“My partner, Chapin, and I had been living in Los Angeles, and both of us wanted to get back to the South with its slower pace,” states Laura Kay. “Things here are stuck in time in the finest ways possible,” says Laura.
While they were sold on the city, Laura wasn’t as persuaded when she first saw the 1921 cottage that would become their home. “It is simply too Tudor-y,” she keeps in mind telling the real estate agent. Laura, whose résumé includes stints with designers Bunny Williams, Timothy Corrigan, and Mark D. Sikes, understood that she desired an untouched older home. Digging a little deeper into the property, the couple understood it had a family tie. The home was built by Chapin’s great-great-uncle, Garnet Carter, who was understood for founding the beloved tourist attraction Rock City as well as patenting miniature golf. “It had been out of the household for 60 years, and we were lucky to get it back,” says Chapin.
In defense of Laura’s initial judgment on the home, despite its good bones, it was due for that once-a-century makeover. The yellow outside “needed freshening,” says Laura. The kitchen “had to be gutted,” she keeps in mind. And the large-scale main bed room was “a waste of perfectly functional area,” she includes. Last but not least, Laura desired a place to combine the decorating designs she has cultivated through all of her moves– from California’s “creamy whites” to New York’s “accept of quirks in architecture” to Louisiana’s “traditional Southern design with rooms loaded with valued family hand-me-downs.”
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Host Like Your Grandparents
I desired it to be a little fancy. The antiques give it a gathered personality, but I also made sure to keep it younger with lively prints like Lee Jofa’s Althea Linen and a classic animal print, Brunschwig & Fils’ Les Touches on the drapes, with cool ikat pillows from Etsy,” says Laura, who sculpted out 3 seating groups within the space.
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Construct Only What You Need
” The kitchen area had undergone a 1990s renovation with great deals of elaborate cabinets, numerous various granites, and an uncommon gravel flooring insert used for growing houseplants,” says Laura. She stripped out the old cabinets for simple Shaker-style versions, included a new island with a sink and dishwasher, and painted the floorings. She enhanced the original range and brick hood by setting up wood corbels bought from Van Dyke’s Restorers below the hood. “The smooth transition to the wall and counter top makes a huge difference,” she states. Opposite those, the property owner kept her kitchen nearby however disguised it as two tall cabinets flanking the open shelving.
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Dress Up Kitchen Nooks
” My household enjoys a breakfast space,” states the designer, who created the impression of a costly corner banquette by building an L-shaped wood bench and fitting it with French-style cushions. “They are dense enough that the back cushion can stand on its own when put in between the seat cushion and the wall.” A set of chairs from Ballard Designs and an RH table complete the set.
In another corner of the kitchen, instead of losing a big window to suit standard-size kitchen cabinets, Laura ran a counter top and drawers underneath it to produce a charming work space that features an excellent view.
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Channel Your Travels
” The objective was to feel like we were waking up in a Parisian hotel every early morning,” says Laura, who repurposed the 364-square-foot main bed room to develop a full suite with a personal hallway and bath. “I desired it to be extremely clean and neutral with a couple of patterns,” she keeps in mind. Then I look out to my outdoor patio and immediately think that I require to get hectic out there,” she says.
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Lean Into The Theme
Laura continued the hotel feel in the main suite by installing French doors to link the bed room to the bath, where a soaking tub stands at the ready.
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Be Brash … Sometimes
“The powder space ought to be a surprise, and my surprise is that it does not seem like the rest of my house,” states Laura, who splashed Soane’s Dianthus Chintz wallpaper above the wainscot and offset it with poppy-colored lampshades from Fermoie.