ONE COULD SAY THAT KATHARINE HIDELL THOMAS, part-owner of Hidell Brooks Gallery, was a child of art and architecture. Growing up in a modern home on Museum Drive in Charlotte, Thomas’ mother regaled her with stories of her grandparents’ home in Grover. A modern marvel for the small town, the home was built in the style of Frank Llyod Wright, and people drove from miles away to see the 5,000-square-foot ranch with views of the lake spanning the front of the home through the back. Midcentury lines and expansive windows framed Thomas’ mind for what makes a home beautiful.
“It was not of its time,” Thomas says of her grandparents’ home, as she speaks about what drew her to her own. “I have always been drawn to light and openness. When I first stepped into my home in the late ’90s, it had abundant windows, an expansive yard, and hallways spanning the home; I knew this house was meant for me.” Built by architect Arthur Gould Odell Jr. in 1951, the red brick ranch had low ceilings but an open floor plan and large windows that marked the beauty for which Thomas had been looking.
Almost ten years later, married and with two children, Thomas hired high school friend Matt Benson of Meyer Greeson Paullin Benson to reimagine the layout of the home. “We both saw the benefits of creating a minimal and quiet background for the objects Katharine would display,” explains Benson of the renovation. “By focusing on natural light and clean detailing, the house became a framework for displaying art. It started with Katharine’s grandparents’ sofa and chairs by Frank Lloyd Wright. Modern and subtly textured with geometric designs, they themselves are art pieces. With these furnishings and incredible art, the architecture needed to fade into the background.”
The renovation focused on one of the highlights of the original house, which was the sprawling view of the backyard. “I wanted to expand that element to bring light into the center of the house and reinforce that area as the heart of the home,” Benson says. The team worked around that room, adding new spaces that created a better sense of connection and replacing the half-height windows with floor-to-ceiling windows in an effort to bring the outside in.
“The renovation was designed to create optimal wall space to hold art that I began collecting from art professors in college,” Thomas says. “Art has always been, for me, like a good book. It draws you in and then sinks its teeth in you. But art and architecture go hand in hand— one enhances the other and takes design to the next level.”
Much like her appreciation for an array of artists and styles, Thomas pulled her home together with the help of different designers, each of whom brought a unique style to her interiors. Immediately following the renovation, Thomas enlisted longtime friend and designer Holly Hollingsworth Phillips of The English Room to define the new spaces and apply the art and heirloom pieces that she had collected over the years. When she began gathering artwork with Barrie Benson for her line in the Highland House showroom, Thomas asked the designer to help refine her family room. And when the time came to install an “art lounge” and update her bedroom, Charlotte Lucas picked up the baton.
“I am big on mixing styles, especially with art,” Thomas admits. “Good design comes from bringing together furniture, art, and personal items that have meaning. I have a reverence for the design and craftsmanship of everything in my home.”
Thomas credits her mother as one of her biggest influences in life. “My mom was a traveler when it wasn’t in vogue to travel,” she recalls. “My parents took us everywhere growing up. I still remember the gawking looks I got in seventh grade when I told my teachers and friends that I was spending spring break in Egypt.” She continues, saying that her mother brought her and her siblings to every museum she could find, large and small. “She always brought back items from her travels and put them in our home. She had amazing taste, and a home should tell a story of your life.
That is the lesson I learned from my mother.” Having lived in her home for well over a decade, Thomas says her life can be seen in the layers that have formed over time through acquiring art, books, found objects, rugs, and plants. “All the personal items have meaning, from my grandfather’s antique paperweights to the olive shells and sand dollars collected over family trips to the coast and displayed in treasured silver bowls. My friend and business partner and I even collect the catalogs from every museum or gallery we visit.”
Every piece of art that Thomas has brought home marks a certain time in her life and tells a specific story, so asking her to name a favorite, she says, is akin to asking her to choose a favorite child. But she can define the room she gravitates to the most. “The living room is the center of our home and the first thing you see when you come in; it’s full of beloved furniture passed down to me from my grandparents and designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1955. Sitting in this room brings back memories, and I can feel the love of my family, past and present.”