Before and After: How Living With Art Inspired This Sophisticated, Contemporary Update
Every design project has a starting point. Sometimes it’s a color, a favorite coffee table, or an image saved on Pinterest for just the right moment. In this sweeping Great Falls rambler, the starting point was art.
After years spent in Silicon Valley, our clients moved back to the Washington, D.C. area and their impressive art collection made the journey with them. They envisioned the art claiming center stage in a modern and eclectic space, yet the home they purchased was indecisive in its aesthetic. Numerous additions over many years created a home that felt disjointed and cobbled together.
Even furniture and lighting are opportunities to tie in the artful inspiration.
We came in to tie together the mismatched styles and layouts throughout the home, which had been expanded from 1,500 square feet to 6,000 square feet over its many iterations. The challenge? Upgrading its traditional bones to a light, bright, and exhibit-worthy home, without any significant construction updates.
A Unifying Color Palette
The first step was choosing a color that would unite the entire space. While painting an entire home the same color isn’t typically the route we choose as a color-focused design firm, it makes sense in a space where the art is going to steal the show.
Using inspiration from the existing tones within the space, from the fireplace stone to the kitchen counters to the lush landscaping just outside the expansive windows, Benjamin Moore Gray Huskie was chosen as the color for the whole home. The color palette had previously centered on shades of yellow and green, and by changing the paint color to an approachable gray, the home looks like a different house altogether. It feels elegant, sophisticated, and contemporary — exactly what’s needed to create an at-home art gallery.
The before color was a buttery yellow throughout many of the spaces.
The home was painted Benjamin Moore Huskie to serve as a backdrop for the art.
Turning a Home Into a Liveable Art Gallery
The couple both began collecting art individually and then, after they met and married, their collection grew. They gravitate towards work featuring organic shapes, figurative drawings, and striking portraiture. Pieces from South African artist Gail Altschuler, U.S.-based artists Varnette P. Honeywood and Kadir Nelson, Paris-based artist Patricia Simsa, and sculptor Letwin Mugavazi are a few that grace their home.
The art within the home represents both of the homeowners’ collections.
The colors in the art take center stage in the neutral spaces.
The collection is eclectic and full of life — it speaks to the vibrance of these two as people and art enthusiasts. Designing the spaces around the art creates a liveable art gallery where these works can be appreciated and admired daily.
Creating Spaces to Showcase Art
While the neutral gray on the walls lets the art shine, the couple wanted their modern taste to come through in the furniture without creating a distraction. In the living room, shades of blues and greens fit into the cool palette of the walls while also echoing the nature just beyond the windows. With sumptuous textures and subtle prints, it creates a backdrop that feels layered and rich without taking the eye too far away from the art.
Previously, the space felt dark and uninspired.
Now the room is light and airy, creating the perfect backdrop for the art.
Meanwhile, in the dining area and lounge, white and black give the space a bright, crisp look that’s accented by a mobile hanging from the vaulted ceiling in the living room. The look has contrast and movement, and it lets the artwork on the walls shine as the only color in the room.
Yellow felt traditional, even with the soaring vaulted ceilings.
The black and white contrast in the dining room plays off of the living room mobile.
Throughout the space, there’s an emphasis not only on art, but also on gathering. Each room can bring together friends and family, and that’s the point. People living amidst art and making it part of their everyday.
Shades of pink within the decor echo the color in the artwork.