Modern Meets Rustic: A Beautifully Compatible Design Approach
Interior designer Selena McAdams demonstrates that contrasting themes can be pleasingly compatible. Get ready to be wowed!
Modern energy and rustic charm can occupy the same space, a point proven in this beautiful Eads, TN, home. In fact, the healthy competition of contrasting themes often creates a compatible design that yields a pleasingly bold setting. Today,Β weβre looking at the steps designer Selena McAdamsΒ took to achieve this look and swooning at the results!
Flip the switch.
This home is a modern adaptation of the rustic aesthetic. Formerly, John Sandovalβs home was overpowered by a mixture of numerous styles, so he welcomed the clarity offered by interior designer Selena McAdams, owner of Spruce, a Memphis boutique.Β Selena introduced a plan for relaxed, functional comfort. She then added energy to the composition by pairing traditional elements with eclectic furnishings, layering textures and patterns, and occasionally breaking the rules. In Selenaβs words, it is important to βflip the switchβ periodically whenever a room becomes too one-dimensional.
Welcome theΒ ebb and flow of a room.
An advocate of the unexpected, Selena likes to insertΒ conversational objects and furnishings in an interior space. It is often the tasteful choice, she adds, to letΒ a strong design feature stand alone. For instance, not every adjacent room in this groupingΒ needed a statement light fixture. βItβs OK to let one shine. Itβs all about the ebb and flow of materials and textures breathing life into a room,β Selena says.
InΒ the sitting room, noteΒ how aΒ braveΒ combination of a classic, ornate mirror with anΒ assertive, modern light fixture represents the ebb and flow of this room. There are also understated gestural patterns layered into the space for subtle contrast, drawing the eye from piece to piece. One conversationalΒ element in this room is a ribbed silk rug by Stark, an additional dimension with its soft, reflective sheen, and the coffee table accessories represent an eclectic marriage of soft, hard, natural, modern and classic.
Break the rules.
Major changes primarily happened downstairs inΒ this 2014 renovation that wrapped upΒ just in time for New Yearβs.Β At the start, moving a large wall opened the main living area, whichΒ added a grand feel to the kitchen and dining room within existing square footage. The space was already there; it just needed to be reappointed.
The once-small dining room was transformed into a sitting room with high-back swivel chairs, and the living room is now a dining room that opens to the kitchen. This updated arrangement invites relaxed small and large gatherings, and the formal living room is not missed. βItβs all about thinking outside the box and making your square footage work for you,β Selena explains, βand the greatest thing about design is breaking the rules so that your space works for the way you live.β
Proper scale is nonnegotiable.
With a male as the primary owner, Selena enjoyed the opportunity and intermittent challenges of playing into a masculine style. βIn our very first meeting,β Selena recalls, βhe showed me a buffalo head in his office that was at least five feet tall and a picture of a moose head taller than me and said, βWe are going to need to find a home for this.β β Selena responded by increasing the scale of the fireplace and overall dining room layout to accommodate the size of his prizedΒ item.
Proper scale is always one of Selenaβs primary goals. As mentioned, the moose headβs size greatly influenced subsequent choices of proportion. Similarly, the large, ornate mirror that John already owned was inspiration for the scale and style of other furnishings in the sitting room. For example, even though the statement light fixture chosen for that room is, in contrast to the mirror, quiteΒ modern, the fixture doesΒ match the mirror in both size and grandeur. This was a decision Selena made to βflip the switchβ in the sitting area. The reason it works: careful attention to scale.
Where space is limited, there are ways to totally trick the eye into seeing a bigger area. In this home, for example, removing crown molding in the kitchen and dining room not only created a more contemporary feel, but also heightened the rooms by transferring emphasis away from the roof line. Other common design strategies to heighten a room includeΒ using taller drapery panels and higher cabinetry. And in this homeβs powder room,Β a plate glass mirror was used in lieu of a backsplash to make that space feel larger.
Play with color, pattern and texture.
Influenced by Johnβs affinity for the rustic, this project called for a consistent use of warm tones. Within this palette a variety of patterns and textures add visual interest. In the main living areas, an abundant use of Chevron Texture wall covering by Schumacher is one of Selenaβs favorite selections they made for the home.Β ItΒ provides a warm background hue with subtle, modern pattern and rustic texture β¦ all in one design element. βI so enjoy the delicate balance between refined and rustic, and how the juxtaposition of those elements within the same space can create drama and interest, even if the color palette is subtle,β Selena says.
This playful use of color, texture and pattern is pervasive throughout the house, fromΒ leathered, black granite countertops in the kitchen, powder room and bath areas to pebbled stone flooring in the master bath.
The ebb and flow of this modern rustic interior began with a reorganized floor plan and continued to completion with an emphasis on scale, visual movement and assertive design choices. Occasionally, Selena enjoyed bending the rules, and the result is a customized interior where form and function are compatible.
Resources
- Interior and spatial design, materials andΒ furnishings: SpruceΒ
- Meg Kerr at Spruce
- Contractor and custom cabinetry:Β Hunt Simonton of HS Carpentry
- Plumbing: Mark Wade of Wade Plumbing
- Countertops: Mark Childress of American Granite
- Appliances and fixtures: Ferguson
- Tile and natural stone: Natural Stone & Tile
- Carpeting and rugs: Kiserβs Floor Fashions
- Artwork: L Ross Gallery
- Photography: Julie Wage Ross
**********************
