Crafting a functional, attractive home for a family is a tall order for any architect. And when that family is your own'including your wife and two children (ages nine and six)'the challenge only grows. That’s what New Orleans'based architect Steve Dumez, a partner of design studio Eskew+Dumez+ Ripple, learned when he embarked on a nine-month renovation of the family’s 3,800-square-foot, two-story home in the Big Easy. “We knew we wanted to modify the way the spaces related to one another and open things up more,” says Dumez of the house, built circa 1920 in the Uptown neighborhood. The family had fallen in love with the seamless living afforded them by their old home, a loft apartment with an open floor plan. “The loft had a casual feel that we wanted to replicate in the house,” he says.

To begin, Dumez removed several of the house’s interior walls to create a series of contiguous living spaces on the ground floor. A sitting nook opposite the kitchen island, carved from a space beneath the stair, allows for the occasional spectator. “And by pushing that wall under the stair, you capture space for the master closet,” says Dumez. The newly open kitchen is organized around that central island of white statuary marble. Stainless steel appliances and other kitchen accouterments sit in a niche carved into the opposite wall, to maximize floor space and let the kids move freely through the area.