When the opportunity presented itself for the sisters and cofounders behind contemporary jewelry brand Otiumberg to build houses right next door to each other, they hesitated. “It’s intense!” says Christie Wollenberg, who is four years older than her sister and business partner, Rosanna (the design duo also have a third sister). “People always find it interesting that we can even work together, and then to live next door as well…it sounds nuts,” she adds.

But there was a sentimental motivation: The plot of land where the siblings’ deceased great-aunt had lived could be redeveloped and was located just three streets from where they grew up in southwest London. Plus with their parents still in the family home, it would place Christie’s three children closer to their grandparents (in fact, her mom bought her eldest son a walkie-talkie to communicate, but it turns out the signal only runs as far as Rosanna’s house, which she shares with her husband, Charlie). 

The task of creating a pair of houses from scratch was daunting, but they were guided by their father, who works in the commercial property sector. The interior architects at Covet Noir also helped them maximize the floor plans and create airy, open-plan living areas suited to their individual lifestyles. Each home is set over 4 floors with 5 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms—a tight squeeze for the amount of land they had to work with. “I don’t think anyone would have believed you could build two houses on this plot,” says Christie.

Christie’s Home

While the footprints echo each other, the interiors aren’t a mirror image. “I wanted a Mediterranean feel,” says Christie. She set out to accomplish that in the kitchen with a micro-cement floor, vintage wood table, and marble-topped island. In a weird but magical way, the organic aesthetic helps the small messes her kids inevitably make appear less messy. Still, she is a tad envious of her sister’s artfully curated open shelves in the living room: “Mine have definitely been kidproofed,” she says, laughing (she went with cabinets instead). 

Meanwhile, Rosanna’s style skews more Scandinavian, with limewash from Bauwerk adorning the walls. The pandemic put a stop to joint shopping trips, but the sisters exchanged references throughout, and their shared desire for tadelakt in the bathroom meant negotiating better rates by sharing the same suppliers. “The kitchens look different, but they are made by the same company, so we got a better deal,” says Rosanna.

Rosanna’s Home

The pair consciously avoided current interior trends—which lean toward scallops, floral wallpaper, and frilly accents—and created spaces that feel timeless, much like their jewelry. “We treated it a bit like our brand in that it’s akin to a minimal second skin to which you can add in details,” explains Christie. 

While choosing where to position outlets was no easy feat, the sisters trusted their gut and visual inclinations to make quick, game-changing decisions. A major one was to leave the staircase open rather than to block it off as originally planned. The effect is industrial and lends a greater feeling of space: “I love how the bannister is a seamless continuation of wood that really connects the house,” remarks Rosanna.

Owing to the permit process, the fine-tuning of plans, and the major delays caused by the pandemic, the houses took four years to take shape. But the benefit of starting from scratch was being able to incorporate small but impactful details. “I have a sliding door that goes into the wall to compartmentalize the kitchen area from the living room, so it’s not an open plan when I don’t want it to be,” says Christie. In Rosanna’s house, she waved farewell to the days of storing suitcases under her bed by going big on built-in cabinetry. The sisters also requested cat flaps, despite not having pets (yet). “We grew up with cats,” says Christie.

It has been 18 months since the Wollenbergs moved in, and the neighborly dynamic has proved harmonious so far. “It makes life easier. We work with Australia and can do an 8 a.m. Zoom call together over coffee at my kitchen table. And we can hang out as a family more easily,” shares Rosanna. Their early-morning commute to the Otiumberg office in Southwark, however, remains a solitary affair: “I like to be mute for half an hour!” confesses Christie.

The Goods

Mallow Pink Stripes Duvet Cover, Tekla ($140 to $295)

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Heart Earrings, Otiumberg ($265)

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Ribbed Glass Bathroom Wall Light, John Lewis ($52)

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Way Out art, Lucy Laucht ($152)

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The post These Sisters Don’t Just Design Jewelry Together, They Live in Almost Identical Houses appeared first on domino.

“Friday night is a ritual,” says designer Thomas O’Brien. Every week, he and his husband and business partner, Dan Fink, load up the car with items from Aero—O’Brien’s much-loved Manhattan store and studio—as well as recent vintage eBay scores or finds from their travels to Paris, London, and Japan.

