Designer Rivers Spencer’s Stylish New Orleans Cottage: A Blend of Antiques, Art, and Everyday Functionality

On one end of the room, Spencer added a floor-to-ceiling custom built-in bookcase and more seating to create the atmosphere of a library or a perfect spot for tête-à-têtes. On the fireplace side, she designed a custom banquette for a corner joined by a Lucite table and French chairs, making an ideal spot for game playing, a favorite activity of the Spencers and their guests. Spencer started her design career with an antiques store on Magazine Street. While antiques will always be an essential part of any home she designs, her personal tastes have shifted over the years.

“When I started in the antiques business, I liked heavier, more ornate pieces—which I still do—but now the idea is to create some tension, making the look cleaner and less fussy,” she says. Spencer paired an Art Moderne enfilade from Jan Showers and topped it with a fanciful gilded Louis XIV mirror, for example. Other ways Spencer successfully creates that push/pull is by weaving in more saturated colorful contemporary artwork.

A magnificent antique Louis XVI marble-topped commode in the entry keeps company with an ethereal landscape from New Orleans–based artist Kevin Gillentine, a friend of the designer and one of her clients’ favorites. Sometimes the art drives the initial inspiration. “I buy what I can’t live without,” notes Spencer. “I fell so in love with a lavender-hued piece by Mallory Page for the breakfast room that I commissioned a similarly-colored Murano glass chandelier for over the table. I love how the glass fixture bounces light around the space.”

The designer kept any trace of disconnectedness at bay through unifying elements—architectural details such as the treillage treatment across the entire ceiling; an engaging mural wall covering, Pastoral, by artist Susan Harter, with its dreamy landscape of trees; and a huge textural diamond weave bound Stark carpet. “I don’t think the large room would feel interesting, unified, and warm without these linking visual touchpoints,” says Spencer. And of course, carefully curated and exquisite antiques join in the conversation, providing an additional rich layer.

Spencer also plays with lighting to keep the rooms from feeling too staid. “I lean toward more contemporary pieces, unless a client wants traditional antique light fixtures. I find they are a bit more unexpected, and you can play with the material, scale, and shape,” she says. For her own home, she chose a couple of fixtures from New Orleans–based Julie Neill’s collection for Visual Comfort, including a large globe that hangs between the two sofas in the living room. She also used a Julie Neill piece over the dining table that was inspired by an Italian style from the 1960s that serves as a foil to the neoclassical fluted pedestals for the table’s base.

In her repertoire of design tricks, Spencer artfully transformed the skinny heart pine planks with their orangish cast (seen everywhere in historic homes in New Orleans) by employing a pickling technique instead of straightforward stain. “It’s applied by hand with a rag and mixes several layers of color in different saturations for this nuanced look,” she explains.

And while the floors may stay the same, everything else is on the proverbial chopping block. “Because the house is on the smaller size, I need to absolutely love every piece in here. If I change my mind or decide it’s not perfect, I just sell it!” says Spencer—spoken like a seasoned antiques dealer with the certainty that a change in her own home will surely result in a treasure in someone else’s.