The story below is from our November/December 2018 issue. For the full issue Subscribe today, view our FREE interactive digital edition or download our FREE iOS app!
Photos By Bob Sowder Photography
Homeowner Caroline Hammond thought overcoming personal tragedy included selling her beloved house. Instead, she created beauty from the ashes in her home renovations.
When Caroline Hammond decided to remodel her kitchen and master bath she didn’t hire a designer. She is one at heart. And, as the owner of Caroline LaRocca Event Design, she’s got what it takes to do it all herself. After all, an artist is an artist.
A series of tragedies led to the Hammond’s remodel job. Three days after Christmas 2016, Hammond lost her 17-year-old daughter, Sarabeth Rose, in a car accident on Bent Mountain. Two months later, still reeling from the pain of that loss, a burst water pipe in the master bathroom came as a slap in the face. Then, 10 months later, the exhaust fan in the downstairs bath overheated, starting a fire.
The entire house sustained smoke damage from the fire, requiring the family to move out while ServPro cleaned everything. At this point, Hammond wanted out. She hired painters to put a fresh coat over the smoke damage, contacted a realtor, and talked about putting the house on the market.
“I looked at apartments,” she says. “But then, I realized I couldn’t leave the memories.”
The Hammonds—Caroline and her two remaining children, Sophia and Pierce—had lived in their home in the Bridlewood community for 18 years.
So, Hammond partnered with Sean Carlin Designs of Charlotte, North Carolina and together they turned brokenness and sorrow into joy with a fresh new space.
Since the house was turned upside down anyway, with the clean-up from both catastrophes and the bathrooms being repaired and remodeled, Hammond decided to update her kitchen as well. That decision not only reinforced her desire to stay in the house but uncovered a message from Sarabeth left 13 years earlier.
“When the kids were little,” Hammond says, “and Sarabeth was about 4, I wallpapered the kitchen. At that time, they were always asking if they could draw on the walls, so the morning I started papering I told them, ‘You can draw on the walls today, but once I get the paper up, no more drawing on walls.’”
When Carlin started knocking out the wall that separated the dining room and kitchen, the paper started peeling to reveal those drawings. Hammond’s memories took her back in time.
“All of Sarabeth’s pictures were the same,” she says. “She wrote her name and an A+. I thought it was odd for a 4-year-old.”
But when she posted pictures of the drawings online, Sarabeth’s French teacher saw them and shared the meaning behind those drawings. It seems that A+ is textese in French for “see you later.”
A hidden message from Sarabeth? Hammond would take it. And it kicked her decorator mojo into high gear for this remodel job.
Opening up the space called for new oak flooring and an island the size of Montana. While looking at apartments, Hammond saw a kitchen with stainless steel countertops that inspired her to do the same on her island.
“Sure it’ll scratch,” she says. “But then it’ll get its own patina and look lovely.”
Lucite bar stools with brass trim line one side of the island, while walnut trim on the ends complements the new flooring. In addition to the island, new cabinetry includes a dry bar along the dining area wall, a new pantry with a sliding barn door and a coffee nook. Above the dry bar and under the island, the walls are covered in stone. Quartz and Carrara marble blanket the other counters, and subway tile covers the backsplash space on the kitchen side.
While the new design is modern, Hammond integrates the crystal chandelier from her childhood home in New York City splendidly. It hangs over the glass top dining table with a black metal base which blends with the black counters and barn door track.
Because kitchens are meant for cooking, this one sports a new gas range and dual electric GE ovens—one regular, one a microwave. But the real splurge in this space is the lighting over the island.
“I ordered them from Etsy,” Hammond says. These amazing geometric pendant cage lights were handcrafted in Russia. Jointed with brass, they match the brass fixtures throughout the kitchen, as well as the crystal chandelier over the dining table.
Hammond’s new pantry used to be a closet for the washer and dryer. Carlin enclosed half the garage to create a new laundry room. It includes a stainless steel farm sink, cabinetry, and quartz counters that match the kitchen.
Stretching this space even further, a glass door opens to the back deck and a huge picture window brings the peace of the forested backyard inside.
Upstairs, Hammond continues her designer mojo in the master bath. A huge soaking tub sits in front of a bank of windows with a door that opens onto an upper deck. A glassed-in shower with stone floor, subway tiles and more amazing light fixtures provide a relaxing getaway for a working gal with weary bones.
And when she wants to get ready for the day, skylights illuminate the walk-in closet with plenty of light for matching colors and choosing the perfect pair of pumps.
While the bathroom is as equally tasteful as the kitchen, it is the kitchen that reveals the true heart of this wounded family. In addition to hanging family photos on the dining area walls, Carlin made a cutting board from the old butcher block island top, saving the scribbles from the three Hammond children on the underside.
Caroline LaRocca Hammond did more than slap a fresh coat of paint on a tragedy and call it good. She dug in her heels, tore out the old and created beauty from ashes. “See you later” was an added bonus.
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