This house is a culmination of incorporating a contemporary art collection along with wonderful pieces that are inspired by traditional lines but with modern twists and modern fabrics placed on them. This couple relocated to Louisville, KY from Tuxedo Park in New York. They are very much involved with the Whitney Museum so they have a world-class contemporary art collection. They moved back to Louisville because the husband is from Louisville (bringing his New York-based wife here to resettle) so they wanted something very modern and new to the local aesthetic. We wanted their house to almost look gallery-like. When you walk around, we wanted it to be about the art. So everything is a canvas for the art.

We brought in all sorts of modern colors: dark browns in the dining room, meshed with crisp trim so that some of their photograph collection could really be set off in the dining room. The photos have a lot of crisp, white colors in them and white mattes. Then we also have the eclectic mix of these traditional pieces of furniture, mixed in with some modern pieces.

When we came to interior design, we put focus and emphasis on details such as trims, wonderful pillows and accents. We also added subtle patterns in carpets, tone-on-tone fabrics. With this home it was all about textural quality, rather than bright colors. It was also about functionality. Though the focus of the decor was about the art, we needed to make sure we had spaces meant for kids.