Bendel Gardens Ranch Gets Restorative Renovation

Designer Collette Prudhomme Cosminski and builder Ryan Baldridge of Provence Homes worked with natural materials for the renovation. The kitchen’s custom walnut cabinetry warms up hard finishes like the quartz countertops and hand-painted, hand-fired ceramic tile backsplash.

In 2021, Collette Prudhomme Cosminski’s interest was piqued when she spied a listing for a midcentury modern home for sale in Lafayette’s Bendel Gardens neighborhood. “I was flipping through the pictures [and thought], oh, my gosh, that’s going to be a great renovation. I would love to be part of that,” said Cosminski, an architect, interior designer and assistant professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette School of Architecture and Design. Soon after, Cosminski received an email from the home’s new owner seeking her design expertise with the project, which would take approximately a year to complete.

The circa 1960s home was designed by the late architect David L. Perkins, an associate professor of architecture at Southwestern Louisiana Industrial Institute, or what is now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, said to be instrumental in beginning the architectural department at the school. Perkins designed several homes in the tony Bendel Gardens neighborhood. Dated contemporary-style finishes (think brown and gray speckled granite countertops and brushed cream beige mosaic bathroom tile), rotted wood, an original aggregate roof beyond saving and inefficient hand-crank, louvered windows, coupled with the homeowner’s desire for a more open floorplan called for taking it down to the studs.

“The owner was fearless,” said Cosminski. “She took on way more than I think anybody else would have with the renovation. You had to have a creative eye to see past what it was at the time.”

Cosminski worked with builder Ryan Baldridge of Provence Homes. While the renovation can’t be considered a true restoration, the team was attentive to the tenets of midcentury modern design, especially keeping clean lines, using natural materials, favoring open floor plans and integrating the home with nature. The result is a serene, high-function space with enviable bayou views, custom millwork highlighting the architecture and playful details. But there were a lot of challenges to overcome to achieve the owner’s vision of staying true to the architecture.

“The houses that we have to get creative to find ways to get everything to work properly are usually the ones that we have the most pride in and love for,” said Baldridge. “We all put a lot of love and sweat into this one. Getting it right. So it’s one of those projects.”

One of the biggest technical challenges was how to hang lighting. The home was designed with no space or material between the interior tongue and groove wood ceiling and the exterior aggregate roof (also known as tar and gravel). To solve the problem, Baldridge and his team ran the wiring on top of the roof, which was ultimately replaced with painted metal. The process involved special wiring and layers of waterproofing with specialty tape, foam and wood. “It was another structurally hard thing to do because we had to know the exact locations of these lights because there was no moving them,” said Baldridge.

The three-bedroom home gained space without an addition by enclosing half of the two-car carport to create a mudroom. As much as Cosminski and Baldridge’s plan included adding walls, removing them (as well as a half-bath and closet separating the original gallery kitchen and sunken living room) was essential to open the layout and maximize the floor-to-ceiling views in the back of the house. With the owner’s love of cooking in mind, Cosminski designed a jewel box of a kitchen featuring quartz countertops, a blue-toned backsplash with hand-fired, hand-painted ceramic tile, Thermador appliances and showstopping custom walnut cabinetry. White oak stairs lead to the living room and the material is repeated to cover the area behind the treads. The home’s low-slung, sloping roofline is played up in the great room by stained pine that extends to an exterior overhang, connecting the space with the outdoors.

“It’s a sanctuary, and very calming,” says Cosminski. “Like a treehouse.”