Homeowners Kate Elia and Nick Williams embrace their retro spirit in a rambling 1970s home
By Anna-Rhesa Versola | Photography by John Michael Simpson
Homeowners and nature lovers Kate Elia and Nick Williams revel in the company of family and friends, good music and great wine. Respectively, the former soccer star turned business whiz and the entrepreneur turned writer-musician had their creative lifestyle in mind when they bought a corner lot in 2020 near Eastwood Lake. The couple renovated the contemporary ranch, which was originally built in 1974 by J.P. Goforth’s Security Building Company, and turned up the good vibes.
“We were living in Durham, and we had just renovated a house, then we had another baby,” Nick says. “And that baby was living in our closet. When this came on the market, we really liked it. It was not in great shape, but we thought we could do a lot with it.”
Kate says they wanted a layout that separated the primary suite from secondary bedrooms. “We’ve learned after having looked at so many houses together that you really have to know what you want, and one of the things that we really wanted was to be away from our children in our house,” Kate says with a grin. “We don’t want our bedroom right next to their bedrooms.”
Their active daughters, Uma Williams, 6, and Frances “Frankie” Williams, 4, have their separate bedrooms on the wing opposite of the main suite. Nick, who is one of the original founding partners of The Pinhook in Durham, is now a writer, musician and stay-at-home dad. He plays analog synthesizers as part of an electronic duo called Action Group; he and longtime Carrboro musician Alex Maiolo will tour Europe this spring. Kate, who was captain of her soccer team at Vanderbilt University, completed her MBA at UNC in October. She is on the verge of another yet-to-be-announced entrepreneurial venture, having just wrapped up five years as director of operations and finance at Durham-based Piedmont Wine Imports.
The couple met in the fall of 2011 while working at Wine Authorities in Durham and shared many interests, including some estate-grown wines that they store in a 44-bottle fridge in a hall closet. “We’re not wine collectors; that’s a different breed,” Kate says. “We keep enough on hand to entertain and to store special bottles. In general, we support smaller growers and buy wines that are ready to drink right away.”
Ch-ch-ch Changes
By July 2021, the renovation process reached a point where the family could move into the residence as additional improvements continued. The storage shed at the front entrance of the house had been removed to expose the courtyard where turtles once found shelter. The fresh landscape designs included boulders, which were transported from Chatham County. The massive rocks are now covered in moss amid the liriope, ferns and a Japanese maple. A paperbush plant laden with silvery umbels graces the gritty walkway, passing a sculpted, mature camellia by the flagstone steps leading to the front porch. The original dull brown exterior paint was updated with a deep forest green that contrasts the sunflower yellow front door and the orange window trim.
LEFT The vaulted dining room doubles as an arts and crafts table overlooking the deck and backyard.
RIGHT Nick has a new musical collaboration called Action Group. His most well-known band was Free Electric State. He also played in a band called Prisms.
Inside, the biggest transformation was the redesign and expansion of the kitchen in the heart of their home. Two black metal poles support a new, vaulted 10-foot ceiling. Nick says their older daughter likes to climb the poles and “hold up” the ceiling.
“There’s a metal [beam] from there to there,” Nick says, motioning to places above the kitchen. “To tie the two I-beams together with another I-beam was going to [cost] an astronomical amount of money, and to not have these support poles was going to require a lot of engineering. I don’t notice the poles anymore.”
Kate says the original kitchen’s orange laminate countertop faced the dining room and was oriented toward the rear of the house. Today, a spacious white island overlooks the family room. The painted wood cabinets command attention with a happy shade of “yellow cake.”
Nick says Kate spent a long time on aesthetic choices. “But at the end of the process, I’m always happy that she does, because there’s something that I think most people wouldn’t think of, that I wouldn’t think of. And they’re really special, and they’re different, like the yellow cabinet and the green tile floor, the contrasting tiles on the backsplash, and the wallpaper in the kids’ part of the house. There are a lot of gray houses now, and we don’t want gray; we want to be vibrant.”
Kate pointed to three skylights they added to further heighten the space. The couple installed additional skylights in other parts of their home like the bathroom and closet in the primary suite. Light pours into the home from nearly all sides through new double-pane windows.
Ramble on Rose
Sliding back a pocket door at one end of the family room reveals a hallway covered from floor to ceiling with rose blooms as big as salad plates. Kate worked with Durham-based interior designer Carrie Moore to outfit the home with nods to ’70s design aesthetics brimming with psychedelic patterns and bold floral motifs.
