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Tylar (Sutton) Calhoun
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Tylar (Sutton) Calhoun
Cheryl and Jim Nilsen, who met in the second grade at Bath Elementary School when they were 8 years old, got married in college. The retired couple celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last year and finally found their forever home in a quiet Fairlawn neighborhood in 2019.
The West Akron house they lived in for 34 years and raised four children in was too big for them. “It was a great house to raise kids, but then we decided to downsize,” says Jim.
The 1967-built ranch that they bought has great bones in terms of layout and structure, says Jim. Thankfully, the previous owner changed the closed layout. “He had opened up a lot of the walls that you traditionally find in an older ranch home," says Jim. "It was pretty open between the kitchen, dining room and living room,” Jim says. “That made it a nice space to work with.”
In the 3 1/2 years Jim and Cheryl have lived in the ranch, the couple has more than made the house their own. Jim did many of the renovations himself under the direction of his wife.
“We have a rule. The outside is his and the inside is mine,” Cheryl says. “We have this collaboration with each other that we can see the vision.”
Coming from a condo before this home, Jim was excited to have a yard of his own. He pushed out the 4-foot front porch another 4 feet “to create a more usable space” and added a sandstone-capped knee wall. White rockers with neutral cushions and bright patterned pillows fill the porch.
“[We] sit there in the morning and watch the sun go up and also in the evening,” says Jim, “we sit and watch people go by, talk to them.”
Jim recalls the house had “zero landscaping” when they moved in. “We had no lawn, a plethora of weeds,” he says. The couple added a new lawn and over 300 plants, trees and shrubs. “It’s pretty nice now,” Jim remarks. They got a back paver patio installed, put out a metal dining set and added a firepit circle with metal seating.
Tylar (Sutton) Calhoun
Tylar (Sutton) Calhoun
Tylar (Sutton) Calhoun
Tylar (Sutton) Calhoun
Tylar (Sutton) Calhoun
Tylar (Sutton) Calhoun
In the kitchen, Jim swapped in new mission-style cabinet doors and drawer fronts with new hardware. On the back of the house, they added a large room where there had been a screened-in porch. Jim redid the whole 17-by-14-foot space himself, installing all new windows and doors and a gorgeous knotty pine on the walls. “This is what we call the lodge,” he says.
They built out the basement with an office, half-bath and common area where Cheryl practices yoga and plays with their two grandchildren. In the half-bath, Cheryl’s bold style sings with patterns and color. Vivid flowery paper covers three walls while one wall has a contrasting vertical white subway tile.
“I am the decorator, and he knows what I like — very eclectic,” she says. “I love colors. I love animal prints. I love black and white.”
More vibrant wallpaper is seen throughout the house, and some of it is from the Akron-based Wallpaper Lady. While the various patterns add a plethora of textures, her designs are intentional and tailored down to every detail. In the living room, she used a family gift to inform her design.
“I based the living room on a quilt that my mother-in-law made for my 55th birthday. It’s bright colors,” she says. “It opens the living space. Colors make me happy.”
A black paper with white flowers from Anthropologie covers one wall. White sofas offset that and throw pillows match the quilt. Zebra print chairs and a rug add more bold contrast.
A table is topped with cobalt and white Chinoiserie ceramic vases — and more matching ceramics are found throughout the house. Artwork by Itzchak Tarkay, an Israeli painter, hangs over a couch and several more of his pieces adorn other rooms.
Cheryl incorporated her husband’s Norwegian heritage into the dining area where they entertain family. “The wallpaper on the back wall of the dining area is a Norwegian design,” she says. “I wanted a little bit of a Nordic flair in there because of the color.” They painted the dining room chairs in pairs in matching pairs of green, blue, gold and tangerine and left two Windsor chairs natural wood. On a small wall between the kitchen and dining area, Cheryl painted a side table green to match both rooms and left a black-and-white checkered pattern on the front drawer.
Tylar (Sutton) Calhoun
Tylar (Sutton) Calhoun
Tylar (Sutton) Calhoun
Tylar (Sutton) Calhoun
Tylar (Sutton) Calhoun
Tylar (Sutton) Calhoun
It’s accented by a photograph their daughter took in Paris. More of those photos are in the den that has a fireplace and black-and-white checked chair and ottoman.
One of the stipulations when they moved in was to build Cheryl a walk-in closet. But there were only three small bedrooms. “I told Jim that the third bedroom was going to be my walk-in closet,” Cheryl says. “Jim sketched out how to do it.” He added wire shelving that could be removed by the next owner. Cheryl decorated it with a blue-and-yellow floral wallpaper, birdcages with plants, a Tarkay artwork, a cream-and-brown zebra print rug and a throw pillow on a yellow bench matching the wallpaper.
When the couple tells friends about how much work they’ve done to their home, the initial reaction is usually, Why didn’t you build a new house instead? “It’s the location and size,” Cheryl explains. “It’s just the whole feel and atmosphere of the neighborhood. And the house that we saw with respect to its layout had terrific potential.”
See the results of their work on the virtual Bath Volunteers for Service Distinctive Homes Tour June 1 to 11.
Cheryl and Jim’s vision made their house a perfectly tailored home as their long love story continues. “We did the big house. We did the condo,” says Cheryl. “We just wanted a forever home that was just for us.”