Their Maltese, Cairn terrier, and two cats go along for the drive to the couple’s weekend home in Bellport, New York. “We call it moving day,” says O’Brien. “When we arrive, Dan gets out a bottle of Grand Ardèche, our favorite French white. I unpack, and we watch late-night TV.”

In Bellport, their philosophy of enduring design comes to life. And their restored and renovated shingle-clad 1833 schoolhouse (known as the Academy) embodies their love of living history. “The way we work becomes real by making a home for ourselves,” explains O’Brien. “Everything springs from this house.”

Their affection for homemaking, entertaining, cookware, and dishes inspired Copper Beech, their general store just down the road from the Academy. Named after the 300-year-old tree O’Brien and Fink were married under in 2015, Copper Beech is a celebration of thoughtful design.

From the kitchen’s marble tile floors to the pot rack filled with classic copper in the sunlit mudroom, the couple fills their home with practical, timeless pieces—including the occasional standout item from O’Brien’s collaborations with the likes of Circa Lighting, Target, and Century Furniture. “We love new things with old values—well built, from good materials,” says Fink.

On summer days, they keep things simple, bringing bunches of flowers and bowls filled with salad from the kitchen out to the pool house, a small, open-frame structure that O’Brien describes as “teeny-tiny—about the size of two full beds.” From the 1920s through the ’40s, Anne Lloyd—a suffragist, poet, and the home’s former owner—used the outbuilding as her writing studio and called it the Temple.

An aura of calm and contemplation permeates the pale gray-green walls and handmade terracotta tile floors. “Everybody takes naps there,” says O’Brien. “We have plenty of guest rooms in the main house, but lots of people choose the pool house to sleep in while they’re here.”

On the weekends, Fink and O’Brien dip into their library of more than 300 vintage cookbooks, looking up a recipe from Alice Waters or Julia Child to make fish and vegetables from a favorite farm stand nearby. “People are so interested in things that are automated or convenient,” says Fink, “but the work of cooking is good for your soul.”

Even when it’s just the two of them, the couple doesn’t skimp on the details. They set the table for lunch or just a glass of wine outdoors. “We always have candles, tablecloths, napkins, and flowers,” says O’Brien. “We don’t consider it work—it’s a joy.”

The Goods

South Seas Rattan Bar Cart, Serena & Lily ($748)

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The Vintage List Crystal Coupe Glasses (Set of 4), Anthropologie ($90)

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Stripe Linen Napkins in Navy, Food52 ($60 was $80)

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Casper End Table by Thomas O’Brien for Century, Perigold ($1,798 was $2,397)

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This story was originally published in our Summer 2017 issue with the headline “Weekends on the Bay.”

The post Weekends at This Long Island Home Include Pool House Naps and Meals From Vintage Cookbooks appeared first on domino.

There is something undeniably mystical about artist Carly Jo Morgan and her Topanga Canyon home, which she shares with her daughter, Cookie Jo. Though Morgan hesitated about moving back to Los Angeles after living in New York City for almost a decade, the wild expanses of nature and close-knit community won her over. “It felt like home immediately,” she says.

Six years later, and she’s made only a handful of modifications to the 1920s structure—painting the exterior black, the walls vibrant teal and dusty pink, and the floors light lavender. A wood-burning stove in the living room took the form of a “Santa Fe ziggurat.”

Playful snake and hand motifs appear throughout, like the terrazzo serpent base of a coffee table, a ceramic light slithering down a wall, and carved wood hands placed on a dresser. Morgan effortlessly marries softer elements with space-agey details. “I love the juxtaposition of past and future. I always try to make things that either conjure up the feeling of an ancient relic or a sci-fi badge from the future,” she explains.

Much like her home—an amalgamation of energy from hosting group meditations, dance parties, and the birth of Cookie Jo— Morgan’s career has followed an equally prolific and varied trajectory. She interned for Mara Hoffman, hand-dyeing dresses in a tiny studio on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Then came her wallpaper line, followed by a jewelry collection.

She wrote The Sacred Door, a children’s book inspired by Cookie Jo, and cofounded the market and music festival Mercado Sagrado. (Morgan plays a few instruments, some of which hang around the space.) Her latest project is a line of terrazzo creations, including the globe lighting fixtures that illuminate the many nooks in her house.

Outside, the backyard’s geometric landscape of earthy pinks is a natural extension of the interiors. “I spend a lot of time out there, and I enjoy creating spaces to host people,” Morgan says.

