In a city famed for architecture and thousands of historic properties that range from colorful Creole cottages to Italianate manses, it was a lot strewn with gravel and patches of grass that caught Caroline and Sabri Farouki’s eye.

“It was basically a large driveway,” says Caroline, laughing, about the 2,400-square-foot parcel they purchased in the Lower Garden District in March of 2018. At the street front, it was a mere 18.6 feet wide. The skinny allocation further narrowed as you moved the 130 feet back to the anterior property line.

“Empty lots in New Orleans are hard to come by, especially in coveted historic neighborhoods,” she says. “We’d been looking for about a year and a half. We like living small, and we put in an offer the first week we saw it.”

Now, the couple have finished a 1,600-square-foot, two-story home on the site. Although the house is only 12.6 feet wide up front—with three-foot-wide side yards—and narrows to 10 feet wide in the back, a smart design manages an abundance of natural light, high ceilings, and ample storage. There are also a front balcony, a roof deck, and a backyard large enough for a trampoline.

The founders of Farouki Farouki, a New Orleans architecture and interior design firm, Caroline (interiors) and Sabri (architecture) are behind some of the city’s most visually striking spaces, from the glittery brasserie Justine in the French Quarter to The Odeon at South Market—a 30-story, 271-unit apartment building. In a city synonymous with old-world aesthetics, their own modern, minimalist house is easy to pick out.

“I studied architecture as an undergrad, and even though I’m in interiors now, that education of not overpopulating spaces, of letting the building be seamless, has always carried through for me.”
—Caroline Farouki, designer and resident

Shop the Look

The front does not feature classic hurricane shutters but sleek, black-framed windows. The petite balcony was a concession to local regulations that the couple now agree gives the house a more copacetic, European appeal in the neighborhood. “We are in a HDLC [Historic District Landmark Commission] zone, but I think they were pretty receptive to us creating a modern home,” says Sabri.

It was Caroline who first suggested flipping the script, placing the bedrooms for the couple and their two sons downstairs and the living areas and kitchen above to maximize open space and natural light.

“Knowing that the front would be the primary bedroom and bath, we could not have a front door, and it necessitated a side entry,” says Sabri, who placed the entrance at the center of the building down a narrow outdoor walkway. Just inside, the couple designed a staircase open to the second floor to create a sense of space and height.

Downstairs, you’ll also find brilliantly unexpected storage. Beneath the staircase, a bench pulls out from the wall, exposing a three-by-eight-foot space for luggage and sports equipment. There’s also a large laundry/storage room, as well as the guest powder room with black-and-white hand-printed wallpaper.

In the rear of the building is the kids’ room, where Remy (age five) and Maz (age two) hold court. Their room was originally going to have bunk beds—but “my mom talked us out of it, because making them is terrible,” Caroline says, laughing again.

“We did an L-shape, with the beds designed as two little houses, which maximized the play area on the floor. The family plans to upgrade to loft beds as the boys get older. “One of my favorite things are their little reading lights inside the beds. It makes story time an experience,” she says.

Walking up the stairs, you emerge from the cozy ground floor into a wide-open second level, with the living room, kitchen, and dining room flowing into one another and out to a terrace above the boys’ room. “We had a limited budget in general,” says Caroline, “and we spend the most time in the living space and kitchen, so we wanted to spend the money there.”

One must-have was a large kitchen island. “I saw this White Cherokee marble and asked our preferred fabricator about it,” Caroline says, “and she suggested Shadow Storm. It’s harder than a typical marble and is more resistant to staining and etching.”

The open sight lines, combined with windows on four sides, give the entire space a tree house feel. The effect is possible because engineering firm Batture designed an eight-inch steel-tube moment frame at the heart of the otherwise timber building. Visible around the stairs, it eliminates the need for structural walls on the second level.

“You don’t usually have a steel frame in a residence,”Sabri says, “but it got us the open floor plan we wanted. Once we had it, we decided to show it. It’s a moment of honesty—it shows you how the structure of the house is working.”

Looking out from the terrace above the kids’ room, Sabri says, “Indoor/outdoor living was important to us.” He points out views that are hard to argue with: the dramatic St. Mary’s Assumption Church, built in 1858, on one side; a curving palm tree and the charmingly faded rooftops of historic houses on the other.

“This view was a big surprise for us—and the best surprise,” he says. “We never got to see that aspect of the lot when we bought it. The house celebrates New Orleans out of every window.”

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Farouki Farouki / @farouki.farouki

Construction: InhabDesign + Build

Structural Engineering: Batture

Interior Design: Farouki Farouki

—

Head back to the July/August 2021 issue homepage

Appears In

A Narrow Site in New Orleans Proves a Welcome Challenge for a Designer Couple