NOLA.com/Times-Picayune: A French Quarter Renovation Reflects Owner's Elegant Design
- Laura Kuhn
- Mar 29, 2023
- 5 min read
"In a French Quarter restoration, the owner's flair for design shines
along with the 1830s architecture."
by Lee Cutrone | Photos by Brett Duke
March 29, 2023
A restored 1830s Creole town house in the French Quarter mixes architectural elegance with the interior stylings of owner Claus Sadlier, who even designed some of the furniture himself. His look? Art deco wallpaper shares space with ornate crown moldings, modern art and centuries-old Italian and Chinese antiques....
“I always joke I’m famous for the mock-up and the redo,” said Claus Sadlier, whose trial-and-error experience renovating historic properties has led to the perfectly appointed elegance of the 1830s Creole town house he restored in the French Quarter. “I like beautiful things, and I study architecture and art and pulled it together.”
Despite the humility of the entrepreneur and real estate developer, Sadlier’s career accomplishments, understanding of design and connection to the French Quarter are impressive.
His paternal great-great-grandfather, who emigrated from Germany in the mid-19th century, had a pharmacy on Custom House Street (now Iberville) and Royal Street.
The exterior painted terra cotta with accents of turquoise, features its original cathedral ironwork balcony and classic dentil cornice added in 1860.
His paternal great-grandmother was second cousin to Mary Alice Miltenberger Heine, who married Prince Albert 1st of Monaco (the town house in which Heine was born and raised is on Royal Street) and is known as the first American Princess of Monaco.
Sadlier, however, grew up in Old Metairie, and his own French Quarter connections are more tangible. He made regular Sunday trips with his family to Café Du Monde and says, appropriately, that his first word was “beignet.”
After college, Sadlier moved away for 20 years, traveling the world and making his primary residence in California, where he worked in restaurant development, patented several food-industry items and founded several startups: Insulair Inc., maker of insulated paper cups, which he sold to Georgia Pacific, and Covermate Food Covers, which he sold to Rubbermaid.
His first experience renovating a historic property came in California when he and his former wife spent two years restoring a 1920s Spanish Revival estate built by Herman Wobber, one of the founders of 20th Century Fox Film Corp.
The painting of face in dining room is by artist Dave Gamble and is a modern take on the style of the Old Dutch Masters.
Finding his way back home
Eventually, like many New Orleanians, Sadlier felt pulled back to his beloved city, specifically to the French Quarter. His list of real estate must-haves included a courtyard, a street-facing balcony and a separate guesthouse.
His Burgundy Street residence, part of a row of three identical town houses that extends to St. Philip Street, checked all the boxes, but it needed work. In 2016, working with architect Chuck Berg, Sadlier began a full renovation of the property, which will be showcased on the Spring Fiesta French Quarter Courtyard & Home Tour on Saturday, April 1, 2023.
The exterior, painted terra cotta with accents of turquoise, features its original cathedral ironwork balcony and a classic dentil cornice added in 1860. Inside the entryway, a winding stairwell lit with huge antique sconces and a bronze chandelier are a step back in time. Sadlier wanted the exterior elements to feel Old World and intriguing.
“It feels like something from the 18th or 19th centuries and organic to the French Quarter,” he said.
Melding old and new
The interior of the house, which is designated as a historic landmark, is a cultivated melding of old and new.
Sadlier and Berg added a heated cocktail pool to the private courtyard, then set about restoring each of the three floors to their original grandeur — with the addition of modern luxuries.
Two layers of Sheetrock and a layer of plaster were removed from the brick walls beneath them. The walls were then replastered to be true to the period.
The main living spaces on the first and second floors were opened up by replacing narrow doorways with wide casement openings.
Five original fireplaces, plaster molding and detailed woodwork were all restored, and an opulent gasolier still hangs in its original location in what is now the billiard room. The guesthouse, which originally served as the home's kitchen, still has its 19th century hardware for cooking.
The third floor was converted into a large master suite with soaring 14-foot ceilings and two bathrooms.
New amenities in the house include a 30-speaker audio system, three surround sound AV systems, security cameras, two-way videoconferencing on each floor and remote controllable lighting and HVAC systems.
Creating his own look
Sadlier initially hired an interior designer but ultimately did the job himself. Rather than the darker historic colors associated with French Quarter interiors, he opted for white (with a grayish tint) walls and bright white for the ornate crown moldings so that they wouldn’t feel heavy.
“I wanted the inside to be fresh and modern,” he said.
Furnishings came from as far away as Rome and as close as Royal Street. Among the local pieces are a circa 1850 Chinese Qing Dynasty cabinet and an 18th-century gilded and hand-painted Italian wedding cabinet.
Sadlier also designed some of the furnishings himself. He sketched the living room’s linen-topped coffee table and end tables to the desired dimensions and had them hand-fabricated by Glen Armand in Alexandria. When he couldn’t find a dining table with an inward swooping base that comfortably allows for leg room, he designed one and had it made.
Finding inspiration
Various inspirations were put to work in different rooms. The starting point for the “Peacock Room,” which has the feel of a cozy hotel bar, was the sage green tufted sofa he already owned and the sumptuous art deco peacock wallpaper he found after ordering some 50 wallpaper samples.
Chinoiserie-inspired panels Sadlier designed to hide the television and club chairs with soft, curved lines add to the 1920s atmosphere.
A British Pub aesthetic and the Bar Marilou in the Warehouse District provided the impetus for the “sexy, masculine” vibe in the red billiard room on the ground floor.
Sadlier carried design elements from room to room to create a continuity among the spaces. The iron base of the cocktail table in the Peacock Room relates to the view of the courtyard just outside, for example. The marble used for the tabletop is repeated in the counter of the wet bar at one end of the room and in the fireplace surround in the adjacent billiard room.
Sadlier, whose appreciation for art is evident, frequents museums and galleries and hones his eye reading design books. The town house displays his fondness of both art deco and art nouveau furnishings. He’s begun to develop a taste for Renaissance design as well.
All of the spaces are outfitted with custom silk draperies, fine rugs and thoughtfully selected art.
“It’s all about the layering,” Sadlier said.
His art is mostly contemporary, including photos of Andy Warhol’s belongings by photographer David Gamble, who is a French Quarter neighbor, and paintings by David Gamble and Cuban born artist Piki Mendizabal. The dining room holds a belle epoque-era photograph of Sadlier’s great-grandmother, who was close to her famous regal cousin and is very much a conversation piece in the house, where Sadlier regularly entertains.
The renovation received an award for Excellence in Historic Preservation from the Louisiana Landmarks Society in 2017.
“I couldn’t not do it right,” said Sadlier, who added that he's helping ensure the future of the city by investing in its past. “You can’t over-invest in your home.
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