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PrintDesigner Kirk Holt's dream home
Homeowner and designer Kirk Holt combines old-world aesthetics with contemporary flair in his midtown home.
What started as a simple sketch on the back of a piece of paper has manifested into a warm, contemporary and tranquil retreat for homeowner and designer Kirk Holt.
“When I come home so stressed, I just walk through the door and it’s like I can breathe again,” says Holt of his traditional-yet-contemporary home, which he built and designed with partner Robert Cisar. Holt and Cisar, who passed away in 2006 in the middle of construction, founded their interior design business, Cisar-Holt, 23 years ago.
The home is in the Tudors II development, located across the street from Harwelden, the 1920s collegiate English Gothic Tudor mansion home to the Arts & Humanities Council of Tulsa.
The home’s exterior reflects the mansion’s aesthetic, but the couple were able to incorporate their own ideas and style into the interior layout and design. Designing the home provided Holt with an opportunity to put in some amenities just for Sadie, his Cavalier King Charles spaniel.
“It’s not my house; it’s hers,” he says with a laugh.
Holt wanted to stay in the midtown area — all his previous homes were 1920s and ’30s cottages in the Florence Park neighborhood — but did have some requirements before he moved.
“I didn’t want to move until I had a view,” he says. 
While on a home tour in December 2004, he found the Tudors and the lot on which he and Cisar would build. While it is the lot closest to Riverside Drive, he said he did not consider noise to be a concern.
“It’s almost like waves … cars go by, but it’s not constant,” he says.
Holt installed Pella Architect Series windows and doors throughout the house to cut down on any noise pollution from the busy thoroughfare.
With a view to the west, Holt decided to incorporate a pool into his outdoor living space and looked to landscape architect Clare Ashby, of Clare Ashby ASLA Landscape Architect Inc., for a landscape/hardscape plan.
“She knows I like to tweak things, so I played with it and added a few things, subtracted a few things,” he says.
Originally he wanted a traditional pool, but because of certain codes, the pool had to sit farther from the front fence than originally desired.
“Sometimes things that you have to deal with make an interesting design element,” he says, “I love the pool now.”
The final plan created space for a contemporary semi-lap pool, fireplace, sitting area and gardening plots.
Holt says the time of day determines his favorite part of the home. When not relaxing in front of the outdoor fireplace or enjoying the views from his 1,500 square feet of outdoor terraces and patios, he enjoys his 4,200 square feet of interior space.
The home opens to an entryway, leading into the impressive great room.
“The great room is actually an enlarged version of our Florence Park living room,” Holt says.
The room’s focal point is the antique English mantel the couple found in North Carolina and restored in Tulsa at the Chelsea Gallery. Originally, the mantel included an upper portion, which Holt decided to remove to create an entryway table.
The fireplace is equipped with fireballs, a modern-looking alternative to gas logs that adds a contemporary touch to the older piece, melding the two styles into a cohesive look.
Choosing a paint color proved difficult for Holt.
“I knew that I wanted a soft blue-green color and then I knew I was going to paint it throughout the house, so picking the right color was a little unnerving,” he says.
He finally decided on Sherwin-Williams’ conservative gray.
Symmetry is a common theme found throughout the home, something of which Holt and Cisar were both very fond, and which is reflected in the kitchen. 
The disguised refrigerator and pantry system are highlighted with Rocky Mountain Hardware solid-cast bronze door and cabinet pulls used to match the scale of the rest of the house, such as the great room’s 19-foot ceiling. With Calcutta-F marble countertops, the kitchen looks like any cook’s dream, and serves as a perfect gathering spot during parties.
Touches of updated antiques can be seen throughout the house, matched with more contemporary pieces. One of Cisar’s mother’s antique cabinets was restored and converted to a sink cabinet in the hall bathroom and paired with contemporary light fixtures and a Hatbox Kohler toilet. Holt’s personal collection of Architectural Digest magazines dating from 1976 find a home in the sitting room off the master bedroom along with a desk and Richard Dyer iron mantel.
The master bathroom hints at symmetry again with matching sinks and Acacia marble countertops flanking a large Bain ultra-tub and matching doors trimmed in Acacia marble leading to the water closet and shower on the opposite wall.
The same contemporary-yet-traditional style can be found on the second floor. Hardwood floors continue upstairs, where two guest rooms and bathrooms, a media room, small bar area and a collection of terraces complete the home.
The large terrace on the north side of the house includes a knockout view of downtown Tulsa and is the perfect place to watch Fourth of July fireworks on the Arkansas River.
Although Holt is a designer himself, he says that making decisions on his construction and design was just as difficult — if not more — as it is for his clients.
“At some point, you just have to dive in and make a decision on something and keep going from there,” he says. “It’s a living process. You have to pick something and you start going from that.”
