Lynette Lewis loves a good find. The native New Yorker’s biggest hobby is scouring flea markets and antique shops for the perfect vintage piece. And because she and her family split their time between their apartment in Manhattan and their home in West Cary, Lewis has access to what feels like endless options to feed her creative spirit. “I have all of these amazing showrooms and warehouses just down the street from our home in New York,” she says. “I’ve always loved walking through them, seeing the next wave of trends and checking out up-and-coming designers. It’s my hobby.”
While Lewis has always had a penchant for interior design, she was never really able to put it to use in her home. “When Ron and I first got married, we moved into his home,” says Lewis of the couple’s former West Cary home situated on two and a half acres of wooded land. And while the home was beautiful, it wasn’t quite Lewis’s style. When a developer purchased their home and land, the couple was forced to look for a new home. That’s when Lewis’s creative engine began spinning. “We found this amazing neighborhood where custom homes were being built on these beautiful wooded lots, which was what we were used to, that privacy,” Lewis says. “I fell in love with Upton & Co.’s work and said if we ever build, that’s who we’re using.”
Fast forward a few months, and the Lewises began the custom design process with Upton & Co. while also enlisting the help of designer Liz Goldberg. Though the facade of the stunning Georgian home is decidedly traditional, the interiors are not. Architectural details are minimal with black-framed windows, blonde-oak hardwoods throughout, and zero crown molding or trim detailing. “I didn’t want the traditional Raleigh home,” Lewis says. “I’m very into vintage, midcentury modern pieces, and I had a vision for using them in our home. And I wanted white everywhere with pops of color.”
It was Goldberg who was tasked with pulling together a cohesive aesthetic that combined Lewis’s existing vintage and midcentury modern pieces with newer, more modern items. “The most important part of my job is to make sure that my clients’ home reflects who they are and what their style is,” the designer says. “Lynette is so fashionable and has this great sixties glam vibe. I wanted that to be apparent in the interior design.”
For Goldberg, the design process is truly about listening to her clients. “Lynette and I walked through her previous home and I just let her talk about the pieces that she really loved the most,” she says. “I could see a twinkle in her eye when she talked about some of the pieces. I took notes on what items she really spoke about the most, the ones she had great anecdotes for, and I knew that those would be the ones we had to have as centerpieces throughout her new home.” Many of the existing pieces Lewis was fond of were repurposed in the new home. A Saarinen marble-top Tulip table, which was originally the family breakfast table, was moved to the large foyer so it greets visitors and the Lewises every time they enter their home. A Kelly-green patent-leather Milo Baughman sofa, which once sat in the church where Ron is a pastor, now serves as a comfy place to gather in the kids’ upstairs loft. And a colorful Pucci scarf was transformed into a colorful throw pillow on the master bed.
But just as Lewis loves to combine old with new and antique with vintage, Goldberg does as well. The designer added a modern edge to the master bedroom with a graphic Kravet wallpaper, which serves as the accent wall. The lighting throughout the home is a mix of antique and midcentury modern, such as in the dining room, where a traditional crystal chandelier serves as the centerpiece to the room. Elsewhere, a modern globe light fixture by Mitzi provides ample light in the sitting room.
No project is ever truly complete, evolving over time with the homeowners’ new tastes in styles and decor. But regardless of the additional styling, this home will forever exude Lewis’s personal style. “The bones of this house have classic elements, but the way we pulled it all together, it’s truly Lynette and her style. It’s a reflection of her through and through.”