The Finishing Touches
Written By Jessen O’Brien / Photography by Alise O’Brien
Interior designers often have to part with a project before it’s fully finished — artwork not yet hung, accessories searching for a home. But recently, Kelly Johnson of Kelly Johnson Design, had the rare joy of seeing a project all the way through to the very end. In fact, Johnson is still working with the homeowner to perfect those critical final details.
“We are going down to every finishing touch — what’s on every table, what’s on every wall — and getting it just right,” says Johnson. “That’s very special because it doesn’t happen all the time; but when it does, the outcome is just fantastic. It’s the last five percent of a project that makes it really spectacular.”
Getting to that final five percent requires patience, trust, and, in the case of this Ladue home, timing. “We had bought a house in Arizona and had to furnish it, and we had just bought a house in Clayton three years before — and we had remodeled it,” says the homeowner, whose husband wanted to move out of their Clayton residence and into a home with more space. She agreed on two conditions: they build the house from the ground up and hire an interior designer to take care of everything.
It’s that first condition that led them to Johnson. The homeowners contacted her husband’s company, Johnson Development, looking for a lot. Her husband, Roger, then introduced them to Kelly. “I liked the idea of a husband-and-wife team,” says the homeowner. “They were really great — they got along, they listened to us, and we listened to them.”
Kelly and Roger aren’t a built-in deal — Johnson notes that only about a fifth of her current projects are with her husband — but they love working together when the opportunity arises. “It’s a bonus for the client since we’re basically talking shop three meals a day, so there’s no miscommunication,” says Johnson.
Johnson worked with Alspaugh Kitchen & Bath on the kitchen.
Another benefit is that the pair often works with the same vendors, which means that everyone is very familiar with each other. Johnson’s a big believer in the value of assembling the full team as soon as possible. “I always tell prospective clients the sooner they can put together the builder, architect, and designer, the better the end result,” she says. “Everyone has different gifts they bring to the table. And it can save a lot of changes.”
Johnson toured the homeowners’ Clayton home to get a feel for their lifestyle and their taste. Right away, she noticed that they were drawn to crisp, high-contrast neutrals. Her goal became to create a softer, more tranquil version of what they already liked, while still finding ways to create moments of drama.
A delicate Gracie wallpaper acts as the dining room’s artwork.
Take the dining room. Despite being rendered almost entirely in warm whites, with touches of gold, it’s a showstopper thanks to the chandelier — four tiers of champagne-colored discs — and an exquisite Gracie wallpaper whose hand-painted trees shimmer in and out of view depending upon the light and the angle.
“I came into [Johnson’s] office and this wallpaper was hanging there. I said, ‘Wow, that’s cool — who’s it for?’ And she said, ‘We were hoping for you!’” recalls the homeowner. Because the wallpaper is so delicate, they waited to install it until the subcontractors were done and the house was nearly complete. The result was worth the effort. The dining room is the first room people see when they walk inside, so Johnson knew it had to be strong enough to set the tone for the rest of the house.
“It was just a natural fit from the get-go,” recalls Johnson. “The homeowners were fantastic to work with — very open-minded and willing to consider concepts and ideas that they would never have come up with on their own. A good client will hire the people that they deem to be the right fit for them and then they will trust them to do what they do best.”
The most challenging room to design was the living room. “You can see a lot of the house when you’re there,” says Johnson. “And I’m big on flow. Not that every room has to match, but we had to design it in such a way that it was going to connect the mood of the dining room to the mood of the great room.”
Minimalist glass fireplace screens — like the one in the great room — were designed for three of the home’s fireplaces.
Johnson collaborated with Morgan Brown, a member of her design team, and together they landed on a color palette that could help bridge the two and developed a layout that makes the most of the room’s triple-barrel-vaulted ceilings. But there was one element that they knew right from the beginning would be critical to finishing the room: a large-scale artwork for the back wall. The right piece would take more than a year to find. Eventually, Johnson connected with Bridget Melloy, the senior director of Projects + Gallery. Melloy sent them a portfolio that included a striking red John Zinsser painting.
Visitors often ask if the Zinsser painting was commissioned for the living room.
“The second she showed it to me, I knew it was absolutely perfect in scale, in color, in mood — everything,” says Johnson. “When they carried it into the room, all of our mouths dropped. It’s like the painting was made for the room, or the room was made for the painting. It just makes the space.”
Through the living room lies the great room, where another standout piece of art — this time, a black-and-white abstract work by St. Louis painter Ted Collier — hangs over the fireplace. To its left, Johnson designed a paneling system using cabinetry to give a plain sidewall architectural interest. A caramel-colored sofa provides one of the room’s only touches of color; behind it, a light fixture shaped like an urchin hovers over the breakfast table. “The lighting throughout the home was chosen for its artistic credence. It makes a statement,” says Johnson. “We love that fixture because it eats up a lot of volume without being heavy and you can still see through it — it’s not cutting out your view of the wonderful outdoor space.”
Antique glass lines the wall above the sink to accommodate the powder room’s circular window.
A dressy powder room decked in a Scalamandre wallpaper and the homeowner’s two favorite rooms — the kitchen (developed with Alspaugh Kitchen & Bath) and the study — help round out the first floor. The former is bright, spacious, and has a fun surprise in store for those who look up. “One of the things I love most in my house is the wallpapered ceiling in the kitchen. A lot of people comment on it,” says the homeowner, who also enjoys showing off the study. The space is pretty and feminine, with a white floral wallpaper, soft silk rug, and custom-built grey lacquer desk. She tells visitors, “It’s my study — not my husband’s.”
The feminine study is one of the homeowner’s favorite rooms.
Johnson incorporated bits of black into almost every room to create a consistent flow throughout the house. The one exception is the master bedroom, where she swapped the black for a peacock blue, which appears in two chairs and a painting by New Orleans-based artist Mallory Page. “That room is so soft and subtle — there’s a champagne silk wall covering and another silk rug in golden tones on the floor,” says Johnson. “I felt that the black was going to be too harsh in that room, so the peacock was a way to tone it down a little.”
A fireplace screen of gold, curved branches adds glamour to the master bedroom.
As is the case with so many of the home’s finishing touches, the homeowner originally wasn’t sure about the blue. “‘Just trust me,’ [Johnson] said,” she recalls. “And I’m glad I did. I love our house; there’s not a thing I would change.”