It was once an overgrown English garden, and she realized that the watering system was hugely impractical. “There was no way to justify it in such a crazy drought, so we spent years slowly conceptualizing a garden based on gathering people together around food and music.”

Her concrete bench design, a balance of form and function, serves as a terrace to redirect flooding rains into a dry rock creek. Morgan’s long-term plan is to transform the backyard into a sculpture garden.

In the meantime, the interior walls have become an unofficial gallery of her friends’ artwork. Pieces by Morgan’s best friend (and favorite artist), Elena Stonaker, abound—including the heart pillow that sits on Cookie Jo’s bed and the wedding dress Stonaker designed for Morgan that hangs on the bedroom wall, featuring a shimmering yin-yang pattern.

Describing her own work and the environments she creates, Morgan says, “As an artist I always intend to evoke a feeling, but it never really works if you haven’t allowed enough time for the space to speak to you. Home is an energy.”

The Goods

Bongusta Tiger Rug, Urban Outfitters ($99)

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Kelleia Outdoor Lounge Chair by Wrought Studio, Wayfair ($98)

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12″ Table Lamp in Gloss Pink, Entler ($925)

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Signature Dutch Oven in Caribbean by Le Creuset, Nordstorm ($290)

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This story was originally published in our Summer 2017 issue with the headline “The New New Age.”

The post A Terrazzo Snake Here, a Space-Age Lamp There—This Artist’s Home Is Its Own Mystical World appeared first on domino.

Meg Kelly, the founder of Nashville-based design firm Clella Design, was partway through designing her client’s high-rise apartment when his girlfriend moved in. Kelly swiftly tweaked her plans to de-bachelor-pad the place, but not even a year later, the young couple, who have a knack for entertaining, bought a house that would be—from the outset this time—completely their own. They called on Kelly once more. This time, they didn’t need help striking a balance between their two styles—they needed to free the home of its builder-grade past (a flipper had recently gutted the space and added on to it, leaving it void of character). 

“Because we had just wrapped up [the apartment], they definitely wanted to bring some of that stuff over to the new space,” shares Kelly. “The goal was to make sure this home felt cohesive with what we had previously.” The pair had to put all their trust in Kelly: They were busy planning their wedding at the time. Ahead, Kelly shares how she designed for their next stage of life.

The thing I had to convince them on: 

I had to fight for the green corduroy sofa (I think they were initially scared it was going to be too much color). I ended up finding a great inspiration photo that showed a green sofa in a space, and that was what helped save the day. Now it’s one of their most favorite pieces. They’ll text me pictures of it when they have friends over; they love to show it off. 

The big entrance:

Previously, the dining area had some weird shelving system that almost looked like it would be in a mudroom. They were very confused as to what to do with that space. We wanted to fill it with high drama because it’s just off the kitchen and it’s the first space you see when you walk in the door. They loved the white oak I used in their previous kitchen and bathroom, so this felt like a good spot to do that again. 

The party trick: 

What was once a very odd little cubby space off the dining room we completely transformed into a bar that they use all the time. They could be sitting around the table having a dinner party and be social and making drinks—they really don’t have to leave that space. The wife got really into laying out the pattern for the tile (she probably tried 15 different ones). 

For the second bar downstairs, we wanted it to feel fun and casual because it’s right off the pool. This is where people can come in and grab a beer; it’s not so fussy. We used the same blue quartzite on the bar counter upstairs here, too. 

The design challenge: 

Because the living room is so long and skinny, with the stairwell coming up right into it, we tried to maximize that space and make it dual purpose. Since it opens to the kitchen, we added a banquette and table to create a little breakfast nook (you can also utilize it for playing games). The pendant lamp, which came with them from their last place, helped anchor that space and give it a little more intimacy.  

The new source I uncovered during this project that I’ll use again: 

Pierre is local and owned by a pair of ladies; one is an artist and sculptor, and the other works at a gallery in town. They have a great eye for amazing art and quirky, fun accessories. 

The tie-it-up-in-a-bow moment:

In my opinion, the bedroom can be a little moodier because it’s a place you want to sleep. We played with this dark green, which was a way to tie back to the sofa (my color choices are always pretty consistent throughout a whole house). A lot of the furniture, including the bed, was from the apartment, so refreshing the palette was our way of giving this space new life.

