A Long Distance Romance

It’s somewhat unusual to buy a house without ever seeing it, as christy redican and her husband, cardiologist Fran Redican, did when they purchased their historic home in Fox Chapel 16 years ago. They were moving to Pittsburgh for his new position at Allegheny General Hospital and shopping long-distance from New Hampshire.

“We were used to New England where there is beautiful, unique architecture, and I was looking at ‘Brady Bunch’ houses. I thought if I had too much to drink one night, I wouldn’t be able to tell my house from the others! Then my daughter found this one on the internet. We bought it sight unseen because I couldn’t make one more trip to Pittsburgh,” she says.

Fair enough. But then she did something truly astonishing.

“We never saw the house until we pulled up in the moving truck, so I designed the entire home from a floor plan before we moved in.”

Redican did have an edge. She is an interior designer whose firm, First Street Design, specializes in residential work. She also grew up in the business in Greenwich, Connecticut, where her late mother owned a successful design company named Davenport.

“It was a pretty big business, and I would work for her on-and-off over the years. I would work for her out of default when I came home for spring or summer breaks because it was easy and a lot of my friends worked there and it was fun. But I never envisioned being a designer because I didn’t want to do exactly what my mom did.”

Still, she fell into decorating over the years because it was something she could do with two young children and from anywhere — the family moved around after Fran was accepted into medical school. People would ask for her help when they saw her home, and she began to give it. Initially she used the resources of her mother’s business, but when she moved to Pittsburgh, she partnered with Shelley McIlroy. The two women named their business after the street where they were located in Aspinwall, and when McIlroy started her own firm, Redican continued on her own.

“When I first came to Pittsburgh, everything was fuddy-duddy and old school, dark green dens, ornate gold. It was kind of nice to bring things from Connecticut and New York that people here hadn’t seen.”

Redican describes her style as traditional with a flair, not modern, but not formal either. “I’m more current,” she notes. And one of her biggest strengths as a designer is being able to work with a budget.

“I know when to spend money and when not to spend money. I love challenges. When somebody says this is my budget, I can usually do it. After all the years struggling as a medical student’s wife, I learned to be budget-conscious! I’m not afraid to source things, find random pieces of furniture that can be painted, use what people have.

“I always find it interesting when people say, ‘My husband doesn’t want me to hire a decorator because it’s so expensive,’ but in reality you can avoid so many mistakes if you do it right from the beginning. And the prices are so transparent because everything’s on the internet — you’re just paying for the hours.”

Redican’s own house is a case in point. It was built 102 years ago and the owner spent a decade collecting the different woods that were used. American and wormy chestnuts, assorted oaks, tiger’s eye maple, cherry, and elm. The Tudor style, and especially the porte cochere, strongly resemble Long Vue Country Club and also may be a Brandon Smith, though there is no confirmation of that. The original leaded-glass windows and terra-cotta roof remain intact, a testament to the superb quality of the construction.

When the couple bought the home, the beamed ceilings were in stark contrast to the white that every room was painted. Redican’s task was to create a décor that reflected the home’s age and character. Luckily, she had inherited a collection of antiques from her grandmother and mother, who had traveled the world collecting them.

“What immediately struck me was the uniqueness of the windows. The house is a very specific design and I had all these beautiful antiques that happened to work out in an old Tudor home. My furniture did marry my house in many ways. But I don’t necessarily decorate in that style. Most of the houses I decorate aren’t this fussy.”

The first order of business was laying the foundation for the furnishings. Ceilings were painted between the beams, brick around the fireplaces was replaced with slate, antique light fixtures were added, and richly-patterned wall coverings were installed. A new wall of shelves in the dining room now houses a collection of Delft porcelain, and Fran’s office is lined in bookcases lacquered in a favorite shade of Fine Paints of Europe blue. The kitchen and master bath were totally redone — remarkable because, “This was before all the technology we have today so I did it using floor plans and hand-drawings.” And then all the inherited furniture was reupholstered, often with fabrics that give the rooms a “pop” of the unexpected.

The end result is a home with warmth and charm that seamlessly blends the old with the new. It’s also a showcase for Redican’s high-low approach to design, whether for herself or others. Splurges on some things are balanced by simple solutions to others.

“I just enjoy pulling rooms together and helping people out. To me, using a decorator is a savings, not a big expenditure. The client gets a lot more than I do. You have to be passionate about this industry.”