Text Alice Welsh Doyle
Photography Emily Followill
Stylist Yvonne Orchard
Y Style Studio
Sometimes change finds you before you were expecting it, and that’s just what happened to a client of Julie Kleiner of Massucco Warner Interior Design. As she explains, “I had been living in my 1947 craftsman-style bungalow in Decatur, Georgia, for 25 years and always expected to move into a newer house as I aged, but I ended up making that move sooner rather than later.”
She had always admired these townhomes only half a mile away from her house, and when one became available, she seized the opportunity. The new house, however, was completely different from her former one—four stories high with an elevator and a more open plan. The homeowner soon realized that some professional help was in order, so she enlisted Kleiner, who had worked on her sister’s home in San Francisco. In addition to help with scale and space planning, the client wanted her new home to be filled with captivating color throughout.
A Colorful New Chapter: How Julie Kleiner Transformed a Decatur Townhome with Vibrant Design
A Colorful New Chapter: How Julie Kleiner Transformed a Decatur Townhome with Vibrant Design
A Colorful New Chapter: How Julie Kleiner Transformed a Decatur Townhome with Vibrant Design
A Colorful New Chapter: How Julie Kleiner Transformed a Decatur Townhome with Vibrant Design
A Colorful New Chapter: How Julie Kleiner Transformed a Decatur Townhome with Vibrant Design
Kleiner approaches color by choosing what she refers to as “hero” fabrics that form the jumping off point for much of the palette. “One was the dining chair fabric with its dusty pink background, green and white squiggles, and some varied colored dots, and my client said whatever you want to do around that, I am fine!” says the designer. A pillow fabric on the pink sofa in the living room also played a role. “It has a yummy candy color vibe with pale aqua, grass green, blush pink, and a pale apricot that we drew from,” says Kleiner.
The designer and her client picked out art early in the process, and those choices further informed the palette. “Rather on a whim, I sent her the work of a photographer I love that features food in a larger-than-life kind of way,” says Kleiner. The image, with bright pink macarons on a vivid blue background with miniatures, captured her client’s fancy. “I just love it and love the name,” says the homeowner. “It’s called Macaron Incident. People will come in and glance at it and then later take a closer look and burst out laughing because it’s so tongue in cheek.”
For colors to make sense together, Kleiner focuses on the intensity and value of the shades as well as the size and scale of prints. “You don’t want anything to look like a one-off that your eye instantly lands on. For example, if you are using a deeper blue color in the living room, you should create a balance by adding another deeper color nearby; here we added a banquette in the adjoining dinning space in a teal blue,” says the designer. “And then you can sprinkle in those smaller touches, such as the blue marbling in the garden stool; equal dosing, so that nothing feels too heavy-handed.”
For her client’s bedroom, Kleiner went in a slightly different direction. “The colors in her bedroom are a little offbeat from downstairs. We twisted things a bit to be a little moodier and murkier,” says the designer. “The lighter pink from downstairs exists as a thread, but we added a rich caramel/olive green tone along with dusty lilacs and purple hues with gray undertones.”
Selections through the house support and uplift the palette. Kleiner employed streamlined white plaster overhead lighting in floral-inspired shapes in the living and dining spaces and glass lanterns for the kitchen. For her client’s bedroom, the designer needed something large, given the scale of the room and tall ceiling. “I chose this swirled glass ball fixture, because it felt like a cloud and very ethereal for a bedroom; we wanted to keep it airy,” says Kleiner.
Likewise, the rug selections are on the quiet side to provide a backdrop for all the art, color, and prints. “This house is so light and scrumptious, I didn’t want to use any dark-colored rugs.” Because the dining room also serves as a connecting space, her client was worried about having a rug there at all, but Kleiner introduced a winning compromise—an indoor/outdoor rug from Perennials. “It’s just such a beautiful pattern, and it’s so soft when you step on it,” she says. In the primary bedroom, Kleiner introduced a thistle-colored wool broadloom rug to impart a softness to the hardwood floors. A pale aqua blue runner brings texture to the kitchen. The entire design speaks to the power of color but also the importance of thoughtful editing. “Everything is just so beautiful,” says the homeowner. “Even though my home is colorful, it’s actually very relaxing.
