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An art and architecture buff, Sarina Mohan stumbled in spring of 2021 into a three-bay Craftsman-style center hall cottage with a deep front porch on an oversized lot.
She was charmed by the street, where mature oaks draped their boughs gently over the sidewalk and mature cypress and crape myrtle trees shaded the neutral ground. Tendrils of jasmine beset with tiny flowers wove through the iron fence and up a tall pillar in the front of the home, perfuming the air.
“It was love at first sight,” Mohan said. “I have always dreamed of a center hall cottage, but they were always out of our reach — but this one.”
Daughter Frankie, 7, with parents Chris Blum and Sarina Mohan.
PHOTO BY Jeff Strout
Within weeks, she and her husband, Chris Blum, a technology consultant to the U.S. Navy, were packing up their 1,200-square-foot shotgun single, and their daughter, Frankie, and decamping to the 2,300-square-foot center hall a mile or so away. The home features three bedrooms, three bathrooms and a separate guest cottage they call The Clubhouse.
In decorating the home, Mohan was inspired by the midcentury modern style she favors. The colors are bright, stimulating and friendly. “We keep it casual and not fussy around here,” she said. “We entertain and host guests a lot, we love it! But we want it to be comfortable.”
In the family’s TV room, Sarina Mohan painted a textural pattern on the wall between two windows that are draped in a vibrant floral fabric from Anthropology. The rug was acquired in India on a trip to visit Mohan’s extended family. The walls are painted Citron, the trim Dove White, both by Benjamin Moore.
PHOTO BY Jeff Strout
At the heart of the party
For the next two weekends, most homes in the neighborhood will swell with guests for the 54th annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, just a short walk away at the Fair Grounds Race Course.
The Mohan and Blum home is central to the action.
“The entire neighborhood will be one big party for weeks,” Mohan said. “Both of my sisters and their husbands will be staying with us. My parents will be around … Frankie’s friends and their parents. We all wear matching Bayou Wear shirts and head out as a group.”
Year round, the home is at the center of what has become a real community. When they moved in, the family already had friends in the neighborhood.
A previous homeowner opened the wall between the sunporch and the living room, resulting in a spacious opening dining room with access to both the living room and the kitchen. Mohan recently painted the walls Chic Lime with Everglades trim, both by Benjamin Moore. The casement windows open to the yard under metal awnings. “We love to sit here when it rains,” said Sarina Mohan. “It feels like we are outside.”
PHOTO BY Jeff Strout
Before long, Mohan’s best friend from her childhood in Ridgewood, New Jersey, was buying a house behind them, moving back to New Orleans from Chattanooga, Tennessee.
“We can walk to restaurants, shops, bars, Bayou Road and City Park, and we have excellent public transportation right outside our door,” said Mohan, senior development director of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
“We have all the perks and none of the pain,” said Blum.
Old-style quality
Blooming jasmine forms an arch over the home’s entryway, and a tower of the fragrant flowers stretches skyward to mingle with a mature oak tree.
PHOTO BY Jeff Strout
Built about 1912 for a relative of Robert Maestri, the city’s mayor from 1936 to 1946, the house had seen some action over the years.
During its not-so-long-ago tenure as Jazzy Kutz Salon, its large double parlors had been broken into stylists’ cubicles, but that had been rectified by the time Mohan saw it.
“What struck me about this house was that it had been touched in ways that elevated it — the electrical, some green features — without messing with the footprint. Walls had been added between what had been double parlors instead of going for a wide open floor plan, which we did not want. We did not want a renovated house.”
The immediate needs included a new roof and a new HVAC system. Otherwise, it was ready to go, she said.
“And none of the windows had been replaced. It is so important to us to have original windows, not just for aesthetics, though that’s important also,” she added. “We are very passionate about old-growth wood. It is more resistant to water and termite issues, and we felt like even the windows that don’t work can always be repaired over time. I love the old windows in every room of the house.”
Mohan’s father immigrated to the U.S. from India, and she collects the vibrant block-printed textiles the country is known for. Here, one is pressed into service to turn an island into an impromptu dining table for guests in the family’s spacious kitchen.
PHOTO BY Jeff Strout
Embracing life’s imperfections
“When we moved in, we painted the TV room, the living room, our bedroom and Frankie’s room,” Mohan said. “I recently painted the dining room. That’s it. That’s all we have really done. The kitchen is not great. It’s large, it’s not fussy. It’s fine.”
The Japanese aesthetic concept of wabi-sabi — a philosophy that embraces the beauty of imperfection, impermanence and the natural cycle of life — is a guiding principle in the home. It encourages appreciating existence’s simple, humble and flawed aspects, finding beauty in the worn, aged and understated.
Mohan splurged on dramatic draperies from Anthropology, but otherwise, “pretty much everything in the house was bought second-hand,” she said. “Honestly, except for socks and underwear, every item I have bought in the past two years has been purchased second-hand. I hate waste.
“Our dedication to embracing an anti-consumer lifestyle aligns with our love of old houses. Use things as long as you can, even if they are imperfect. Love the imperfections because they show the life lived and, hopefully, lived well. It is good for the Earth, good for the community and good for your spirit.”
The hallway is a canvas for the artwork of family and friends.
PHOTO BY Jeff Strout
Finding joy at home
When Mohan and Blum were stricken with COVID-19 two years ago and needed to keep their young daughter occupied, they told her she could paint on the white walls in the home’s center hall. “Now, when we get bored, we paint on the walls,” Mohan said.
The result is a whimsical, colorful, ever-evolving mural. “If someone comes over and wants to draw on the walls, I will give them a marker,” Mohan said. “Nothing is permanent. Nothing can’t be undone.
“Nothing in the house feels static. This place is the embodiment of dopamine decor,” she said, referencing the design trend focused on creating spaces that evoke happiness and joy through vibrant colors, playful patterns and a focus on personal pleasure and mood enhancement.
“We want things that are meaningful to us that come together to make a happy place. That’s all.”
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