Elegance and Energy: A Well-Balanced Lakestone Abode

Elizabeth Cooke enlisted the Fleur team to outfit her family’s 1960s home with bold design, playful patterns and functional living spaces
by Hampton Williams Hofer | photography by Catherine Nguyen

In Elizabeth and Matthew Cooke’s home, livable elegance supports busy lives, with two active boys and two puppies at their heels. The family room’s blue-daisy walls have borne witness to book clubs and late-night discos, karaoke sessions and intimate family gatherings. Their home’s as lively as the tortoiseshell ceiling in the bar but as timeless as the teacups in the mahogany china cabinet in the dining room.

The Cookes are the fourth owners of this custom-built, traditional 1962 brick home, situated on nearly an acre in the Lakestone neighborhood. Designed by Raleigh architect Arthur McKimmon — known for the Angus Barn and Martin Middle School, among many local landmarks — the house melds practicality with beauty. Although the Cookes renovated the kitchen, mudroom and back patio in 2021, they ensured that the home’s facade remained unchanged. The classic floor plan now includes formal spaces as well as an open kitchen and den.

When it came to decorating, Elizabeth enlisted the help of the team at Fleur, a North Hills clothing boutique that recently expanded its offerings to include home design. A longtime friend of owners Eliza Stoecker, Louise Stowe and Christina Allen, Elizabeth trusted they would capture her sense of style within her home. “I always felt understood by them,” Elizabeth says, noting the owners will often call when a dress comes in that’s just her. “They took what I cared about in fashion and translated it into my home.”

High-gloss paint punctuates the walls in the dining room and study, as well as the beams in the family room, with a glamour that tempers the traditional wainscotting and heirloom furniture. A showstopping bar nods to the Cookes’ affinity for entertaining, along with the circular dining room table. This was the first “real” piece of furniture Elizabeth ever bought, found at Bulluck Furniture in her hometown of Rocky Mount. “I always wanted a round table — it offers a sense of connection that puts people at ease,” says Elizabeth. The Fleur team incorporated inviting layers of color, pattern and textures, often informed by the Cookes’ art collection. “Elizabeth has always had an elevated sense of style,” says Stoecker. “Her fabulous eye for art represents her elegance and taste.”

As for Matthew, he trusted the vision. “I only want to deviate from my lane when I’m confident I can add value,” he says, “so I left decorating in Elizabeth’s capable hands, along with the ladies at Fleur.”Matthew’s favorite space is the covered back patio, where a wood-burning fireplace sits beneath the TV, with grills nearby and a sweeping backyard ripe for wiffleball games. It is home to their cherished annual Thanksgiving Eve oyster roast and to normal Sunday afternoons. “One day this past fall, my boys and I cooked hot dogs and wings, watching the NFL and throwing the football in the grass, just the three of us,” Matthew recalls. “Toward the end of the day, my youngest asked if we could do this every Sunday. And for the whole fall, we pretty much did.”

The natural flow of rooms in the house lends itself to entertaining and fellowship, but it also allows for necessary retreat. “We don’t have a playroom,” Elizabeth notes, “and there was no way to add it in while maintaining the architectural beauty of the house, so our kids live downstairs, and they’re with us a lot.” Her 10-year-old son says this suits him just fine. While he appreciates the home that he calls “fancy, colorful and cozy inside,” he echoes his father’s favoritism for the patio: “You’re sort of outside and sort of inside. It’s the best because there are heaters and you can always sneak in a game of catch in the yard.”

For Elizabeth, serenity lies in the painted cypress-paneled library, functionally her study and office, where the loaded bookcases parade the spines of an ardent reader (as a writer and former high school English teacher, her library brims with well-loved classics and contemporary Pulitzer winners alike). At her desk is a shell-backed armchair upholstered in green dotted fabric, and behind it are portraits of Ernest Hemingway and Joan Didion.

All of the art in the home is layered with personal meaning. One painting hanging in the bar, a colorful urban cityscape, is the work of local artist Luke Buchanan, whom Elizabeth and Matthew befriended when he worked as a bartender at their go-to, Poole’s Diner. On the shelves in the family room and living room are painted ceramic figures, called Souls, crafted by Asheville sculptor Cassie Butcher. These glazed human forms are stripped of detail, with a simplicity that emphasizes unity, as Butcher sought to represent the commonality in all people.

A gallery of family photos lines both sides of the hallway to the master bedroom. In the family room wall, nestled between portraits of David Bowie and Stevie Nicks, is a portrait of Murphy, a beloved lost pup, painted by friend and local artist Steve Darnell. Of all the art in the home, the Cookes’ 12-year-old son pinpoints this as his favorite.

While thoughtfully designed and decorated, this house is fully lived in: the bold blue stools in the kitchen are no strangers to a little cheeseburger grease, and the dogs have chewed on the caning of a wicker bench. But in the Cooke family’s home, it all blends right in with the vibrancy that reflects their dynamic lives.