Tina Wilcox | Lowry Hill, Minneapolis

Wilcox’s collection of eighteenth-century portrait paintings, antique books and candelabras, and period-right furniture lends authenticity to every room.

When Tina Wilcox, proprietor of retail-brand- and product-development agency Black Design, bought a 1904 Georgian home in Minneapolis’s Lowry Hill neighborhood, she was looking as much for a fun restoration project as she was for a space to store her expanding collection of antique furniture, eighteenth-century paintings, and collectibles. Wilcox, a connoisseur of everything old and ornate, has decorated the home in a kind of Gothic–tinged shabby chic—dark wood settees upholstered in smoky floral fabrics, ornately carved tables in patinaed metals, enough candles to fill an eighteenth-century cathedral. The home is filled with all kind of relics, but Wilcox, with her superb creative-director’s eye, has edited the décor for a more modern look.

Something Old, Something New
Wilcox has filled her home with a mix of antiques and new pieces made to look like antiques, as well as plenty of imports and finds from around the globe. Horchow sofas, oriental and Turkish rugs, antique nineteenth-century settees, and a salvaged bank doorway (in her master bedroom) all intermingle with Wilcox’s collection of oddities—taxidermy, antique dog collars, portrait paintings . . . .

The state-of-the-art kitchen was designed to have all the modern amenities with a turn-of-the-century feel.

Helping Hands

After moving in, Wilcox embarked on a restoration project that spanned two and a half years, two contractors, four painting crews, an interior painter, and a kitchen designer. “Everything had to be redone,” she says. “The inlaid mirrors were cracked, the carpeting old and dingy, bathroom tiles were cracked, the fixtures aged.” While Wilcox did much of the interior design work herself (in her spare time, she is an avid crafts woman, making pillows, chandeliers, draperies, and more), she also enlisted the talents of Kristy Egan and Silver Bullet on the kitchen, Jeff Groves from A Cut Above Restoration as the second contractor (the first died halfway through the restoration), and Stephen Trevino for all of the interior painting.

Wilcox’s creative- director’s eye is evident in the way she curates her rooms. No detail is overlooked, and every piece has its place.

Brush Strokes

What really takes you back to the turn of the century, even more than her collection of antiques, is the superb painting by Stephen Trevino. Every wall surface was painted, including an intricate damask pattern in the entryway, a crest pattern in the library that mimics the room’s oriental rug, and pink-and-red candy stripes, à la Eloise, in her daughter’s bathroom.

Past Perfect
The kitchen, which had to be gutted down to the studs, pays homage to a turn-of-the-century home by incorporating an inlaid brick wall behind the stove. But it has all of the modern amenities a modern home needs. Countryside Cabinets installed a custom fireplace and custom cabinetry and all appliances are state-of-the-art (two Wolf ovens and cook top, a Sub-Zero refrigerator, and a catering oven for entertaining). “When I have friends over, we all like to get in the kitchen and start cooking,” she says. “So a large enough space and proper appliances were a must.”