Home of the Month
Can-do couple takes pride in South Buffalo home, surroundings
It is hard to tell what Ed and Cynthia Williams relish more: their house in South Buffalo or their neighborhood. Conversation easily moves from the homemade swags at the dining room windows to the neighborhood ritual of planting flowers on the street’s island.
The cat bed matches the plaid wallpaper in the bedroom, but it’s the friends their golden retriever, Margaret Mary, has made on their walks that Ed Williams enjoys talking about.
Seasonal decorations, including their own outdoor harvest display, are the norm in this neighborhood. Around here, if you’re sick, expect a delivery of soup.
There is no mistaking this pride-in-place spirit as one visits the couple’s home.
They bought the Cape Cod-style house about 16 years ago, not far from where Ed Williams grew up. He wanted to live closer to his parents –Cy Williams, longtime scout for the Detroit Tigers, and his wife, Babe. Both have since passed away.
The house had good bones but needed work. Many projects they tackled themselves. He gardens; she can wield a paintbrush, hang wallpaper and sew.
Cynthia Williams, who is from Angola, felt they needed to get to know the house, so at first they painted walls white –including the lavender ones in the living room.
But with familiarity came color, and soon the living room walls were painted yellow, for about a year. Then red, for four or five years. Then forest green.
Now they are chocolate brown, with a light mocha tint on the ceiling.
“It’s like the froth on a cup of hot chocolate,” she said.
They made other changes, some requiring carpenters or other professionals. They removed the door separating the dining room and kitchen and had the opening widened.
They had a seat-style radiator cover built for the living room, and bookcases with lights and glass shelves to flank it.
The brick fireplace was made over with a new mantelpiece, mantelshelf and marble tile. After the October Surprise storm, they added a gas insert.
When decorating a room, they try to spend less than $500, using paint and fabrics as updates.
Shades of brown are found throughout. The kitchen walls are khaki. In the adjoining dining room, Cynthia Williams painted the walls brown using a sueding technique.
She then added a copper-leaf glaze for depth, experimenting first on a piece of primed scrap wood to see the effect.
She also sewed slipcovers and window treatments. She favors Ralph Lauren patterns and found some remnants locally.
“If you can sew, you can change a room,” she said.
Even when they renovated the kitchen about five years ago, they painted the cabinets oyster white with new bronze hardware, rather than replace them.
The yard also needed much work.
“There was no landscaping whatsoever,” Ed Williams said.
Their garden has come a long way and has been included in South Buffalo Alive’s garden walk.
A white picket fence runs parallel to the front sidewalk, an idea inspired by gardens in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Fence plantings include Shasta daisies, black-eyed Susans, delphiniums and zinnias, with a springtime show of crocuses, tulips and daffodils.
The idea was to create an English-style garden in the front and a tranquility garden in the back, said Ed Williams, senior mortgage consultant with HB&O Funding Co.
He also wanted to avoid the driveway-as-runway look, so he planted tall grasses on one side and hydrangeas on the other.
The backyard, with its three fountains and a garden palette of blue, purple and white, has several sitting areas — including a small courtyard off the first-floor bedroom, where the Williamses enjoy their morning coffee.
“Their back garden in the summer is one of the best on the tour,” said Marge Ryan, president of South Buffalo Alive and tour chairwoman.
“It’s not that big of a yard, but when you get back there, you feel like you’re out in the country. There is so much growing, and everything is so beautifully placed,” she said.
That requires a special knack, she added. Some additional tips:
• Collect ideas from decorating magazines and books, said Cynthia Williams, a retired probation officer who now substitute-teaches. She dressed up a shower curtain by using ribbons to hang it from the rod, instead of conventional hooks — just one idea she adapted from a publication.
• Arrange seasonal decor in just a few places, such as the fireplace mantel, for more impact. Silk materials can be stored away in boxes and brought out again next year.
• When filling window boxes, whether using real summer flowers or silk fall mums, leaves and branches, don’t be spare.
“You have to load them up,” she said.
• Add custom touches to store-bought items. In the family room, she trimmed red window panels from Target with the same plaid fabric she used for the slipcovers.
• Declutter. The kitchen counter tops are clear. The bookshelves are neat. An Amish-crafted coffee table has storage drawers that keep items out of sight. Same with an armoire in the family room and a highboy in the dining room.
“We’re not obsessively tidy, but we like things in their place,” she said.
The blueprint
Comfortable, creative and clutter-free best describes the home of Ed and Cynthia Williams – a 1,600-square-foot Cape Cod-style house in South Buffalo.
The two have combined their talents – he gardens, she sews – to create a welcoming retreat in a neighborhood they love.
Here’s a glance at the house, which was built in the 1920s:
Floor plan: Living room, dining room, kitchen/breakfast area, full bath, master bedroom and family room (former sun room) on the first floor. Guest bedroom, second bedroom used as office, full bath on second floor. Basement with laundry and storage area.
Floors: Hardwood with area rugs; ceramic tile in kitchen, family room, baths.
Walls: Paint, some decorative, in some rooms. Wallcoverings in others, including a red wallpaper with pheasant motif in first-floor bath. Shades of brown throughout.
Window treatments: Swags, balloon shades and other treatments sewn – or embellished – by Cynthia Williams. Some paired with shutters.
Accessories: Framed paintings and prints on walls. Seasonal decorations in select areas, such as mantel.
Some accessories, such as pillows, are changed seasonally, as are the canvas covers on the director’s chairs in the breakfast area. Black in the winter; khaki in the summer.
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