Slideshow: Seibolds update Highland Park home

Wayne and Dawn Marie Seibold have no formal training as home restorers; they just took a whack at it.

They started small, built on skills they already had — she’s artistic, he owns a plumbing company — and took their time.

“We just wanted to see if we could do it,” Mrs. Seibold said.

Now, the Seibolds, who moved to Chattanooga from Portland, Ore., in 2004, are restoring their third home, a 1930s one-and-a-half-story house on Vance Avenue in Highland Park.

“I grew up in old homes,” said Mrs. Seibold, 46. “I feel more comfortable in old houses. We don’t like to come in and gut the whole character out of a house.”

They strove to maintain as much of the original structure as possible while adding touches of contemporary character. The exterior was restored to reveal the original siding beneath cracked layers of paint.

The front porch, Mrs. Seibold’s favorite space, originally was closed in, but they opened it up to take advantage of the warm weather and incorporate into the community.

“There’s a whole front-porch culture here that we really like,” said Mr. Seibold, 52.

They bought dark wood furniture at an auction and reupholstered it in dark leather. A hide-a-bed was removed and refurbished into a loveseat. A bright jade plant contrasts the rich, dark seating. It has been with the Seibolds for nearly 25 years, since soon after they married.

Mrs. Seibold landscaped the front yard and the walkway. This spring she is growing lavender, two kinds of rosemary, miniature holly hedges and monkey grass.

The original coal chute is on the side of the house. When the Seibolds moved in, there were three barrels of coal in the basement that were once used in the old-fashioned coal fireplace in the living room.

Mrs. Seibold brought balance to the dark, masculine house by adding floral wallpaper to the dining-room ceiling, installing colored stained glass, painting the walls a goldenrod color and hanging embroidered lace curtains.

The couple found an Old English carved buffet at an auction and installed it in an alcove in the dining room.

A heavy swinging door leads into the kitchen, where apple-green knobs on the drawers match the wainscoting. The countertops, in brown and cream marble, complement the dark wood cabinetry and the chocolate brown ceiling with floral borders.

The Seibolds make an effort to recycle from the original structure of the house. The wood paneling in the hall bathroom was originally around the coal bins in the basement.

Both the guest and master bedrooms feature original molding. In the master bedroom, the Seibolds removed paneling to reveal bead board and sanded the painted window frames back to their original pine.

In the master bathroom, Mr. Seibold installed a raised bowl sink on an antique desk that Mrs. Seibold found on the street. She incorporated Pratt & Larson tile from Portland where the desk drawer was and on the wall behind the unit.

“It takes a lot of time and patience (to do restorations), but I like the end result,” Mrs. Seibold said.

The upstairs used to be a separate apartment. They installed a marble-walled shower in the space where a separate entrance used to be.

The upper half-story with sloped ceilings was a student apartment when the house was owned by Tennessee Temple University.

Unlike some other restorers, the Seibolds always live in the house they are working on, moving through one room at a time.

They’ve purchased a second house in Chattanooga, just around the corner from their current home, and will begin restoring that one as well. They plan to sell the Vance Avenue house to fund the restoration of the next house, but nothing is written in stone.

“We’re not necessarily redoing a house to sell,” Mrs. Seibold said. “It’s something we would want to live in.”