The Goods

T Short Marble Side Table, CB2 ($299)

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Half & Half Pendant – Hemisphere; Roll & Hill ($780)

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Modern Handmade Cotton Area Rug, Etsy ($473 for 6’x9′)

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Balboa Rattan Counter Stool, Serena & Lily ($978)

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The post A Pistachio Green Bar Freed This Nashville Home of Its Builder-Grade Past appeared first on domino.

Brynn Whitfield is sure she has the best view on her block. When the longtime public relations consultant and new cast member on The Real Housewives of New York looks out her living room window, she can see directly into one of the stately single-family brownstones on her West Village street. And through the paned glass is what appears to be a spidery Serge Mouille ceiling lamp, a new version of which goes for a cool $8,500 at Design Within Reach. Even though her prewar apartment is a fraction of the size, Whitfield decided she needed one of her own, so she went to West Elm and bought a look-alike for roughly $400. “Now we’re twinsies,” she says with a laugh. 

Davenport Sofa, Kardiel ($3,627 was $4,390)

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Coffee Table, CB2 ($799)

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Now she’s finally able to show it off. Shortly after Bravo approached Whitfield about joining the show, she went to her building management to get permission for filming and the answer was a firm “no” (so instead, all of her scenes are captured in other people’s homes or around the city). But here we are. When Whitfield really wants something, she makes it happen. Yet another example: For a long time, she held off on investing in her dream copper cookware, thinking it would make for a great wedding registry addition one day. “Then two years ago, after another breakup, I was like, screw it, I’m buying myself the pans,” she says.

Mason Arc Floor Lamp, Brightech ($170 was $215)

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Cowhide Area Rug, 4’x6′, CB2 ($399)

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She’s been that way since she was a kid growing up in Indiana, where she and her siblings were raised by their single grandmother. On Sundays, when the newspaper would arrive, they’d skip to the furniture advertisements and announce which pieces they’d buy if—when—they could afford it. While in college at Purdue, as everyone else scoured Target for new dorm decor, Whitfield riffled through flea markets and her grandmother’s basement in search of secondhand scores. She hung her Strokes posters on the walls, used a cut-up sari to spice up the bland ceiling panels, and swapped the landline for an old-school rotary dial phone. “Hoping and dreaming of having a nice house one day stuck with me,” she shares. 

Peel & Stick Tiles, Pack of 20, Amazon ($19)

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Peel & Stick Tiles, Pack of 20, Amazon ($17)

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The fact that Whitfield’s one-bedroom is a rental hasn’t stopped her from making updates—the kind that can be easily reversed when she moves out, at least. The green-tiled floor in her tiny galley kitchen wasn’t her speed, so she found peel-and-stick squares on Amazon to put on top. It only took her a few hours, during which she even took a Zoom call. “I think that day I just told people I’m going to be off video,” she says. Her time-saving trick? Lay all the black pieces down first.

Copper Cookware Set, 12-Piece, Williams Sonoma ($2,300)

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Cabinet Cup Pull, Amazon ($8 was $11)

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Partway through painting the cabinets and walls in Farrow & Ball’s Sulking Room Pink, however, Whitfield almost backed out of her plan. “I did two coats of this greenish gray primer, and for a day I left it because it reminded me of one of my favorite shows as a kid, The Nanny,” she recalls. She only pushed forward with the muted rose color because she had already paid for the expensive paint cans. Although, once she got the idea to swath the ceiling in the hue, too, she realized it was still the right move. A portrait titled The Smoker hangs in the center of the picture molding she nailed up after painstakingly sawing the Home Depot–sourced trim by hand. “I wish I had bought an electric saw. It was like going to Barry’s Bootcamp,” she jokes. 

Level Bench, Article ($449)

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Audrey Dining Bench, Amazon ($307)

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The tool has since been filed away alongside her measuring tape, which she uses even less frequently. Whitfield reveals she’s eyeballed almost everything and got it right on the first try. “It’s my weird superpower,” she says. The banquette just outside the kitchen was admittedly a tight squeeze (it took three strong nudges to get it into the nook), but it was a necessary addition in her eyes—it’s the foundation of her main entertaining space. When friends come over, she’ll turn the chair at her vanity-slash-desk around and use it as extra seating at the table. 

