arts&life

at home

DIY Digs

LYNNE KONSTANTIN ARTS & LIFE EDITOR

J

ennifer and Todd Kroll had
lived on an idyllic street in
Birmingham for 17 years
— and their teenage daughters,
Lilley, 16, and Marlee, 14, had
spent their entire lives there.
They loved the area so much
that when the growing family
began to burst out of the closets
of their circa-1950s home, they
called in reinforcement for a
renovation.
“We were going to expand
a bit and add space over the
garage,” Kroll says. “I had the

plans all drawn up.”
Meanwhile, four blocks over,
a brand-new street — still part
of their same neighborhood —
had been cut in, and a couple of
houses had already been built.
“We drove past them every
day,” Kroll says. “Literally, just
after I signed the papers for our
renovation, Todd says, ‘Why
don’t we just take a look at the
lot over there.’”
They looked — and the same
day, Kroll canceled the renova-
tions.

An artist becomes interior designer for

her family’s new home — one of seven

on this year’s Birmingham House Tour.

BRETT MOUNTAIN PHOTOGRAPHER

The plans for the new house
had already been drawn up,
but the couple were still able
to tweak them, customizing
details that they’d always want-
ed, including large closets and
space to display art collections.
Kroll, who is a jewelry design-
er and metalsmith, took on the
interior design of the home. “I’m
super-picky,” Kroll says. “I like
to choose everything — I would
find what I wanted and have it
shipped to the builder. It’s tran-
sitional on the outside, but I call

it ‘industrial farm’ on the inside.
“I’m really good at finding
things,” she says. “And I don’t
like to have someone else do
what I know I can do myself. I’m
sure I would be a pain if I were
working with someone else, but
since it was just me, I was the
only one suffering.”
The family moved into the
home in January 2015 — just
two weeks before Marlee’s bat
mitzvah.
“It’s been said,” Kroll says,
“that I’m a little crazy.” •

ABOVE: “We wanted it to be a little bit edgy, not so bright, with ambience,” Jennifer Kroll says of the dining room. “There’s a poster shop in Maui that Todd and I love —
whenever we go, we put on the white gloves and look through their collection, just to look, because we never had room on our walls in our old house. When we got this
house, I said, ‘Nothing’s going on the walls until we go to that poster shop.’”

jn

September 7 • 2017

41