Inside Houzz: Bye-Bye, Bland Bachelor Pad
Mary Ellen Hamel and Randall McIntyre’s marriage began with a dilemma. How would they combine years of furnishings and accessories into McIntyre's home, where he’d spent 20 years living as a bachelor? “It was a hodgepodge of different things with no cohesive theme,” Hamel says.
They tried shopping for pieces together, but McIntyre picked things without a design plan in mind, and Hamel had trouble making decisions because she didn’t feel confident without a design plan. “I didn’t know if it’d look good or not,” she says. “I don’t have the expertise, and I didn’t want to spend a bunch of money and it not look right. We needed some direction.”
An interior designer who didn’t work out for the couple suggested they use Houzz for design ideas. They then used the site to search for professionals and found designer Allison Jaffe’s profile. They read her short biography and liked that she had degrees in neuropsychology and interior design. “That intrigued us. We could tell she was really smart,” Hamel says.
Here's how Jaffe helped transform their space:
Jaffe met the couple at their Lake Austin, Texas, home and they got to work with a game plan based on Hamel and McIntyre's inspiration photo and ideabook. The bland colors, art and furniture would all go, especially the rustic round coffee table that McIntyre had shortened by chopping the base. “That went to Salvation Army,” Hamel says.
The sofa originally faced the fireplace, which Jaffe noticed cut off the view of the lake.
AFTER: So the first thing Jaffe did was reorient the space so the sofa paralleled the waterfront and gave them a new focal point. The three then chose fabrics, paint colors and new furniture pieces. The brown sofa, rug and some antiques are all that remain from the previous layout.
Reading chair, bench: Norwalk Furniture; coffee table: Stockton Hicks Laffey
Hamel had hoped the ceiling beams would be the same as the wooden ones on the patio, and that she would be able to strip, sand and buff them. But they were plaster and steel.
AFTER: They thought about removing the beams altogether, but Jaffe found out that it'd be more cost efficient — and striking — to wrap them in wood veneer. “We were basically trying to get away from the Miami Vice look of the house,” Hamel says.
They wanted to bring in color, and thought of making the fireplace wall an accent wall in blue. But after playing around with an online wall color simulator, they realized that with all the windows, they could pull off three of the walls' being blue. The couple chose a blue that complemented the blue in the rug and reminded them of the blue waves they had seen in Hawaii on a ferry ride.
After choosing fabrics, they picked out furniture pieces and accessories to reupholster.
The dining room had the same dark and bland tone as the living room. They kept the table and chairs, but sold the rest of the pieces or moved them to another room.
AFTER: Jaffe added a new buffet table and took the drapes to the ceiling with new fabric. She then incorporated 1920s art deco lighting and a bright art piece made entirely from colored electrical tape.
Art: Ed L. Boyd
Jaffe also redid the powder room. She started with a wallpaper from Cole & Sons and convinced the couple to have a custom vanity with a marble countertop.
Mirror: Jonathan Adler
After photos by Kent Metschan
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