Stickybeak of the Week: A Colour-Coordinated Library Sets the Tone
An interior designer mixes Hollywood glamour with contemporary chic for a show-stopping library room
Not everyone knows what their decor style is. The professional athlete who recently purchased this Nashville home had no clue what he wanted the inside to look like. He didn’t even own a single piece of furniture. He handed the reins to interior designer Hannah Crowell, who worked with the homeowner and his girlfriend to home in on a fun, contemporary look that’s one part Hollywood glamour and one part traditional turned on its head. Blue velvet chesterfield sofa, anyone?
To figure out the style that the homeowner and his girlfriend would like, Crowell began by sending them images from Houzz and narrowing things down from there. When they responded enthusiastically to a blue velvet chesterfield sofa, she built the room around that.
While the bookcase was already wired for lighting, the medieval-style fixtures that were in place didn’t sit well with Crowell. She swapped them out with modern candle-like sconces.
She and her clients also didn’t like the plaster finish on the walls that had been installed by previous homeowners. So the first thing she did to the space was add plasterboard and paint. For the walls, she chose Cornforth White from Farrow & Ball. “It’s the perfect light grey,” she says. “I probably use it in every single house I do. It doesn’t read blue, green or purple, which is easy with grey paint.”
She used Lamp Room Grey by Farrow & Ball, which has a little bit of green in it, to darken the bookcase backing.
Through the back-and-forth with Houzz images, Crowell knew the homeowner’s girlfriend liked Hollywood glamour style, so she brought in a couple of noir dome chairs.
The rest of her approach focused on mixing. A marble-topped coffee table with silver legs is mixed with brass side tables. “I just love mixing metals like that,” the designer says. Meanwhile, a cowhide rug is layered on top of a jute rug. “Jute is so inexpensive,” Crowell says. “I like to do something inexpensive and then something nice on top.”
She chose simple, neutral drapes with studded fabric at the bottom that wouldn’t dominate the high-ceilinged space. “I didn’t want to have 6 metres of pattern,” she says.
Worlds Away Coffee table: Surf; sconces: Currey & Co.; side tables: Gabby
While the bookcase was already wired for lighting, the medieval-style fixtures that were in place didn’t sit well with Crowell. She swapped them out with modern candle-like sconces.
She and her clients also didn’t like the plaster finish on the walls that had been installed by previous homeowners. So the first thing she did to the space was add plasterboard and paint. For the walls, she chose Cornforth White from Farrow & Ball. “It’s the perfect light grey,” she says. “I probably use it in every single house I do. It doesn’t read blue, green or purple, which is easy with grey paint.”
She used Lamp Room Grey by Farrow & Ball, which has a little bit of green in it, to darken the bookcase backing.
Through the back-and-forth with Houzz images, Crowell knew the homeowner’s girlfriend liked Hollywood glamour style, so she brought in a couple of noir dome chairs.
The rest of her approach focused on mixing. A marble-topped coffee table with silver legs is mixed with brass side tables. “I just love mixing metals like that,” the designer says. Meanwhile, a cowhide rug is layered on top of a jute rug. “Jute is so inexpensive,” Crowell says. “I like to do something inexpensive and then something nice on top.”
She chose simple, neutral drapes with studded fabric at the bottom that wouldn’t dominate the high-ceilinged space. “I didn’t want to have 6 metres of pattern,” she says.
Worlds Away Coffee table: Surf; sconces: Currey & Co.; side tables: Gabby
To fill the expanse above the adjacent fireplace, Crowell framed a large piece of what she says was “crazy expensive” wallpaper on a piece of bluish-green silk. “[It would have] cost me a kidney” to do the whole room in it, she says.
In the nearby dining area, she changed the lighting and added a large wooden dining table surrounded by white chairs. The host and hostess seats are backed in metallic Osborne & Little fabric. “It gave a subtle pop and shimmer that I liked,” she says.
Crowell is a big fan of using photography for art pieces, and suggested the artist Danny Clinch to her clients. They bought three pieces, one of which was of Ringo Starr. Crowell learned that Starr had to approve the sale of Clinch’s image to Crowell and her clients, so she spent two anxious weeks waiting to hear if they were approved. “It was like, ‘oh my God, are we going to be cool enough for Ringo to let us hang his artwork?’” she says. He approved, and the piece now hangs at the bottom of the staircase.
Table: Z Gallerie; chairs: Lee Industries; chandelier: Currey & Co.
Crowell is a big fan of using photography for art pieces, and suggested the artist Danny Clinch to her clients. They bought three pieces, one of which was of Ringo Starr. Crowell learned that Starr had to approve the sale of Clinch’s image to Crowell and her clients, so she spent two anxious weeks waiting to hear if they were approved. “It was like, ‘oh my God, are we going to be cool enough for Ringo to let us hang his artwork?’” she says. He approved, and the piece now hangs at the bottom of the staircase.
Table: Z Gallerie; chairs: Lee Industries; chandelier: Currey & Co.
Location: Nashville, US
Who lives here: A professional athlete and his girlfriend
Size: About 6 by 12 metres
Crowell, of Crowell + Co. Interiors, recently finished the couple’s library, where she battled soaring 6-metre arched ceilings and a massive bookcase with 120 shelves. The latter she filled by buying books by the metre from Strand and colour coordinating them in ombre patterns.
She had started buying really nice art books to fill the space but quickly realised it would take thousands of dollars to fill it. Ordering 152 metres of books – 15 metres of white books here, 15 metres of orange books there – seemed more economical, with one caveat. “You’re not getting the best books; who knows what you’re going to get?” she says. “It becomes completely about filling the bookshelf. You don’t want to look too closely, or you’ll find weird mystery books, Oprah’s biography and stuff you might buy at an airport in the 1980s.”
Crowell’s husband helped her colour code the library. “It took about 14 hours to get the ombre situation that goes through the whole rainbow,” she says. “At the end of that day, I was like, ‘get me a drink.’”