Maria Wall Art, Anthropologie ($338)

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Papier-Mache Bust, CB2 ($50)

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Burl Wood Chair, CB2 ($499)

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One such friend: Fellow season-14 castmate Jenna Lyons, whose interior style she’s admired for years (she spotted her old Brooklyn brownstone in the pages of Domino back in 2008). “I remember thinking, one day I want to have a townhouse and be giving my child a bath while wearing a ballgown,” says Whitfield, who joked to Lyons when she first arrived that her brass-and-velvet–filled home is the “bootleg” version of Lyons’s SoHo loft. The former J.Crew creative director gave her blessing right away. “She took a call in my room and was lying on my bed looking around, touching things,” recalls Whitfield. “To me she’s just Jenna, but at that moment, when it came to design, I was like, she’s Jenna.”

Her costar’s perch, an upholstered bed frame from CB2, didn’t require a kick in order to fit into the space, but it did take Whitfield a while to come to terms with having to crawl over her mattress to close the curtains. “My first place in New York was a six-floor walk-up on Thompson Street where my bed touched all three sides of the room. I promised myself I’d never do that again,” she says, “but I really love this bed.”

Lack Wall Shelf, IKEA ($25)

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Standing Mirror, Amazon ($90 was $120)

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While the closet opposite the windows is technically deep enough to step into, it’s not the spacious walk-in you might expect a RHONY star to have. Whitfield makes up for the lack of storage by keeping all her off-season clothes (along with her expansive collection of antique books) in a Manhattan Mini Storage unit and tucking shallow bins underneath the bed. “Mostly I just wear jeans and a baseball cap because I can’t be bothered to do the ‘great rotation,’” she confesses. It wasn’t until she hit the nine-month mark of living in the apartment that she added shelves to the random jut-out above her doorway, completing it with a Beauty and the Beast–inspired ladder. Her shoes deserve a proper home, too.

Italian Percale Duvet Cover, Bloomingdales ($276 was $345)

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Dates have to wait a while to see that project—or her whole apartment, for that matter. For Whitfield, inviting someone to hang out means you’re really getting to know her. “I can be very flirty and fun and silly, but then you come to my house and it’s more serious,” she says. Classical music dominates her playlists, she talks to her orchids (she heard it helps them grow), and chessboards are scattered around her living room (Whitfield took lessons once a week for a year, long before The Queen’s Gambit premiered).

One of her most prized possessions is a U.S. Census record tracing her father’s lineage back to a slave plantation in Marion County, Alabama. When Whitfield, who is biracial, found out her family members had worked in the kitchen, she decided to hang it above the doorway in her own. “I’m not hiding it, but I also don’t need people to walk and see it and go, ‘What’s this?’ It just means something to me,” she shares. In a fire, she says, it’s the first thing she’d grab.

Curvilinear Chandelier, West Elm ($364 was $429)

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Gleaming Primrose Mirror, Anthropologie ($548)

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Slight Table Lamp, CB2 ($149)

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“I used to think, I want to move to New York. I want what I see in the magazines. Now I’m proud of what I have after not being proud of it for a while,” says Whitfield. The next big thing, though, is always on her mind: “I have my eye on the brownstone across the street.”

The post Step Inside <em>RHONY</em> Star Brynn Whitfield’s Never-Before-Seen West Village Apartment appeared first on domino.

Homes are like books—the best ones tell great stories. And the first page of illustrator Tina Ochenante’s Marin, California, family home reveals a magical flying orca. The minute you cross the threshold into the three-bedroom house, a suspended whale—a $30 antique mall find—greets all who enter. “Our son is obsessed with it, and we put a Santa Claus hat on it [for the holidays] and a witch’s hat for Halloween,” says Tina. “The house doesn’t scream California, but it reminds us we are 15 minutes from the ocean.”

Even though the storybook cottage and guesthouse are nestled among the redwoods, the space eschews Northern California tropes—mid-century architecture and bleached wood—and instead leans delightfully British, and purposefully so. Already an accomplished artist, Tina and her husband, Justin, who works in tech, moved to the U.K. pre-pandemic so she could take classes at Cambridge. But when COVID hit and they learned they were expecting, they moved back to the States, taking an Anglo design sensibility with them. “Tina has had Pinterest boards of different English cottages for forever, so we ran with that,” Justin says. 

The first step? Hiring Maria Wu of Studio Wu to help them through 18 months of renovations (as in, gutting the kitchen) and design decisions. Wu brought the basic interiors to life with colors and patterns that would feel British and playful—but not childish. It’s a delicate dance.

