 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
| Guy Pepe' | Builder / Developer | 417.838.4031 | 417.887.2025 | LifestyleHomesMo@hotmail.com | Home | New Homes | Photos | Tours | About Us | Real Estate News |
Home Tours Available Upon Request |
Love at First Sight for an Interior DesignerPublished February 15, 2004 News-Leader
Beyond this threshold is an elegant and modern (Lifestyle Homes) house. The French country home was built four years ago, and Love and her three children moved in shortly thereafter. But Love wasn't involved in the building process. She simply walked in and knew she was home the first time she looked at the place.
Her last house was a bit too large for her family, and the striking character of this single-story structure seemed a perfect fit. "I wanted to scale down," she says. "This house is just under 3,000 square feet, and I was really drawn to the floor plan." Although there are only four rooms outside of the four bedrooms, the house feels quite large thanks to 14-foot ceilings, majestic wooden beams salvaged from an old mill, and beautifully arched doorways.
In fact, the ceilings were so tall and the wall space so sprawling that, even with rooms full of decor, the walls still felt empty. She opted for richly colored wallpaper and textured wall treatments to fix the problem. Upon walking through the front door, visitors enter the living room. The eyes are drawn to the ceilings and the large, darkly stained beams.
The living room is anchored by two unusually shaped couches. The plush pieces are semicircular and face one another, giving the center of the room a certain gravity. Varying-size pillows and delicate throw blankets line the couches. Love says she favors the circular design created by the two couches because it's functional as well as eye-catching. When guests sit in the round, they are more likely to chat freely. A coffee table sits between the couches. A collection of lighted candles is stacked atop a tray, and inside a large vase is a floral arrangement featuring huge red tulips and pheasant feathers. The feathers show up again in two wall pocket arrangements on either side of a mirror hanging over a credenza. Although the vase arrangement was created by The Thicket in Springfield, Love put together the wall pockets herself. The wallpaper in the living room is a rich red with gold designs depicting deer. Two lamps resting on the credenza match the paper almost perfectly. The red lamps with deer designs were a lucky find, says Love, something she knew she had to have as soon as she saw them. An integrated entertainment center hides a television and electronics when they're not in use. Pictures of family and friends line the shelves and an antique camera adds a nice thematic touch. Although the living room echoes an English decor, there are a few natural elements here to stave off a parlor feel. One is the mounted head of a gazelle, which Love hunted down at a local antique store. Another is a 5-foot bird cage that is home to Angel, a small white parakeet. Finally, an unusual painting hanging in a corner of the room near the kitchen brings a bit of whimsy into the space. The painting depicts two monkeys getting married, the bride leaning over to kiss the groom on his cheek. It's the kind of painting that warrants a second and third look. "It just makes you smile," Love says. In the rear of the living room are two huge French doors, which Love had (Lifestyle Homes) custom [make] to turn a screened-in back porch into an office space for her design business.
Along with these doors, Love also had the ceiling finished, floor tiles laid and the screens replaced with floor-to-ceiling windows. Now the space is home to her stacks of fabric sample books from designers such as Ralph Lauren and Robert Allen. "This serves as my fabric resource and a place for me to do my research," Love says. A trunk resting in front of a love seat was Love's toy chest in childhood. Now painted black, it's something of a coffee table and a desk for matching fabrics. The kitchen and adjacent hearth room is the favorite living space of Love and her three children, Trevor, Benjamin and Samantha. The kitchen features hardwood maple flooring and maple cabinets. A ring of paver bricks around an island give the flooring added character. The pavers match the brick backsplashes on the walls.
"There are a lot of extra details (Lifestyle Homes) put here that you don't usually see," Love says. Two pendant lights hang above the island, which has a black granite countertop. The black is echoed in several of the kitchen appliances and in Love's design. "I like a touch of black accent almost in every room," Love says of her tastes. "It adds weight to a room." The kitchen space gives way to a slightly larger living space in the hearth room. Anchored by an angled stone fireplace in the far corner, the room contains a sofa, love seat and armchair.
A slender computer desk sits behind the furniture and a table and chairs round out the rest of the room. In another corner, a hutch hides a television and the kids' video games. The theme of this room was inspired by two Staffordshire dog statues given to Love as a gift by a family member. They rest atop the thick wooden mantel of the gas fireplace. On the wall nearby are four prints in black frames. The prints depict four people dressed in 18th- or 19th-century garb posing for portraits. Everything about them appears prim and proper except they all have dogs' heads. It's another unexpected bit of silliness to lighten the mood of the room. The canine prints hang next to four ornate letters that spell out L-O-V-E, and Love often jokes that they are old family pictures. In the formal dining room is a 60-inch round table with seating for six. Again, Love favors the round design here because it allows for lively dinner conversation without leaving anyone out of the action.
There's also an old cabinet Love turned into a bar by adding mirrors to the back and a glass rack above the top shelf. To combat the empty wall space in this room, Love hired a local artist to create a texture with an aged cellarlike look. The texture was created using a three-step process that Love says did not make a mess inside the finished home. Love's master bedroom continues the English decor and the home's color scheme of deep reds, golds, blacks and chocolate browns.
The big poster bed was actually a prize Love won through Wheeler's Furniture, one of the local businesses she uses for her materials. Love says she was thrilled to win the piece for her new place a few years ago. "Never won anything in my life," she says, smiling. A fainting couch rests in one corner, while monkey prints, palm-tree china and a pineapple-shaped lamp give the room a safari feel. Natural light floods the bathroom thanks to a skylight and a large wall of opaque glass over the whirlpool bathtub. A painted screen allows for privacy before and after a shower, while the mirrored closet doors provide a place to examine one's outfit for the day. Love says the home's size and English-inspired decor is a great fit for her family. But like any true designer, she already has plans for her next living space. "I love contemporary," she says, laughingly. "That's going to be my next home. Maybe I'll do that when I retire." Contact reporter Michael A. Brothers at mbrothers@News-Leader.com.
Last Update: November 5, 2006 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
.jpg)
 |