal living and dining rooms made for entertaining large family gatherings,” she says. “As a designer, I often walk into a house, and I see things that need to change. But with this house, I just loved everything. There were a million reasons why this home should not have worked out for us, but it did. It
really felt like it was meant to be.”
The previous owners renovated the main rooms of the home, including a massive kitchen renovation. “I think some remodels strip the character of the home, and in some cases, that’s OK, depending on how much architectural value it has,” Archibald says. “But this is a special house that really needed to be preserved.” So when they moved in, the Archibalds had the ideal blank canvas. All the home needed was her designer touch. “Our former home was a bit traditional, and I was ready to let that go,” the designer says. “The main thing was blending the old with the new. It’s an older home, and I have some family heirlooms and antiques that have sentimental value. I love mixing them in. But I also didn’t want it to feel stodgy and dated.”
The home’s existing architectural details proved to be the ideal complement for Archibald’s vintage pieces. “The original staircase, the leaded-glass windows, the diamond-patterned casement windows in the kitchen—all of it was so stunning,” she says. “The living room just kind of fell into place. It’s a compilation of things we’ve collected over time. I pulled furniture from three rooms in our previous house and didn’t reupholster a thing, and somehow it all just worked.” The dark-brown walls serve as the perfect backdrop for Archibald’s pieces, like the custom-made upholstered screen swathed in mohair by B. Berger hanging on the wall. A pair of vintage pink snakeskin stools pull out the hue in the oversized paintings by Carol Bodiford that hang above the sofa.
But not all of the design choices were made using the designer’s existing family heirlooms and antiques. In the large formal dining room, Archibald made a bold statement with the large-patterned floral wallpaper by Jim Thompson. “Our dining room is huge, so I knew I needed to bring the room in visually,” she explains of her choice. “The colors in the wallpaper—dark brown, coral, pink, shades of blue—tie in nicely with the living room, which is across from it.”
To modernize the more traditional feel of the room, Archibald included a custom acrylic and glass dining room table designed by Plexi-Craft. “My husband didn’t want a long, formal, wooden dining table. He said it just wouldn’t look right. And he was correct,” she explains. Instead, the juxtaposition between the contemporary Lucite and glass table and pieces like the existing adjacent antique buffet and art decor chandelier by Iatesta Studio elevates the entire room’s aesthetic from over the top traditional to timeless.
The family room’s design took a similar approach, featuring more updated, modern pieces in place of Archibald’s family heirlooms. As a high-traffic gathering space, the family needed as much function as it did style, so Archibald covered the pair of sofas by Lee Industries in a durable indoor-outdoor velvet. To brighten the one-time dark room, Archibald added a fresh coat of paint to the existing wood paneling and installed a pair of Aidan Gray sconces on the hidden storage area.
As a designer, Archibald admittedly is constantly tweaking the interiors of her Myers Park home. But, overall, she and her husband are elated not only with their leap of faith in purchasing the home but also with how comfortable and inviting the interiors are. “This house was really designed to stand the test of time,” she says. “Our family feels fortunate to be stewards of such a special place.”