“When I’m preparing color palettes with materials and fabric, I start putting stuff together, and when I’m 90 percent there, I pull back and ask, ‘What’s the thing that I need to add to make it feel a little off?’” Wu says. For example, she found a floral pattern, like the powder room’s Adelphi yellow flower print, but chose it in an unexpected light blue colorway—then put it all next to mustard tile. 

The living room, which Wu washed in a moody grayish green, got a dose of personalized storybook charm around the fireplace, where she commissioned her artist-in-residence, aka Tina, to hand-paint squares in the style of traditional delft tiles. “I was excited about the idea, but we had a backup plan in case it looked terrible,” Tina says with a laugh. “This is our first time with a designer, and I was afraid that the space wouldn’t feel like us, but I knew this would make it ours.” Now it’s one of her favorite details in the home, and each tile signifies an important part of their lives. There’s a clock, for instance, because it was their son’s first word, and a picture of the beloved family dog, Alfonso. A hat represents Tina’s grandfather; an elephant for Justin’s grandmother. Some are inside jokes from the 20-plus years the couple has known each other. 

In the primary bedroom, the charm continues with a spindle bed and two upholstered chairs facing each other next to the window, Tina’s preferred spot for morning free-writing sessions and reading. Plus: “It’s the best view in the house,” Wu says. And in the guesthouse, that whimsical (but never twee) trend goes on.

It may not be England, and their life is decidedly nonfiction, but the home—with its funky color combos, custom tile, and that orca—is their happily ever after. 

The Goods

Red Earth, Farrow & Ball

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Griffin House Sprig, Adelphi Paper Hangings (Price upon request)

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Small Check Seabreeze, Chelsea Textiles ($49)

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Pop Sconce, The Urban Electric Co. ($1,026)

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The post Who Says You Can’t Have an English Storybook Cottage Nestled Among the Redwoods? appeared first on domino.

The first thing Karee Jones told Annie Downing was that she didn’t want a white house. “And she was like, ‘Oh, good, because I don’t do white houses,’” recalls Karee with a laugh. 

When Karee and her husband, Loren, a urologist, and their two kids, 11-year-old Millie and 9-year-old Otis, moved into a new home in Austin’s Allandale neighborhood last year, the first thing she did was look up interior designers. Of the seven she interviewed, she clicked only with Downing. To Karee, she felt like a kindred spirit. “Like me, she was from a Southern town but had lived in other places. She had an eclecticism about her that is rare to find,” says Karee, a San Antonio native who serves on the board of directors at a Spanish immersion school in the city.

In the past, Karee’s version of a colorful home was a yellow pillow here or a blue vase there: “I would gravitate toward things that felt safe.” Downing dared her to go bigger and bolder. She conjured a palette of jewel tones, assigning one hue to each room and introducing moments of surprise along the way. 

In the vestibule just outside the primary bedroom, Downing chose Kelly Wearstler’s Cubist wallpaper to nod to the pink grasscloth walls down the way; she figured the door would always be left open. Likewise, the exterior got a green stucco makeover, plus front and rear porches emblazoned with terracotta tiles to recall the spirit of Karee’s vibrant hometown. (The powder room boasts the same ones.)

At the beginning, husband and wife were divided on aesthetics. She wanted warm and homey; he fancied clean and modern. Finding a middle ground was up to Downing. The designer made choices that straddled classic and contemporary, to the point where the couple approved almost everything immediately. One unequivocal “yes”: the waterfall kitchen island, clad in a concrete-and-brass tile, but in Karee’s favorite, green. In fact, the only changes the couple ended up requesting were different fabrics for the headboard and dining chairs, both of which Downing replaced with whimsical, painterly prints.

Ultimately it was important that the home have soul but for nothing to be too precious. Downing delivered with the aforementioned island—the tile is kickproof when everyone gathers for breakfast—as well as in the spare kitchen corner. The designer outfitted a kid-friendly banquette (it’s indeed their preferred mealtime spot) with a funky channel-tufted back and grape-colored seat cushions. Even the poolside powder room marries form and function. Downing paired teal hexagonal tile that has the look and feel of wallpaper with a matching poured-concrete sink to create a hard-wearing space that mimics the oasis beyond.