LEFT The outdoor aesthetics were done by Sean Anderson at New Leaf Landscaping. Bronwyn Charlton designed the courtyard.
RIGHT The family room is lined with books, music and art. Frankie is happy in Kate’s lap, and Uma climbs on her father’s shoulders.
“I wanted it to feel really like when you come into this space [that] it’s a different part of the house and that it belongs to the kids,” Kate says, looking at the large blooms of roses. “It kind of takes you away. … And then, the rooms are this kind of calm monochrome.”
The walls of Frankie’s room are awash in a muted mint green, brightened by cheerful yellow curtains, while Uma’s room is bathed in shades of pink. “I love it,” Kate says, leaning against the doorway. “I love these rooms so much.”
The hallway of roses leads to the laundry room, a storage closet, and a nook that once had a built-in desk but now holds a large set of metal lockers, a wooden kitchen playset and a dollhouse. Filtered light is supplemented by two milky glass drum shade ceiling lights. The girls share a full bathroom that sits between their rooms. Kate pulls back the shower curtain, unveiling the original blue cast-iron tub surrounded by blue tiles.
LEFT The barley-colored Schumacher wallpaper pattern offers visual and tactile texture to the primary bedroom.
RIGHT Nick and Kate are unafraid of bright colors. Their renovated kitchen features a large island to prepare and enjoy meals with visiting family and friends.
In the formal living room, the walls are papered with a dark graphic design spotted with an abstract botanical motif. The orange and reds in the bohemian Southwestern area rug in front of the fireplace create a sense of drama in the room.
Inside the primary bedroom suite, the mood becomes more tranquil. The platform bed sits low and faces a wall of windows looking out into the large tree-filled yard. The wall behind the bed is covered in a fibrous paper with another botanical abstract pattern of a flowering plant with blossoms resembling the paperbush shrub by the courtyard. The ’70s decor continues with a textile hanging on one wall, a rust-colored, barrel-shaped swivel chair and mushroom-shaped lamps on either side of the bed.
Kate says if she had to do it over again, she would have brought in an interior designer much earlier, but the seemingly endless decision-making and attention to detail
were all worth the effort.
We love that we made it ours, from bold colors – we love our exterior color and window trim combo – and fun wallpaper to beautiful carpentry that we knew [the contractor] could pull off in the kitchen to fun light fixtures in every room,” Kate says. “We thought about making a space that has some high design elements but with the ultimate purpose of comfort and connection to the outside. When the outside was finished this past fall, we got to experience the house anew. We love watching the kids enjoy the new backyard while we cook or visit with friends on the back deck.”
Back to Nature
When not reading, cooking or creating music, Kate and Nick enjoy spending time with their daughters outdoors. They run in the shade of hardwood trees or visit nearby Eastwood Lake, which attracts different kinds of water birds like herons, egrets and kingfishers. The family has easy access to a paved trail at Lower Booker Creek Trail or the nearby dirt ones at Cedar Falls Park.
“I really love this neighborhood,” Nick says. “It feels really cool. It’s very different from the kinds of neighborhoods I lived in when I was younger. … This was a really thoughtfully designed house. It has a really good feel. We find it cozy yet stylish.”
Kate and Nick used a small army of contractors and subcontractors for different phases of their renovation projects.
“Creating this home was an exciting project for Nick and [me], and it really let me use my creativity, but we also enjoyed the relationships we built with local businesses,” Kate says. “You end up working closely with people for an extended period of time on a very personal project, and the people we worked with are a part of the joy of this home. You hear [of] so many nightmare renovation projects. There are definitely surprises, but, if you have the right people, they are on your team, and we’re so fortunate that we got to work with and learn from all of these amazing people.”
The architect was Ellen Weinstein of withArchitecture, the builder/contractor was David Nisbet of Nisbet & Co. and interior design and decor were done with Carrie Moore and Grayson Limer of Carrie Moore Interior Design. Landscaping was designed by Sean Anderson at New Leaf Landscaping while Bronwyn Charlton of Charlton Architecture designed the courtyard.
BY THE NUMBERS
2,138 square feet
4 bedrooms
2 bathrooms
1974 – year built
2020 – year bought
2020 – updates began
2021 – updates completed
2021 – moved in
.55 acre lot
