WHEN KELLEY LENTINI, PART OF THE DESIGN DUO behind House of Nomad, and her husband, Brad, began looking for homes in the spring of 2020, they focused on the Oakhurst neighborhood of Charlotte, hoping to find something unique and full of charm. Their dream scenario was a midcentury-modern home that they could fix up, but, as it goes in Charlotte, homes like that are few and far between, and a hot commodity at that.
“We were looking at another home in the area and stumbled across Raney Way. It had more of these modern shapes, and it was just this incredible street,” Lentini recalls. “The A-frame caught my eye immediately! It just looked so happy, and though we assumed the home was under contract, we contacted the builder and realtor anyway, and, lo and behold, it was available.”
Designed by architect Andrew Woodruff, the home was under construction with Vasseur Home Designs. “I love Andrew’s homes; there are several on the street, and they are all so unique and look like they belong anywhere, from Denver to Nashville and everywhere in between,” Lentini says.
Things fell into place as they toured the home. They immediately loved the direction the build was going in— concrete floors, white walls, and a perfect layout in just over 3,000 square feet. Furthering the as-fate-would-have-it feel, Lentini’s designer friend Michel Van Devender would be their next-door neighbor. It was all too much to resist, and the pair agreed it was more than idyllic. “Similar to our last home, this one was clean, modern, and new,” Lentini says. “It was the perfect blank canvas for all these wild things and design ideas.”
Lentini started her design by gathering all the Moroccan rugs she planned to use in her home. “The rug in the kitchen has all the colors in it that I wanted to use throughout the house, so it was a great starting point,” she says. The couple loves to cook and entertain, so it makes sense that the kitchen was where it all began. “It’s my favorite room,” she admits. “It’s a fun transition from the kitchen through the bar and into the dining room that feels cozy and earthy. The wallpaper is a great departure from the white walls, and the lighting over the dining room table alongside the velvet drapery from The Shade Store gives it a moody vibe.”
Lentini and business partner Berkeley Minkhorst have been working on designs for a line of wallpapers and textiles for nearly a year. As soon as Lentini moved in, she knew her home would be the perfect testing grounds for the bold patterns and classic palettes. “The pause that the pandemic forced on us last year really allowed us to use time previously allocated to traveling for business development,” she says. “To see these patterns come to life in my home, after so much creative energy, was a dream,” she says.
In the entry, Lentini paired House of Nomad’s signature black-and-white colorway in Jet Lag pattern, printed on perfectly textured grasscloth, with a colorful vintage Turkish rug atop the concrete floors. “I was so thrilled with the warmth the textured paper brought to my entryway.” Peeking through another hallway, she used their earth-toned patterned paper for a pop of interest in a neutral palette. “Getting the color story right on this line was key, and all the work has paid off because Anthropologie just picked up our line to carry on their website starting in the fall,” Lentini reveals.
In other corners of her home, Lentini tested their textile designs and their furniture and case goods, to be released this fall. Brad Lentini is a craftsman and created many of the pieces found around their home, including the swivel chairs in the living room, covered in a beautiful boucle fabric, exclusive to House of Nomad.
Sourcing from all over the world, including Mexico, Morocco, and Panama, Lentini has filled her home with treasures from
various trips with her husband and with Minkhorst. Vintage finds mingle with one-of-kind handmade treasures, along withsome of their favorite pieces from their previous home as well. It took about six to eight months to complete the interiors of their home, particularly with pandemic-related delays. Still, Lentini finds that as wild as it was to turn her work inward to her own home, it was equally rewarding. “I like things to feel personal and layered,” she says. “Many pieces and art are from our time living abroad in China. You can definitely see an Asian influence sprinkled throughout our home.”
What’s more visible, perhaps, is Lentini’s Palm Springs–meets–Morocco vibe that has been a hallmark of her style for years, influenced heavily by fashion and art. “I find that fashion often overlaps our style when it comes to our homes, and that’s certainly the case for me personally, as well,” she says. “I love comfortable, natural materials in my clothes, a lot of black and white with pops of color mixed in, and a global feel to my overall wardrobe for a collected look. And what do you know, the same can be said of my home.”