Paula and Tom Werk loved to flip through shelter magazines, paging through the interiors and drawing inspiration for their own home. While the couple didn’t have a need for an interior designer at that time, the work of two young designers caught their eyes. “We were looking through this magazine, actually, and just fell in love with Liles’s and Zandy’s work,” says Paula of Liles Dunnigan and Zandy Gammons, founders of The Warehouse Interiors. “Then a friend of ours used them for their home and we loved what they’d done.”
But while the couple was smitten with the designers’ work, they could not find a lot—or a builder—that they loved. After searching the Raleigh area and coming up emptyhanded, the Werks came across an existing home by Tuscany Construction Group. It was close to Five Points and checked off all their boxes. “We just stumbled upon this home,” laughs Paula of their find. “We wanted a house with a flat lot so we could add a pool. In this home, you could walk right out, down a few stairs, and down to the pool area.” Architecturally, the home was a departure from their previous residence, which was a traditional red-brick home. “This residence has all the lines of modern architecture,” Dunnigan says, “but has rustic elements, as well.”
After enlisting Gammons and Dunnigan, the designers began to pull together an interior aesthetic based on interviews and dozens of conversations with their clients. “They really wanted something that was fresh and new,” Gammons says. “They’d lived in their previous home for twenty years and everything they had was very traditional.” The designers teased out of their clients some key things they loved, too, including a penchant for a color palette of blues and greens as well as a love for sophisticated, modern, and transitional patterns. The Werks didn’t, however, want to start completely from scratch. “They had some family heirlooms and antiques that they wanted to work into the overall aesthetic,” Dunnigan explains. “So we really wanted to either update those or mix them seamlessly with some of the new, more modern pieces, textures, and patterns throughout the home.” Also of great importance: paring down the number of accessories and furnishings so that when Paula decorates for holidays—as she does with several throughout the year—the home doesn’t look cluttered.
The designers started with the dining room, using the Osborne & Little drapery fabric as the inspiration for the design. “The fabric has blues and greens and a little yellow and coral that really set the tone for the color palette for the rest of the home,” Gammons says. “We really kept those same colors and shades flowing.” The Werks also became smitten with the vintage Turkish rug, which complemented the modern pattern in the host chairs by TCS Furniture. To draw the eye up to the dramatic crystal chandelier by Visual Comfort, the designers painted the tray ceiling a bold cobalt blue.
“Ultimately, we want a home to represent our client’s style and taste,” Dunnigan explains. “We like to push our clients to do some things aesthetically that maybe they wouldn’t pick out on their own. And almost always, they come back and say those places where we nudged them a bit are now their favorite parts of their homes.” Such was the case in the hallway leading toward the powder room, where the duo presented a modern-patterned wallpaper by Phillip Jeffries. This complemented the stunning artwork from ArtSource and the transitional wallpaper by Zoffany in the adjacent powder room. “Liles and Zandy were just so good at putting things together in a way that I would not have imagined before,” Paula says. “They’re so talented in that way.”
Of the pieces that the Werks wanted to incorporate into the design of their home, their piano was one that the designers had their eyes on. “We knew Paula and Tom wanted the piano in the home somewhere, and placing it in the living room immediately elevated the space,” Dunnigan says. The living room is directly opposite the dining room, so to tie the two rooms together, the designers painted the entire room in the sleek and modern Benjamin Moore Downpour Blue. Throw pillows in a contemporary fabric by Charlotte-based artist Windy O’Connor, the brass light fixture by Visual Comfort, and draperies by Travers help pull it all together.
Though there were times the Werks were pushed a bit outside of their comfort zone, they both say they would do it all over again. “They really felt out our personalities and wanted to bring that to life in our home,” Paula says. “They listened to us, they brought us options, and they pulled together something that I never could on my own. We love our home.”