BACK IN 2005 WHEN RALEIGH’S ANNUAL PARADE OF Homes tour took place, the interiors of many of the homes had one thing in common: they were generally very dark, with dark wood finishes and ornate architectural details. At the time, that aesthetic was on-trend and wildly popular.
But as the years passed for the homeowners of one of those spec homes featured in the Parade of Homes tour, they came to realize that the dark interiors of their 4,200-squarefoot home didn’t align with what they really wanted. What they were looking for was lighter, brighter, and much more colorful. “We absolutely loved the exterior and the floorplan of the home,” the wife says. “The bones were there, but, overall, it had this ornate Tuscan look with dark granite and dark cabinetry, and we really wanted it to feel so much brighter.”
Inspired by their time living and traveling abroad in Europe, the couple wanted a less traditional and much more colorful and lighter aesthetic. “We loved the casual elegance of the South of France and the way they live there,” the husband explains. “The light that you have in the South of France is incredible. When we came back from our time there, we knew it was everything we wanted in our home. We kept asking ourselves, ‘How do we capture that same light and lifestyle we saw there and incorporate it into our home and in the way that we live every day.’ ”
At the time the homeowners were considering a complete redo of their interiors, the couple’s daughter was interning with Warehouse Interiors Inc. “Our daughter was always talking about them and we got to know both Liles and Zandy really well,” the husband says. “We’ve worked with designers in the past for individual pieces, but never for a whole-house renovation. I enjoyed both Liles and Zandy and I really liked their design work. It seemed like the perfect fit.”
As soon as principal designers Liles Dunnigan and Zandy Gammons saw their clients’ home, they knew it needed an update. “Everything just felt really heavy,” says Gammons of the weathered bamboo floors, dark ornate wood fireplace, dark wood built-in shelving, and other dim features. “They truly just wanted their home to be so much lighter and a touch more modern throughout. They always felt like the house didn’t meet what they wanted style-wise. It felt much more like a mountain home when what they wanted was more of a European-style home.”
So the designers set to work, pulling together an interior design that would result in a much lighter and brighter overall look and feel, and also incorporating some of the couple’s most coveted items. “They love to travel, so over the years they’ve collected things and become really fond of certain designers,” Dunnigan explains. “The husband especially loves to collect art and fabrics. He loves all of [British designer] Nina Campbell’s collection, which is very English country in style. They both love blue and white and have amassed a collection of blue-and-white pottery that really faded into the background of their current interior design.”
In the family room, redesigning the unaesthetic fireplace was a priority, as it set the tone for the entire downstairs. “The whole house was a lot darker because the fireplace was really heavy and very traditional,” Dunnigan says. The designers reworked the design, removing all of the heavy wood and replacing it with a limestone fireplace designed by François & Co. as well as all-new custom millwork to replace the original stone. “It instantly changed the whole look of the downstairs,” Gammons says. The duo then painted all of the custom built-ins an off-white hue and replaced the torn-up and damaged bamboo floors with complementary herringbone hardwoods, which brightened the downstairs further.
From there, it was all about the details, and the designers looked to the couple’s collection of blue-and-white pottery for inspiration. “It was apparent from the moment we walked into their home that they have an affinity for blue-and-white pottery,” Dunnigan says. Using that as the springboard for the design, a color palette of blues, greens, and neutrals became the foundation for the family room, which prominently features the couple’s pottery collection. “The husband loves mixing and matching patterns, and he had several swatches of fabrics he loved, so we really used those as inspiration and even in the room’s design itself,” Gammons says.
Elsewhere, the designers took the same approach, utilizing the input their clients gave them and pulling together a more modern, updated look. “They really gave us a fresh perspective,” the husband says. “Liles and Zandy challenged us to go outside our comfort zone and go further with the design than we ever would have on our own. We would have been way more conservative. We wouldn’t have been so bold in mixing the textures and patterns. We just love what they’ve done. Now this feels like our home.”