The Decision
Warm walnut built-ins wrapped around two walls, and a raised navy velvet wallcovering that settles a cathedral ceiling back to human scale. Warmth was the whole assignment, so I pulled a big, impersonal room in close enough to belong to this family.
This is an easygoing, musical family: two teenage boys, a puppy, and generations of vintage books they love to display. Their late 1940s ranch was recently reborn as a two-story modern farmhouse, with a recent addition holding the living and dining rooms. Under a tall cathedral ceiling the furniture floated and the space felt massive and impersonal, and an immovable fireplace foundation left an awkward ledge the length of the wall. They wanted warm and inviting, and did not know what to do about that wall.
So I made warmth the whole assignment. Walnut built-ins now wrap the fireplace wall and the one beside it, turning that dead ledge into storage and a dry bar and pulling the room in close, while a raised navy velvet wallcovering brings the height down and glows under the shelf lighting. A custom stone fireplace and mantel surround hold their own beside it, and in the family room a textured green wallcovering, brass fixtures, and a cushioned window bench do the same quieter work. Now both spaces read formal when the moment calls for it and relaxed every other day: refined, never pretentious, the kind of place where the guitar comes out and everyone lingers.
