Written by Myron Griffing
Tucked away on a quiet street, in an unassuming home in Spring Lake, Josh and Concetta Chevalier were running around like folks possessed! Both work full time, he as a lawyer, she as a Realtor. They had just purchased a new home, made much-needed updates and were wanting our help with furniture, art, and accessories for their newly renovated space. Oh, they were also planning a wedding during a pandemic! Needless to say, life was a bit hectic.
Entering the home, we were introduced to a newly installed black-and-white marble floor with concentric squares. This was a bold (and very tasteful) choice so I immediately knew we could get a little funky with their place. Concetta wanted an “adult” but, youthful environment. Their color palette of navy and white had already been painted, so we basically had a blank canvas in which to work.
We like to spend some alone time in each home to get a better feel of how the rooms should be laid out. The spacious living room gave us ample room for two dueling sofas capped with flanking chairs. We used some of their existing items such as side tables and accessories to finish off the space. It’s always better to start any home interior project by finding the larger pieces, then building the rest of the room around those. We found a gorgeous, striated navy velvet fabric for our sofas and the rest of the items just fell into place. Our secondary color for the room was varying shades of Chartreuse. Oddly, this super vivid color works perfectly with Navy.
One of the most important aspects of my job is finding pieces which fit individual tastes. Items have to be curated and tailored to each client’s style and fortunately, the Chevaliers were not afraid of a little “funky.” Nowhere is this more obvious than a set of gold-leafed “scarab” and “stag” beetles in a scrollwork print. I saw them at a store in Tyler, Texas, and immediately knew we HAD to have them! We paired them with two organic, brain-like lamps sitting atop a 6-foot polished brass console and I absolutely love it! A monolithic brass cube coffee table centers the space nicely. We also added a gorgeous Asian-inspired wallpaper to the foyer. It has just the right amount to navy to carry the palette but also has black, white and gold to work with the new floor.
I love mixing older and newer pieces. This blending gives your room a collected and not just purchased look. It is also timeless due to the differing decades the items originated.
We were able to get all of our items placed within a week of the wedding and we all breathed a sigh of relief. Congratulations to the newlyweds as they start their new lives together in a home which truly has, something old, something new, something borrowed and something (navy) blue!