Dr. William (Bill) Knopf, an interventional cardiologist and chief operating officer of Piedmont Heart Institute, and his wife, Toni, first met at a charity event in 2001. The couple married in 2005, and they recently renovated their home to reflect their modern, yet traditional lifestyle. “We are a modern couple, but we are very traditional people,” Toni says. “[Our home] is sort of the center–the meeting place for our family and friends. We entertain almost every weekend, and we have an open-door policy where people come over on Sundays.”

According to Toni, owner and president of a marketing and event-planning company called Moceri Event Management, the couple’s home was built in 1912. While previous renovations were completed in 1995, 1999, 2004 and 2006, the Knopfs decided to improve upon several elements with a recent renovation that was completed in April. For starters, they hired architect Chip Murrah to design an 1,800-square-foot addition to increase the total space to 6,000 square feet. However, they were intent on the new space maintaining consistency with other historic architectural details throughout the home so it didn’t look like an addition. So they turned to Randy Glazer, president of Glazer Design & Construction, to build the new space.

“The part that we enjoy most on renovating a historic home is trying to match details, including old wood trim on doors, windows and crown moldings to the exact profile of the time that the original home was built,” Glazer says. The challenge with the Knopfs’ home was matching the original Southern yellow heart pine flooring on the main level that was reclaimed from an old barn. “We [found] wood from a barn that was built in the same period and was torn down,” Glazer adds. “We sanded and finished these hardwood floors, helping to make the addition match the existing house.”

As part of the renovation, Bill and Toni decided to open up the front hall entrance to create a more welcoming space while connecting the original portion of the home with the addition. They also added a bonus room upstairs and installed an elevator to make getting around the three-story home a bit easier. In order to complete this part of the renovation, Glazer created a new space for the elevator shaft to fit between the older home and the new addition. “It fits perfectly and feels like it was there all along,” he says.

While the couple did not necessarily need more space, they did want to update their home and improve the flow in case they ever decide to sell. In keeping with this goal, they added a master suite on the main level that features 12-foot, triple tray ceilings and a master bath with separate his and her entrances. The Knopfs also decided to add a new three-car garage so the existing garage space could be used as a media/cigar room. By including this additional space, the outdoor living space now easily transitions to the 720-square-foot media room and the 4,000-bottle capacity wine cellar beyond–creating a sort of entertainment complex. In addition to professional landscaping and a pristine pool, the 600-square-foot outdoor living space also features a fireplace, making the Knopfs’ home perfect for entertaining, even in the winter. “We usually have a holiday party in December, and we have had 250 people fit comfortably here,” Toni says.

While Toni did a lot of the interior design herself, she also turned to Elizabeth Brennan Designs Inc. to help with some design selections. “I picked out the color scheme, which really was rust-colored tones in the media room, and green and blue in the master bedroom, but Beth found the fabrics for the draperies,” Toni says.

While the Knopfs’ six-bedroom home was featured in the 2003 Annual Historic Brookhaven Tour of Homes & Gardens, the new addition and subsequent renovations have made this home even more beautiful. As such, it further adds to the preservation of historic Brookhaven and Atlanta’s architectural history as a whole. The home also seems to have a gracious Southern charm of its own. “It’s very unassuming from the front, and people don’t realize how large it is,” Toni says.