From a table on their deck, Greg Grenier and his partner, John Heizer, can sit and admire the beautifully landscaped garden below them. Amid tall oak and maple trees that shield like an umbrella, the outdoor room is protected from the summer sun.
"It's almost like living in the country," said Grenier, 65, who works for the Foreign Service.
While the feel is delightfully bucolic, the location is the Reservoir Hill neighborhood in Baltimore.
Grenier and Heizer, the 61-year-old director of music at Zion Lutheran Church, purchased the townhouse for $240,000, an excellent deal given the fact that it was previously and impeccably restored by the prior owner, who worked in the Smithsonian Institution's American furniture restoration department.
"We never even had to paint the walls," Grenier said of the 16-by-70-foot interior whose gracefully curved walls, 12-foot ceilings, winding staircases and pocket doors had been looked after since the 1890s by just three owners before Grenier and Heizer purchased it in 2002.
The only significant upgrade the new owners made to the home was the $4,000 magnificently landscaped garden. There, under old trees, a brick walkway to the rear gate is lined with heather, anemone, hibiscus, bleeding heart, coral balls, witch hazel, oak-leaf hydrangea, Lenten rose, twisted filbert and heavenly bamboo.
"I wanted [the garden] to be welcoming 365 days a year, with plants of different heights and colors — something to bloom all year," said Grenier, who loves entertaining in the backyard and in the common area past the back gate.
That love of plants, trees and the outdoors has been carried over into the home's dining room, where all four walls have been painted with a soft mural of trees — among them, Russian birches and evergreens. The variety of foliage provides a slightly different view for each guest seated at the Chippendale-style dining table. A 10-foot-high mirror, framed in carved wood and gilt, adds yet another touch of elegance to the formal setting.
The walls of the home's formal living room are hung with oil paintings by the Russian artist Guiya Gogitadze, antique English and French framed etchings, and expressionistic paintings by Baltimore artist Helen Beckstrom. A Kohler & Campbell grand piano sits at the front window, its music stand filled with liturgical and sing-along sheet music. The elegance of the room is enhanced by fine 18th-century reproduction pieces such as a camelback sofa and a pair of Queen Anne side chairs.
The home's second level consists of a formally decorated master bedroom painted in a shade of dark terra cotta and graced with two dressers — one of crotch mahogany, the other of satin wood with pecan inlay. The room's centerpiece is a Potthast four-poster mahogany bed with embroidered linens.
In what Grenier and Heizer call their "relaxing room" in the back of the second floor, more artwork hangs on the walls and includes framed needlework pieces of Jacobean design as well as a painting of the Last Supper done by a Haitian artist. The particular perspective of the piece shows not only Jesus and the Apostles, but also the food and drink on the table.
On the third floor, Grenier has devoted a room to the display of collectibles and artifacts he brought home from his world travels. In what may be thought of as a whimsical display of international goods, every inch of wall and floor space exhibits items such as a marimba from Guatemala, a harp from Paraguay, gold Venetian masks, Greek military slippers, a Russian naval hat, an Egyptian headdress, gold-trimmed robes from Saudi Arabia and a Russian gas mask.
There is no denying the home's duality of decor represented in both the whimsical and the elegant collections of its owners.
"What you see is two diametrically opposed personalities," Grenier said.
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Making the dream
Dream element The three-story, red-brick Victorian townhouse is located in the tree-shaded Baltimore neighborhood of Reservoir Hill. The home's second-story bay window is trimmed in wood that has been painted dark green and cinnamon. The dwelling's interior measures 70 feet in depth, but the home claims an additional 70 feet by way of an exterior, formal garden.
Design inspiration The circa 1890 home, with its high ceilings, chandeliers, curved walls and pocket doors, presents a pleasing setting for the fine Federal-style pieces of furniture collected by John Heizer, including Biggs chairs from the 1940s — Biggs Furniture, based in Richmond, Va., was once a leading U.S. manufacturer of Colonial reproduction furniture — and a sideboard and china cabinet by Potthast, a furniture company founded in Baltimore in 1892. Fine collectibles in the home originate from Greg Grenier's travels as a member of the Foreign Service and include an impressive collection of Russian oil paintings.
Surprise touch An entire room on the third floor serves the dual purpose of guest bedroom and "museum" dedicated to objects collected worldwide. These include a display of clothing from Paraguay and robes from Saudi Arabia, as well as Venetian masks and Japanese fans hanging on the walls.