Interior Design in Church Hill Homes
There’s a lot that goes into designing a home and making it feel like “home” on not only the outside but the inside. We sat down with Stevie McFadden, the founder of Flourish Spaces, to learn more about interior design and how it can be applied to Church Hill homes.
1. The role of an interior designer. “We help people articulate what their style is and bring that to life. A house should look like it was designed by the people who own it if they had all the time in the world. It’s not about my tastes and what I would put there. I need to figure out what they like and lead them to the best expression of that. We do everything from kitchen and bathroom redesign, to picking out pieces of furniture, wallpaper, and helping people figure out how to integrate their existing items into new spaces. A great design really is a partnership between a client and designer.”
2. Styling a Church Hill home. “Old houses always present some fun and unique challenges…You have to think differently about the scale and keep the context in mind. What feels comfortable in one style of home might not feel right in a Church Hill home. [However], you never want something to feel too literal in its setting or design.”
3. Incorporating modernity into historic design. “We’re actually doing a really fun renovation that’s across from Chimborazo Park. We’re keeping a more traditional style of cabinet in the kitchen but doing an unexpected saturated green color. We’re doing other traditional materials and floor tile in the powder room with a tinge of gold that feels unexpected, and pairing that with classic wallpaper that feels playful. [It’s about] looking for the right moments to get playful, such as a powder room that feels like a little jewel box with presents when you open the door.”
4. Overcoming design challenges in older homes. “Scale is always a challenge [of] getting the right size and number of pieces into a room. If the scale is off, the whole room feels out of balance. Other challenges are lighting (especially in row houses, where you have to think about bringing in artificial lighting apart from overhead lights) and storage. We really have to think about how furniture can do double duty—fashion and function.”
5. Interior design can be a worthwhile investment. “People don’t engage with interior designers sometimes because they want to do it themselves…I think about the mistakes I made in my own house where I hadn’t thought through a total vision and I buy things one off, so I end up trying to design a whole room around one piece I bought. We help you think through the space with a path and plan, and really make you feel more confident about the purchases you’re making. Also, we’re great referees. I think half the time we get couples in where one wants to do one thing and one wants to do the other, and so sometimes we can help find that third way that everyone feels their vision is represented in that house.”
6. Personal and monetary benefits. “I’m a big believer in investing in your space. It is so important to how you function and use your home. How many of us have rooms that go unused? A designer, truly beyond making things beautiful, helps you think about the utility of your home in a very different way and how you can live in your home both more graciously and spaciously, and that’s usually a premium in an older home…How do you adapt a space for how you live now? Especially in the last year in the pandemic, we’re all thinking about that and the way we live in our homes looks radically different than it did 18 months ago. So how can your space support optimal living? [Additionally,] I find that sometimes working with a designer, it gives [clients] permission to part with thing that [they feel guilty getting rid of], or to repurpose. It’s also permission to try some things that they might feel they’ve wanted to do ‘but my wife would never go to that‘, so when a professional comes in and recommends it, it feels safer to people. They feel emboldened to make more interesting choices sometimes.”
7. Trendy vs. Timelessness. “People feel like there is a right way or a wrong way, so they go out and maybe take all their design cues from what’s trending right now. There’s nothing wrong with integrating trends into your design, but you never want a room to feel trendy. In a couple of years, that fad might be passé. Especially for big investments or things that you want to last for a long time, you might want to go more timeless—things like tile and cabinetry. Things where you can go more trendy or wild are things that can be easily replaced, so, you know, things like lights, art, pillows. I would also say feeling like things all have to match; there is a way to use [different materials and styles] so it doesn’t feel ‘hodgepodgey’.”
8. Where to bring in personal style. “Décor is certainly an easy fix. Not being afraid to use the whole house in terms of your palate. So often, I see people only really putting their touches in the public spaces, where company would see, [rather than] not being afraid to have the stuff that feels really personal and brings you joy in the spaces that you use the most (like the bedroom).”
The Flourish Collective: Feeling the itch to design your home and get professional advice, but hiring an interior designer isn’t an option for you? Check out Flourish Spaces’ new showroom in Jackson Ward! The Flourish Collective is a resource designed to help you curate your home and gain access to products and guidance that would ordinarily only be available through hiring a designer. From purchasing décor to consulting with a designer on paint selections, this “design lab” is a one-stop shop for your DIY interior design projects.
You can also learn more about Flourish Spaces and the Flourish Collective at theflourishcollective.shop.