When your grandfather happens to be a world-renowned furniture designer, and you take your very first baby steps in his showroom at market, destiny just might be calling. “I honestly don’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t know that I wanted to be in the design business,” Kate Hutchison, owner of Raleigh-based kate.h.design, says. “It’s just been an inherent part of my life.” Hutchison’s maternal grandfather is Paul Maitland-Smith, of Maitland-Smith Ltd. and Theodore Alexander fame, who traveled the world collecting antiques and later manufacturing his own furniture lines.
Even as a young girl, Hutchison was unknowingly working on her first design project: a Playmobil Victorian dollhouse. “I would spend hours getting everything exactly the way I wanted it—which, of course, changed all the time,” she laughs. “My friends would come over and want to play with it, but I wouldn’t let them because I’d already done it for that day.”
After graduating with art and design degrees from both North Carolina State University and Meredith College, Hutchison began charting her own course as a business owner, founding kate.h.design in 2015. When she’s not working with clients, she is busy renovating her own home, a 1956 ranch fixer-upper in the Drewry Hills neighborhood of Raleigh. Hutchison and her husband, Wylie, gutted about 75 percent of the home after living in it for nearly a year and learning how they and their two rescue dogs, Lola and Macy, functioned in the 2,200-square-foot space. They added a powder room, completely reversed the kitchen footprint, shifted several doors and windows, and put down hardwood flooring.
Hutchison’s favorite color palette of blue and white ebbs and flows effortlessly through the home in different shades. She says she is drawn to them because they are calming, easy to live with, and mix with a variety of accent colors.
In the living room, newly installed drapery panels and chair pillows in Puff by Carleton V add lots of personality, along with original artwork by Nancy McClure sourced from ArtSource Fine Art. The vintage sofa belonged to Hutchison’s father, the chairs to her grandmother—and all of the pieces have been neutrally updated. Hutchison pairs the old and new by bringing in stools from Modern History recovered in a new colorway of the Les Touches print by Brunschwig & Fils.
More family heirlooms flank the sofa—a coffee table with brass hardware was handed down from her paternal grandfather (who was a graphic designer), and the other was custom-made for her by Maitland-Smith and features a turquoise stone inlay. A cased opening to the kitchen is made more interesting with the unexpected pairing of an antique china hutch (which she found in the back of one of Maitland-Smith’s warehouses and had repaired) and an uber-modern mirror by North Carolina artisans vanCollier. Built-ins with hardware by Addison Weeks store a collection of family treasures and fun objects collected over the years.
A fearless fabric—Enter the Dragons by Jim Thompson No. 9—was the inspiration for a guest bedroom, which introduces more vibrant blues on pillows, panels, and bed skirts. The twin bed headboards formerly belonged to her parents, and Hutchison had Steins Furniture lacquer them in Benjamin Moore Hale Navy. The stool at the foot of the bed is a one-of-a-kind nickel and shagreen piece made for her by Maitland-Smith. “He had a similar one at his place in Thailand, and I kept joking with him that I was going to put it in my suitcase and take it home with me,” Hutchison says. “A few months later, this one showed up as a gift!” Since this young couple prefers more casual dining, they skipped a formal dining room in favor of a stylish breakfast area off the kitchen with a table and chairs from Theodore Alexander and a whitewashed mirror by Noir Furniture. In the kitchen, barstools from Mainly Baskets provide additional countertop eating space. The painting is by Adele Yonchak, which was also found at ArtSource Fine Art. Even on small wall spaces, Hutchison finds a spot for original artwork—the one decor item she says every home needs. “Each painting, photograph, or sculpture that you invest in will forever hold a memory from when and where it was purchased, whether it’s on a special trip with your family or in a local gallery with a friend.”
The Hutchisons spend much of their time in the family room with friends, relaxing or watching television. And because they are dog lovers, the design choices had to allo w for the occasional muddy paw print, spill, and shedding. That means layering a naturally stain-resistant wool rug over a sisal rug and using Crypton and other performance fabrics that are easy to clean. The burl wood coffee table by Ave Home adds warmth and texture and invites you to kick back—true to Hutchison’s philosophy that a space needs to be just as livable as it is beautiful.
Her design style has come full circle. “Because I grew up around so many antiques and antique replicas, I think I rebelled against that very traditional look when I first started,” Hutchison says. “I shied away from a lot of brown wooden furniture because I didn’t want my grandfather’s approach to define or dictate my style. But now, I love layering antiques and richer pieces with more contemporary styles. Eventually, I found my way back to my roots.”