A Place in Oxford

Story by Terri Glazer | Design by Jennifer Russell Interiors | Photography by Lindsey Meisenheimer Photography

A lifelong connection to a place can be a powerful thing. Powerful enough to draw a person back after years away and a career that has included travels far and wide. It was that type of connection that brought artist Ariel Baron-Robbins home to Oxford, Mississippi, and prompted the renovation of a house there into the perfect backdrop for her work.

Baron-Robbins grew up outside Oxford, the daughter of Paula Temple, an art professor at Ole Miss and a renowned Mid South artist, and Adrian Baron-Robbins, an architect and musician. When her parents moved away several years ago she and her husband, Isaac Lapciuc, bought the house where Ariel grew up, looking forward to having it as a second home in addition to their primary residence in Miami. The home’s seven-acre setting eventually proved to be more than they wanted to keep up, and its rural location was far from the amenities for which the quaint college town is known. She recalls, “We really wanted a weekend house we could drive to from the Memphis airport, and then walk around the square and do all Oxford has to do.”

They soon sold the childhood home and went on the hunt for a weekend place that would better suit their needs. “So we set out to buy another house in town and walking distance from the square. We wanted something that we didn't have to do a ton of maintenance on since we weren't going to spend a majority of our time there. But we also wanted something that had a little bit of that country feel that we really enjoyed about my parents’ house. And so this property was just perfect. We fell completely in love with it.”

At that point in the conversation Ariel pauses, then admits, “We fell more in love with the backyard than we did the actual house.” The location was exactly what they wanted; squarely in town yet with a secluded feel in the back thanks to its location adjacent to the wooded grounds of the L. Q. C. Lamar House Museum. 

“We always kind of felt like the house really didn’t suit us, so right at the start of the pandemic we took on a project to completely gut the house and renovate it,” she says. Citing what she calls her “bohemian” background as the child of an artist/art professor and an architect/musician, Baron-Robbins admits that her criteria for finding a team to steer the project may have been different than most potential clients. “I wanted to find people who would try to give us something that was fresh and contemporary while also not being so fresh and contemporary that it wouldn’t fit or it would be uncomfortable or just too out there. We wanted something that was going to push the boundary, but not not go beyond it.”

She signed on with Oxford-based designer Jennifer Russell, who brought contractor Bruce Massey on board to oversee the ambitious construction project..

Russell can attest to her clients’ outside-the-box aesthetic. “One of the things that Ariel and I discussed was not using the color palette of blues, gold and white, which is such a popular design trend in our area. As a designer my main goal is to listen to my clients’ needs within their home and learn their style.

The project encompassed almost every part of the house, starting with a complete redo of the downstairs. One of the main reasons the couple wanted a place in Oxford was so they could host Baron-Robbins’ many lifelong friends who still live in the area, so an open entertaining space was a must. To achieve that goal, the new floor plan includes two sitting rooms; one in front of and one behind an enormous open kitchen. Another important objective of the renovation was to showcase works created by the mother and daughter artists in the family. Along with many of her own creations, Baron-Robbins specifically selected pieces from Temple’s large body of work to match the renovated design and had them shipped from France to her Oxford home.

Russell kept the new color palette light and neutral to give the family’s art a place to shine. Neutral, but with plenty of interest. Just inside the front door, the living room is a bold, geometrical statement. The vaulted ceiling soars, punctuated by a light fixture with an imaginative design well suited to an artist’s home. Russell spotted the Hubbardton Forge chandelier in a High Point, North Carolina, showroom and knew it would be perfect. The fixture’s grouping of orbs balances the straight lines and right angles of the dramatic black stone fireplace and the contemporary furnishings in the room.

The kitchen blends form and function seamlessly. Anchoring the space is a pair of twin islands: one has seating for six in handsome black barstools by Holly Hunt, and the other houses storage, a sink, dishwasher and microwave. Both are topped with spectacular quartzite in a waterfall treatment that extends from the floor, across the top and all the way down the other side. The same stone is repeated on the backsplashes behind the cooktop and in the beverage area. White custom cabinetry keeps the mood light and airy, while dark wood ceiling beams bring an element of warmth.

Those beams extend into the second seating area in the rear of the home, a comfortable spot for the couple to sit and watch TV. Designed in keeping with the rest of the house, this is no ordinary media room. Because the owners didn’t want the TV to be visible when not in use, Russell had to come up with a creative way for it to be there without being there. She engaged Allen Jones, owner of The Wood Shed by JJ in Oxford, who crafted a custom cabinet that raises and lowers the TV via remote control. 

At the rear of the sitting room a wall of glass doors can slide completely open. They allow access to the home’s newly enlarged back porch and facilitate the kind of indoor/outdoor gatherings the couple is unable to host in Miami due to year-round hot temperatures. “They enjoy being outside here when the weather is nice—really experiencing the seasons you don’t get in south Florida,” says Russell. 

Baron-Robbins loves the secluded feel of the porch. “When you’re out there, it's like you're in the country. It's not like you're in the middle of downtown Oxford. And you are! It's just glorious.”

To accommodate the revised layout of the downstairs, the primary bedroom, bath and closets were relocated to the second floor. Formerly a bonus room with a vaulted ceiling and an Ole Miss mural, the new suite exudes calm elegance, in keeping with the couple’s minimalist lifestyle. A wall of windows opposite the bed offers a stunning view of the mature trees behind the property. 

An artistic home calls for artistic surroundings and this is no exception. The redesigned pool and landscaping were inspired by Lapciuc’s travels to Lake Como, Italy. Bluestone squares with green borders give the area a luxury feel; water features in the revamped pool maximize the wow factor.

The allure of a charming and beloved town may be what initially drew this couple to have a weekend place in Oxford, but a house that is completely renovated to reflect their life and to be a home for the family’s art will keep them returning there for years to come.