Home Tour: New Orleans

Handsome Italianate Style

Built at the turn of the 20th century, this handsome New Orleans home had been "modernized" in the 1920s and '30s and stripped of its exterior and interior details. Now, after more than 15 years of renovation and construction work -- and despite Hurricane Katrina -- the home has been thoughtfully returned to its Italianate origins.

Arches once again grace the front of the home, along with a wrought-iron fence and gates. The New Hampshire slate roof was repaired, and the exterior walls stripped of a stucco-and-pebble mixture that had covered the original masonry.

To achieve the circa-1900 look of the original house, homeowners added smooth-stucco columns to the front veranda.