Case Study: A New Orleans Traditional Home Is Updated

The living room the day I came to have a look
Things that I could not change: recently painted walls, and floor color
Everything else could go

A customer walked into perch., the home furnishings store I work in (in New Orleans), and asks for me. She's heard I revitalize rooms with a certain New York, rock and roll glam edge. She asks me to pay a house call, telling me she needs to update her traditional French inspired look she did ten years ago. She told me we could throw everything out and start over.

While the rooms were a little lackluster and dated, there was still alot of good stuff there, and I tell her we are not throwing anything out. We will reupholster and move things around to other parts of the house, and add a some things from perch.

I am doing the 95% of the house, and today I am starting with showing you the front living room. It is a room used mainly for entertaining. There is a family room, a room the husband loves as -is, and in actuality it is very nice, and I decide to keep him happy and leave well enough alone.

The living room today
I gave it my signature New York, rock and roll glam

The first thing I did was edit the contents and rearrange the furniture. Already the client said she could breathe. The pieces I kept were the mirror, the antique settee, the couch, and a little stool. The arm chair is covered in a gorgeous discontinued Bergamo fabric and got moved to a guest room I call "the French woman's bedroom." In fact most of the furnishings moved to this room, including the investment drapes. I just removed the brush fringe to update them a little. The lamp with the half slip left too, but for the moment it was the only light source (other than the windows) in the room.

The furniture was rearranged and edited
The fabulous arm chair covered in Bergamo went upstairs
Note the color of the floor - it inspired the new drapery color
The sad lamp with the half slip was the only light in here
We moved the crystal chandelier from the dining room here
It is original to the house
The dining room is getting a Mouille chandelier

We moved quickly. The project started in the third week of September and the bulk of it was done by December 15th. I have a gift for instantly envisioning a room completely done, and make confident decisions quickly. The client was a dream, trusting me instantly, and able to move quickly as well. Three rooms were done, and a large bar area, and one son's bedroom got an instant update for his homecoming from college. I am now working on a another son's room and the guest bedroom, and some small things in the lady's office.

Furniture from perch. came in right away, and everyone there helped push the project as fast as we wanted to go.

As I said, the lady of the house has two children one aged 8 and one in college, just to give you her age range. She is stylish and very savvy. She loves mid-century modern, color, and metallic, and asked to use chrome somewhere, which I did in other rooms. I took the metallic cue and ran with. We purchased the zinc side tables from Restoration Hardware - they are actually garden pedestals. I placed a pair of gilded French antique lamps here that were moved from the dining room sideboard. I updated them by having the center pole raised and adding a modern shade.

Zinc "side table" is a garden pedestal

Two side chairs from perch.
I reupholstered the seats in vibrant turquoise, a color the client loves
The photograph is from perch. - "Jane Doe" by Lisa Conrad
I decided to keep the sea grass rug

I removed the over stuffed down cushion from the settee
It was reupholstered in white metallic ultra suede -
All fabrics I used come from perch.
Note when we do custom work like this
We "retire" the fabric in New Orleans - we cut it out of the sample book
New Orleans is a small city
perch. wants its customers to truly have one-of-a-kind work

A side table with a built-in lamp was added from Hazelnut
We loved it's mid century vibe
Check out the apricot silk swatch of the drapery fabric
No matter what, the girls in New Orleans want silk drapes from perch.


A metal sculpture was added from perch.
I thought about a sconce, but the scale had to be large
The oversize ottoman is also from perch.
I called Nicole Cohen to make us a large Lucite tray HERE
And the chandelier is in it's new home

A custom painting done by Jack Mayberry from perch.
The colors are inspired by the decor

Painting by Jack Mayberry

The Lucite tray designed by Nicole Cohen arrives!
Silver chrome studs give it rock star edge
A custom green silk pillow from perch. replaced the furry beasts


Detail of custom pillow
I chose this luscious fabric from perch.
The perch. fabric room has a half a million samples

The stairs are the first thing you see when you come in the front door
They had ten year old sea grass on them
I replaced that with an antelope pattern carpet runner
The window had a foofy balloon shade that had to go
I replaced it with an apricot silk Roman shade
Jack's painting hangs next to this window
There is no room for an entry table
The stairs, the shade, and the painting become an important focal point

Elegant antelope print carpet stair runner from perch.

Key elements include:
An infusion of color
Visual Vamp glam
Apricot silk drapes from perch.
Luxe fabrics and furnishings from perch.
(check out the little stool recovered in leopard raffia)
A mix of old and new
Interesting art work
Mixed metals

If you like, I'll show you another room from this house next week.

I am so blessed to have a stylish client seek me out with a project like this, and colleagues, Caroline Robert and Jack Mayberry at perch. I have never been happier!

Call us at perch.
There are three of us there doing the design chores, and you are bound to click with one of us!
504 899 2122

Please take a look at Susan's weekly feature Metamorphosis Monday HERE

Posted in: Behind Closed Doors, Chandeliers, Interior Design, Jack Mayberry, Lisa Conrad, Living Rooms, new nola STYLE, New Orleans, Nicole Cohen, Perch, Visual Vamp Designs and ReVamps