WHEN SARAH FISHER FIRST WALKED INTO HER CLIENT’S Georgian Revival home on Hempstead Place, she saw beige, gray, and white . . . everywhere. And while neutral can be beautiful and soothing, color was a necessity for her clients. “The home originally had lots of grays and whites,” says the homeowner. “And for us, with two young kids, that just wouldn’t work. They get things dirty. They spill. They stain things. Plus, my wife and I both really love color.”
The couple found Fisher after they visited a friend’s home and became enamored with the designer’s work. “We knew when we purchased this home that we would need a professional’s help and that we couldn’t do it alone,” he says. Not long after moving in, they enlisted Fisher to bring their vision of a happy, upbeat, yet wholly sophisticated family home to fruition. “We let Sarah take the reins on the interior design of the home,” says the homeowner. “We trusted her implicitly.”
“They both have a traditional aesthetic,” explains Fisher of her clients. “They were both raised in traditional interiors, and that’s appropriate for the house with its architectural details and millwork, but they still wanted it to feel modern and fresh and young.” Architect Craig Dixon had been tasked with updating the home’s kitchen and other areas for the previous homeowners, so many of the living spaces were already modernized. It was Fisher’s job to layer texture, pattern, and color throughout to create interest around every corner of the home.
Fisher began in the entryway, lacquering the ceiling and adding millwork and molding to the foyer staircase walls. “The classical architecture of the home was inspiring,” Fisher says. “Thick, pretty moldings, beautiful door hardware and beautiful floors, arched windows and arched doorway openings—they make it such a special home. We wanted to preserve, enhance, and embrace the architecture of the home because it is so beautiful. It truly called for a certain type of interior design.”
That design included incorporating many of her client’s existing antiques while layering them with more modern patterns and textures and, most certainly, heavy doses of color. The living room off the foyer is one space where Fisher introduced heavy strokes of color. Fisher and her client were smitten with artist Anne Lemanksi’s bold blue wallpaper pattern Queen’s Flight for Peg Norriss, a line created by local designer Barrie Benson and SOCO Gallery owner Chandra Johnson. “We loved it so much that we wallpapered the living room ceiling with it, and it became the focal point of the entire room,” Fisher says. “We used a lot of color on the furniture in this room, too.” A pair of custom chairs by Charles Stewart upholstered in a turquoise blue performance velvet by Schumacher flank the fireplace. To soften the color, the designer added a pair of burl-wood waterfall coffee tables by Worlds Away.
Fisher took a more conservative approach in the dining room, mixing old with new but maintaining a traditional aesthetic throughout. The one constant: color. “We started with the wallpaper—a magical, colorful Zoffany design with gardens, peacocks, minarets, and fruit trees,” Fisher says. She then effortlessly wove antiques into the room, adding a vintage Baker buffet she found through Chairish and dining chairs that originally belonged to businessman and philanthropist Henry Bloch. For one last pop of color, she lacquered the doors in a stunning coral to play off the white linen curtains trimmed in a coral embroidered Schumacher tape.
But not all rooms of the home overflow with color. Some spaces, such as the kitchen and breakfast area, remained neutral, with subtle splashes of color throughout to keep the home balanced. The kitchen, previously designed by Pursley Dixon Ford for the former homeowners, and the breakfast nook needed no updating. “All we really wanted in these spaces were little doses of color,” says Fisher, who added colorful throw pillows by Schumacher and Lacefield to the custom banquette.
However, it’s the adjacent “coffee closet” that really injects vibrant pattern and color into the kitchen. Though often hidden by a pivoting door, the coffee closet is wallpapered in the playful Citrus Garden by Schumacher. “This pattern just had such great color and pattern with the lemons and butterflies and brought some interest to an otherwise neutral space,” she explains. She took a similar approach in the library with its wood paneling and dental molding detail.
“We knew we wanted to keep that wood paneling and not paint it,” Fisher explains. She toed the line between neutrals and color with the addition of antique Delft blue tiles on the fireplace surround, which spurred the design for the room’s color palette. Charles Stewart swivel chairs swathed in a Schumacher performance velvet in cornflower blue complement the upholstered doors with nail-head detail, and artwork by Anne Schwartz imparts a cozy vibe. “Sarah added beautiful color throughout the home. Each room feels very different, and yet they all tie in together seamlessly,” says the homeowner. “There’s not one room that’s too wild and doesn’t fit with the rest of the house. She made each room unique, and yet the flow of the house feels very seamless.”
When her clients gave her carte blanche to design their home, Fisher knew without hesitation that color would be the force behind the home’s aesthetic. “Color makes a dramatic impact, and it’s really practical,” she says. “Pattern and color hide a multitude of sins. When you have kids and pets and a busy life, color can really hide wear and tear. It adds depth, it’s interesting, it’s special.
It’s not what you see on the floor at every furniture store. They wanted unique, and I think we achieved that with this design.” Though the majority of the home is completed, the homeowners aren’t ready for it to end. “It’s been such a fun process with Sarah,” says the homeowner. “She continues to dabble in our home’s interior design, and when she sees things that fit our home, she adds them, and we’ve given her free rein to do that. We’re by no means finished. Just because we checked all of the boxes on our punch list doesn’t mean I want Sarah to stop improving our home. We absolutely love everything she’s done and continues to do.”