AFTER LIVING IN LOS ANGELES FOR SEVERAL YEARS, Allyson and Mark Pfeffer knew exactly the type of home they wanted when they moved here in 2016. “Basically, we wanted a West Hollywood home in Raleigh,” laughs Allyson, who is the fashion editor for the fashion blog Who What Wear. “We wanted something with a midcentury-modern feel but that wasn’t too dated at the same time.” But unlike Los Angeles, which is known for its eclectic mix of architectural styles, from contemporary to Hollywood Regency to midcentury modern, Raleigh is much more traditional. “A midcentury-modern style home is hard to come by, and when you do find one there’s usually a bidding war,” Mark says. “We knew that to get the style of home we wanted, we would probably have to build.”
The coupled lived in the area for about a year before commencing their search for a lot. The Pfeffers were willing to expand their search outside of the city limits, and eventually found a lot in the North Hills area of town. “This was the last lot on this part of our street,” Mark says. “We had to grab it because it was such a great location.” Because the couple already knew what style of home they wanted, the next step led them to finding the right architect. A prairiestyle home designed by Tony Frazier of Frazier Home Designs caught the couple’s eyes, and not long after, they reached out to Frazier to design their home. “When we found this lot, we said we were looking for something similar in architecture to the prairie-style home, but we wanted it to be a bit more midcentury modern, California-style, if that makes sense,” says Mark, who adds that they wanted a large, open-concept floorplan with very tall ceilings and clean, modern architectural details.
After Frazier designed the home, the couple admittedly weren’t sure where to begin with the interior design process—but they were smitten with the interiors of the Dewberry Hotel in Charleston. “We stayed there after we got married and we fell in love with its design,” Allyson says. “Everything is midcentury modern, but not over-the-top. It’s a great mix of styles. And their light fixtures were so beautiful, and they were definitely our inspiration for choosing the lighting in our home.” Adds Mark, “The color palette there was muted sage and grays with a mix of woods. So we definitely knew we wanted to do something similar in our home.”
A scroll through social media led them to designer Dana Waldron’s Instagram feed, where the Pfeffers loved what they saw. “I looked up as much of Dana’s work as I could find,” Allyson says. “And the more we saw, the more we knew we wanted her to design our home.” The couple hit it off after meeting for coffee, and soon began the interior design process together. “Fashion and apparel have a lot of overlap with interior design, so we appreciated each other’s genres and how we could mix the two together,” Waldron says. Working with a blank canvas, Waldron looked to the couple’s love of the Dewberry for inspiration when pulling together a design scheme for their new home. “The home is spacious and airy, but also modern and minimal and almost a little industrial,” says the designer, who wanted to warm the home with organic wood accents and brushed brass details throughout.
The large living area downstairs that consists of the kitchen, dining room, and living room is seamlessly tied together with large wooden beams that run the length of the space. These wood accents coupled with the open wood shelving and wood counters in the kitchen instantly warm the space. Waldron continued with that theme by adding the large wooden Log-Y rectangular dining table with a brass base from Organic Modernism to complement the modern lines of the black leather dining chairs and contemporary lighting by France & Son. The addition of the Hans Wegner Papa Bear mossy-green lounge chair and ottoman injected a much-needed pop of color to balance the black-and-white color palette.
Upstairs, Waldron looked to the Dewberry as inspiration and added even more color in spaces such as the guest bedroom, where an earthy green wall color envelops the room in a soft warmth. Feminine accents like the gold mirror in the master bedroom soften the modern lines of the upholstered bed by Deva and modern artwork by Tappan. “I wanted a Mad Men look in my office,” says Mark of the design choices Waldron made in the room. A retro-style turntable sits atop a midcentury-modern credenza from Father & Son Antiques, and a complementary modern chair by France & Son provides a spot for a guest. Across the way, Allyson’s home office is decidedly more clean and modern, with simple wood shelving and streamlined seating. As for choosing natural materials, Waldron says, “Each piece throughout the home was selected as a quality material to add character to the room and improve with age.”
The finished product, the Pfeffers say, is exactly what they envisioned. “It was important to have a mix of styles,” Allyson says. “We wanted it to age well, and we really think she achieved that.” Adds Mark, “We knew it was important to find the right people who understood our vision, and I think we found the right people for this job.”