330 Homes Summer 2022

d r e a m h o u s e

Ken, a general surgeon, retired a few years later, and in 2008 he and Marcia moved to North Carolina. They sold the house to their daughter and son-in-law, but the couple missed life in Akron. By 2017, their daughter had her first child and her family wanted a bigger house. The Harrises bought the home back, and Marcia embarked on a second round of remodeling that further enhanced her style that is earthily warm and welcoming, yet clean and uncluttered with striking art. “I’m bordering, deco rating-wise, as a mini malist,” she says. Bowie reconfigured the lower-level laundry room to accommodate a sec ond half-bath and added a screened-in porch off the lower-level deck. To increase wall space in the den, contractors ripped out the fireplace. Marcia furnished it with a prized black-leather Eames chair and ottoman, and a tailored accent chair upholstered in an abstract pattern that picks up the striped rug’s burnt orange, beige, browns and greens.

CLOSER LOOK

The taupe tile that surrounded the living-room fireplace and covered the hearth was out of place stylistically in this ’80s-built Akron home. Architectural Options owner Kevin Bowie replaced it with a surround of slate tile hand split to reveal natural color variations ranging from gold to cream with hints of green. He recalls arranging a double band of 4-by-4s surrounded by a band of 12-by-12s on the floor with homeowner Marcia Harris and a tile installer to achieve a sort of abstract pattern. “We picture-framed it with custom trim that we made on-site,” he says. A new hearth was constructed from limestone and installed atop a wooden base that complemented the existing woodwork. Marcia decided against replacing the traditional wooden mantel. “I would prefer to have art above the fireplace,” she says.

Marcia had the hardwood floors refinished and the walls painted in pale neutrals that change with the light — gray to green, tan to yellow, yellow to creamy white. “I like it very neutral so your art is what pops,” she says. A prime example of that effect is in the living room, where Akron artist John Sokol’s “Departure” hangs over the fireplace. The painting, which Marcia says was inspired by a story about a Chinese fisherman who fell out of his boat and drowned, holds great meaning for her — she sees it as a symbol of her and Ken’s departure from North Carolina. Its colors

dictated the brown uphol stery on the sofa and easy chair, the gray carpet, the gold faux-fur sofa throw pillow and the gold area rug. The travertine-topped black-metal coffee table is crowned by a quintet of pears from Zeber-Martell Gallery & Clay Studio in Akron, and light pours in from large two-story wood framed windows. In the dining room, a paint ing of a woman collapsed on a sofa, shopping bags at her feet, presides over a teak-topped metal table flanked by leather chairs on three sides, a teak bench on the other. Marcia’s local art ist friend Bonnie Simmers painted it for her as a gift.

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