No two bathrooms in the home are alike. In the primary en suite, an intricate floor tile pattern of circles, wedges, and hexagons is the star, albeit a high-maintenance one. As Downing recalls, installing it was a multiperson feat. “The tile setters laid them wrong, so two project managers and I had to go back and set it right ourselves, on hands and knees, huffing and puffing in the sweltering afternoon heat,” recounts the designer. 

Millie’s bathroom was an easier undertaking, at least in terms of execution. Downing opted for simple square tile in Millie-approved lavender and mint, arranged in a random pattern alongside sage millwork.

Downing’s refresh set a new precedent for the family. “My husband always used to say I never invited people over. But I’ve been so happy because now we’ve had guests over a lot, way more than we ever did at our other houses,” says Karee. Here, the vibe is the kind that prompts you to sit down, hang out, and put your feet up. The home is nowhere near the one Karee had initially imagined—it’s better.

The Goods

Ripple Accent Chair, Lulu and Georgia ($998)

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District Wallpaper in Tobacco, Kelly Wearstler ($968)

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Iva Sink, Kast (Price upon request)

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Mustard Decade Chair by Blu Dot, Wayfair ($150)

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The post She’s Into Cozy, He’s More Modern—Here’s How Their Designer Found a Colorful Middle Ground appeared first on domino.

The post This Los Angeles DJ Climbs 88 Steps to Get to Her Patio Paradise—But It’s Worth It appeared first on domino.

Lucy Beard and Leigh Lisk’s property in the quiet coastal village of Scarborough in South Africa had always been intended for play. When the couple, who are the owners of Hope Distillery, bought the plot back in February 2018, it held a tennis court. Now, five years later, there is a 65-foot-long lap pool accompanied by a 1,400-square-foot guesthouse that’s made for entertaining. (Beard and Lisk’s main house is located just down the road.) “The pool was something Leigh had always dreamed of having, but the funny thing is I use it more than he does,” shares Beard. 

The waist-deep water, which is the place everyone ends up after a “lunch party” (its dark lining allows it to warm up quickly), was easily the couple’s biggest splurge, but it was one they were comfortable making. They saved up for it early on by deciding to nix their plans for a custom home build and instead go with a two-bedroom container house crafted from lightweight steel. 

To prevent the interior from feeling too boxy, they worked with builder Dean Westmore to add oversize windows and doors and loft the living room ceiling with an I-beam. Cost-effective oriented strand-board flooring added a much-needed layer of warmth underfoot. The material—literal strands of trees adhered together—is traditionally used for internal walls that are then clad in drywall or plastered, but Beard wanted it out in the open. “We sealed it with the kind of sealant used on yachts, and so far it’s standing up well to wear and tear,” she shares. 

The kitchen and closet cabinetry came with the container house, which they loved as is. “The island is perfect for laying out platters of food for everyone to help themselves to,” says Beard, while a wardrobe is cleverly combined with the bathroom sink to ensure the shower was as spacious as possible. Introducing curved furniture, like the curved galvanized steel dining bench by local Cape Town maker LIM, again helped break up all the harsh 90-degree angles.

Unlike the container home, the landscape was one big blank canvas. Beard stuck with indigenous greenery and grouped like species together for dramatic effect: Snake plants line the swimming pool; aloe trees add height; and a mix of ghost aloes and carissa macrocarpa, otherwise known as the “num num bush,” offers some texture. 

The pool might be the place to be during the daytime, but the outdoor fireplace is the hub in the evening. Beard’s brief to the builder was simple: Make it as tall as possible. The brick structure ended up approximately 9 feet high, extending beyond the privacy fence. Naturally, the neighbors got curious. “We’ve had lots of people just knocking on the door and asking to have a look,” admits Beard. “It’s one of those houses that looks intriguing but doesn’t give too much away from the street, so everyone is desperate to get inside.”

The Goods

Sesto Lounge Chairs (Set of 2), Mon Exteriors ($2,500)

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Poise Oval Mirror, Burke Decor ($275)

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Square Modern Wall Address Plaque, Pottery Barn ($119)

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The MMOHO Bench, LIM ($2,575)

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There’s a certain set of skills involved when you are a content creator. Being a wiz with a camera is essential. Knowing your way around editing apps certainly helps. And identifying your niche is necessary for outsmarting the ever-changing algorithms. But Andrew Licout, a New Jersey–based creative, has a special social media superpower: a background in spatial design and theater production. It’s what lends a little something extra, like a perfectly balanced scene in each shot, to every single post. Licout’s knack for keeping an audience engaged, from his impeccable color choices to his flawless framing, doesn’t end on his profile’s feed. All the details in his one-bedroom apartment tell a story beyond Instagram. 

