Charles and Karen Woodard decided it was time to leave their 5500-square foot house on the River. The land had been in the family for over 100 years. Now “home” is a charming 2,800-square-foot, three-bedroom, three-bath, raised center hall cottage in Terre Sainte, a Lake Charles development off Sallier Street.

They couldn’t be happier with the new place and credit “the best team they could get” for making the process, down to the smallest detail, fun.

“The place on the river really was a beautiful piece of property, one of the prettiest in Lake Charles,” Karen Woodard said. “We loved it, but our bodies didn’t love it anymore.”

They didn’t want yard work. What they did want, according to Charles Woodard, was a historical “cottage like the ones in the New Orleans upper garden district that had been restored by a couple of yuppies.”

The first team member they settled on was Jen Inman, a New Orleans architect who lives in Lake Charles. Her husband, Kenny, was the contractor. Chelsea Brennan, Brennan Interiors, spearheaded the design and decorating process from the ground up, communicating with Charles and Karen, on every detail — form and function — from antique doors to custom window coverings, the finish of a mirror when contrasted with the sink faucet finish, and even the custom lighting.

“We took our time,” Karen said, “and it wasn’t difficult.” It wasn’t difficult because the team was so smart, so talented. I can’t sing their praises enough.”

The most significant challenge was the downsize from 5500-square-feet to 2,800. “Without Chelsea, I don’t think we could have done it,” Karen said. “She helped me visualize exactly where everything would go and how it would look.

“I am not good at visualizing, but I am very good with details,” Karen said. “The details do matter from the hardware to a single piece of fabric or the trim on a window covering.”

They didn’t give Brennan carte blanche, but close. The style of the interior is best described as eclectic. Metals are mixed. Textures are varied. A smattering of quality and subtle wallpaper patterns add just the right amount of pleasant surprise to rooms. Each room has a touch of black, a unifying factor, according to Karen.  Antiques are at home with modern, streamlined seating. The Woodard house feels large, airy and spacious, thanks to the center hall design, the natural light streaming in from the abundance of large energy-efficient windows, 10-foot ceilings and mostly white walls and ceilings.

“The first thing we purchased, before the house was even framed up, was the pocket door,” Karen said. She tilted her chin toward the six-and-a-half foot opening between the kitchen and living/ dining area. The pocket door takes up no room, and creates no awkward angles when opened.

The white walls are the perfect backdrop for the Woodard’s exceptional collection of art, vintage posters, antique documents and maps and precision-perfect pen-and-ink drawings by the late Pat Gallagher, a well-known Lake Charles architect.

The most bold framed art in the Woodard home is the Clementine Hunter series — made all the more eye-catching hung four deep as opposed to the usual two and two arrangement — an Eddie Morman painting and an abstract from a very big talent.

Hunter (1886-1988) was a self-taught folk artist from the Cane River region who would paint in her primitive style only the world she knew, on anything she could get her hands on. The “Woodard’s Baptism,” “Wedding,” “Reception” and “Funeral” paintings signed with the backward “C and H” monogram are behind glass as they are painted on sheetrock.

“Charles was wise enough to purchase those in 1967,” Karen said. He would have been off to LSU that year.

Eddie Morman is a color blind Lake Charles artist who uses a palette knife to apply thick swaths of oil paint, almost to the thickness of a cake frosting, to create Southwest Louisiana scenes. The Woodards purchased the large square canvas completely filled by a single shrimp at a fundraiser.

At the end of the hall, the hall where the black silhouettes of grandchildren and photographs of stern-faced Fitzenreiter and Goos ancestors grace the hall, is an abstract painting consisting of loose thick black ovals filled in with color. It’s not signed.

“I found out about these elephants in Thailand that paint,” Karen said. “That’s one of their paintings and the elephant’s name is on the back. I think it’s Vesia.”

On a table below is a drawing by one of the grandchildren. It’s on cardboard. A chicken butt, that’s what.

“There were only two antiques that we were determined to keep,” Karen said. “One is the five-leg dining table.”

“It was a wedding present to my great-grandmother in 1903,” Charles added.

It is a wonder any of the Woodards favorite furnishings, antiques and artwork from the river house made it to its new home at all.   

“We had moved all of our things into a storage center and warehouse,” Karen said, “and we were renting a house while this one was being built. As soon as it was finished enough, we moved everything here.”

Two weeks before they were to move into their new digs came the Hurricane Laura warning. They evacuated. The storage facility and the warehouse where their things had been stored were demolished. The house received minimal damage.

“At first I was upset because the scheduling and the damage, although minor, upset the applecart. In hindsight, I see how truly blessed we were.”

The Woodards could have purchased a lot almost anywhere in Lake Charles, but Karen was very drawn to the idea of living on “Holy Ground,” which is the meaning of Terre Saint, the neighborhood named by students of Immaculate Conception Cathedral School. They appreciate being surrounded by younger families, and the noise of children playing and laughing.

“We love it, but we couldn’t have done it without the team,” Karen said. “I think what I learned from Chelsea is that it’s OK to do something different,” Charles added.

And they did, enjoying the process that helped make their house a home.