3 minute read
DESIGN SNAPSHOT
A Taste of the TROPICS
Compiled by Amelia Boldaji Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Neal
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Not one to shy away from
a challenge, interior designer Amy Hilliker Pope found herself wondering if there was a way to revamp a shoreside look that didn’t stray too far from that original concept. With a client who was open to fresh ideas, Amy took inspiration from the few years she spent designing in Miami, Florida, to give the casual bar room of this Corolla home a bit of that Sunshine State swagger – and let a taste of retro style pull together an exciting new way of defi ning coastal cool.
Tufted-Back Velvet Sofa
It all started with the sofa, according to Amy – which was, ironically, the piece of furniture that took the longest to arrive. As the design centerpiece, however, it was worth the wait. Since the room sat adjacent to another area done all in blues, Amy suggested focusing mostly on green tones in this space for contrast, and adding a retro twist all but demanded an era-appropriate touch of velvet – which perfectly played up the room’s jungle-like faux palms.
Marble-Tiled Wall
Narrowing down ideas for a statement piece to fi ll the blank space behind the sofa took time – but in collaboration with house builders Mancuso Development, a vision soon evolved to create a showstopping marbletiled wall. Though the unusual approach was tricky to execute, the team made it work – which allowed the gold-accented pattern to do double duty by drawing attention fi rst to the luxe sofa, and then upward to the exposed-beam ceiling. Accent Accessories
Using the couch as a focal point against the tiled wall ultimately meant that the rest of the room needed to take a backseat to those headliners. Hence the neutral and texturally contrasting leather club chairs, the softly round stone-top metal coff ee table, and the woven cowhide rug with a geometrical pattern reminiscent of (yet not identical to) the wall tiles. As a whole, no detail was spared – even when it came down to the accent pillows. “I wanted to have one pillow that incorporated all the colors in the room,” Amy says of the sofa’s central lumbar cushion. “Finding that exact fabric was a mission, and we had to have it custom-made, but in the end we did it.”
Painted Shiplap Ceiling
While the pop of a peacock-blue shiplap ceiling is surprising to say the least, the color wasn’t only visually appealing on its own. Forgoing traditional white also gave Amy the opportunity to tie together a number of other design elements in a predominately green-hued room – including the (unpictured) iridescent blue-green shade of the room’s tiled bar – while also making a transition to the adjacent blue room feel cohesively seamless.