The creative’s penchant for a well-balanced space goes back to his high school days as a theater kid. He loved the stage so much that he went to college to study set design, which then set him on a journey to New York City, where he built scenes on Broadway, coordinated visual production for Calvin Klein, and crafted showroom displays for Ralph Lauren Home. Although he works full time in front of the camera now, every so often he gets the urge to go behind the scenes and build something. Now his work takes center stage in the 700-square-foot place he moved into last fall. 

Past the mismatched dining set and positioned squarely on top of the layered rugs sits a birch plywood, and acrylic coffee table he built himself. The inspiration was one part Donald Judd, one part Japanese dinner table. Licout’s original design stopped with the wood top, but after bringing it to the apartment, he decided it needed a facelift. So he glued wood pegs in each corner, which allowed him to snap a smoky custom-cut panel of acrylic on top. “Now it’s interchangeable, so I can swap out the color throughout the seasons,” he says. “It’s an infinite number of coffee tables in one.”

Because making the table was so fulfilling, it was one of just two pieces Licout built and brought from his previous place in Brooklyn. (The other item is a side table, which now lives in the bathroom.) He moved into this spot immediately after returning from a two-month trip abroad and says it was the European-like layout, which he calls “a race track” because each room cycles into the next, that convinced him to start this next chapter in New Jersey.

It was that same trip that also drove his vision for this space. Longtime Licout followers might recall the all-neutral-everything residence he lived in before. “My last apartment was very white,” he says. “It was warm, but I was always afraid of color.” Between the vibrant streets of Lisbon and cozy cabins in Switzerland he found himself in last summer, Licout developed a new appreciation for incorporating different shades, and so he layered several earthy hues—forest greens chief among them—throughout the space. “I started to think, if there’s one or two through-lines where I tie back materials and shapes and some colors, hopefully, it’ll all look uniform in the end.” 

Circles became one of the unifying motifs Licout incorporated to offset the harsh angles and lines throughout the rooms. “I knew I wanted to have kind of a waterfall of circles when you walk in and see the tabletop, the base, and then the rug,” he says. You’ll notice the shapes again in the floor lamps on either side of the sofa, in figures on the shelves, and in the artwork on the walls. “There are subtle checkpoints of certain elements through the apartment where you’re not really sure why, but it all feels right,” he adds.

Another theme Licout has embraced, albeit unintentionally, is an abundance of chairs. Although he lives alone, his place has about 13 places to plop, including a red farmhouse-style seat in the corner (it’s the one that gets the most hate from his followers, who call it “grandma’s blanket chair”), a curvy green number he splurged on (which seems to be a comment-section crowd-pleaser), and if you look closely, a few strategically placed stools under the built-in shelves. There’s also a Wassily dupe that was a cost-savvy purchase he takes pride in. “I’m not going to spend a few grand on a real one when there’s so many like it at an affordable price,” he says. In fact, curating his place on a sensible budget has always been a tenet of his style—he believes good design doesn’t always mean spending a fortune. “Having a real one wasn’t important to me, so it didn’t feel smart to spend that money there,” he notes.

Tucked off the room of chairs is Licout’s verdant bedroom. “It went through maybe six iterations,” he says. There were several bed frame swaps and a period where he started to weave in colors from the other areas of the home. “I tried it, and I’m like, I don’t want to sleep in here,” he says. “I’m gonna go back to monochrome, pick the perfect color, and just do shades of that.” That hue turned out to be Glidden’s English Ivy, and it set the scene for his solid wood spindle headboard. Knowing he didn’t plan to hang art over the bed, he needed something to add interest at least halfway up the wall, and this frame did just that. It also happened to be a match for the natural tone that lines the built-in cabinets on the opposite wall. 

If you’re wondering whether or not any of Licout’s choices were influenced by his work in the public eye, of course they were. “I thought a lot about what I do for a living when it comes to the apartment and how I could create interesting moments for filming,” he explains. But in the end, his aesthetic is less about earning likes from others and more about embracing his own. It’s the personification of the clothes in his closet, the music he listens to, and the films he watches, all of which happen to create an extremely engaging backdrop. Ultimately, the story that matters most is the one his space tells about him. 

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