Used with Permission of Houston House & Home
February 2002, Vol. 9 No. 2
written by Melanie Gilbronson
photos by Phyllis Hand
Have you ever dreamed of living in a five-star luxury hotel? That’s what life is like for residents of Villa d’Este, a 27-story high-rise tower near the Galleria. A uniformed doorman welcomes you into a well-appointed lobby that exudes sumptuous elegance. Scenic Italian landscapes and beautifully carved marble busts occupy the art niches and rich hues of red, gold, and cream pattern the lush carpeting. A 24-hour concierge can see to the occupants’ every desire, discreetly of course.
But this isn’t New York City. This is uptown Houston. Bayou City residents are choosing a new way to live where personal service and convenience are paramount. “I decided it was worthwhile to try something where it was easier to live,” says Debbie Tummins, an accomplished executive in the technology industry. “For security reasons, high-rise living was also very appealing to me.” Debbie struggled with the concept of moving from a three-bedroom home with a study to a one-bedroom high-rise retreat. “I didn’t know how I could get what I wanted with this kind of space,” she says.
She chose internationally renowned interior designer Kelly Gale Amen, ASID, to translate her individual expression of style and comfort to the high-rise residence. “I’ve known Kelly for 13 years; he designed my prior home,” says Debbie. She gave Amen one important directive in the design of her space. “I want it to be beautiful,” she says. “But I also want to be able to kick off my shoes and put my feet up when I come home.”
The unit she purchased was spacious and elegant, with a luxurious fit and a finish. The large kitchen had all the bells and whistles a gourmand demands. A separate master bedroom and bath met her needs for a private living suite. A formal entryway, walled with bookcases and a library ladder, led to a rectangular living area and adjacent room used by the former owners as a study.
Amen tore down the wall, a visual roadblock separating the living room and the study, and the living room and the study, and topped the newly framed opening with a transom of clerestory beveled glass windows.
“Now there is a large space, a transitional space, and then a more intimate space,” says Amen of what is now a single large room. “Don’t you feel like you are in a separate space here?” He asks the question about what is now the sitting area, but is clear he is certain of the answer. Hardwood floors replacing white carpet and tile complete the visual flow and unity of the spaces.
MAKING ROOM FOR LIVING
Amen reshaped the living area, but, more significantly, he changed Debbie’s notion of how to live in it. The largest space became her living room. The transition space became the dining room area, and the more intimate space became her TV room.
Amen was also concerned with the home’s functionality. He added a square of track lighting to the ceiling above the living area. “This track allows you to change the lighting as you change the environment,” he says. A storeroom off the kitchen was revamped into Debbie’s office space using cubicle-style office furniture she can take with her if she moves. Closets were customized, and the unit was wired for sound.
Amen is masterful with mirror, applying to walls here and there for a dramatic touch. “I put it where it is unexpected,” he says. “Mirror reflects light in spaces that would have otherwise gone dead.” In Debbie’s home, Amen placed mirror on the backsplash in the kitchen, substantially lightening a room filled with mahogany-stained cabinetry and black granite countertops. Then he positioned mirror on the wall between the master bedroom and bath, around the front door, and around the framed opening of the three contagious living spaces. “Most people buy a mirror and put it in the middle of the wall,” he explains. “I’m more interested in putting it around a door so you’re not sure where the door is. It leaves a surrealistic impression.”
Debbie asked for colors that were neither aggressive nor overpowering. “Kelly is so good at colors that I never even question his choices,” says Debbie. Amen chose subtle colors like peach and celadon for the walls. The harsh white in the kitchen was changed to pistachio and melon. This alteration further brightened a space described as “cave-like” by both Debbie and Amen.
Woodwork, trim, and the entryway’s dark mahogany bookcases were painted white, then coated with an umber glaze. “We did base coats and lots of glazing to give the soft colors dimension,” says Amen. “Glazing makes the woodwork active and dimensional. It flows right into the ceiling.” Ceilings in the living room and entry were ragged with a combination of muted tones the form a heavenly halo and lend the room both scale and intimacy. In Amen-designed homes, you feel the ambiance; you don’t notice the colors.
EASY ELEGANCE
“I took everything she loved and reincarnated it into the new space so there was a familiar element,” says Amen. “A vestige of her spirit, her soul, her comfort zone.” Debbie’s prized rugs, an antique Agra and a turn-of-the-century Serapi, worked easily into her new home and help define each space. The Persian Agra, in pleasing blue tones, accents the floor of the intimate-space-turned-TV room. The more vibrant Serapi introduces vivid jewel tones and geometric patterns to the living room.
He placed her dining table, a design from a signature line of KGA Compound furniture, between the two rugs in the transition space. Amen centered a Greek urn, found by Debbie in a gallery on the island of Rhodes, on her glass-topped dining table. “I prefer one large piece over several smaller pieces,” says Debbie. “This piece is sleek. I love the color.”
Setting the tone for a glamorous, glowing living room, the silk taffeta draperies evoke the illusion of opulent ball gowns. “I was shocked when Kelly recommended using the drapes from my prior home,” says Debbie. “I had wanted to use them, but thought it wasn’t possible.” Amen even expanded the old drapery rods to fit her high-rise windows. The sofas she already owned, covered in a celadon-colored silk damask with flashes of amber, also lend to the dreamy palette of fabulous fabrics. On the opposite wall, a KGA console displays her favorite sculpture by Herbert Goldman, artist Amen introduced to Debbie.
Amen carefully considered Debbie’s most important treasure: a sewing machine cabinet and two occasional tables owned by her mother. Sitting between the dining area and the TV area, her mother’s sewing machine lends a comfortable nostalgia. The cabinet can also function as a serving table or bar. “Someone else might have put this in the corner,” says Debbie. “Kelly put it right here, right in the middle of the room.”
He commissioned an artist to give these pieces something extra, something special. The artist painted a classy scrolling green design on each end of her mother’s occasional tables reflective of their lyre-shaped bases. Bands of wood on her mother’s sewing machine cabinet were embellished with another scrolling motif. Debbie’s familial ties were given the special attention they deserved.
FABULOUS FURNISHINGS AND FINISHES
Amen intermingles new purchases with the old things Debbie loves, more perfectly enhancing her new space. “Kelly is very good at putting fabrics together that blend incredibly well,” says Debbie. “He likes to create a home where you could move a chair from one room to another.” Two new chairs complete the living room’s seating, one an overstuffed chair in a sculpted silk velvet. “This looks like Jacob’s coat,” says Amen. “It’s subtle and beautiful.”
Five new dining room chairs, three with square backs and two with round backs, augment that room’s overall elegance. Amen also mixed two upholstery materials, a solid leather and a classy stripe.
He made an interesting selection for an entertainment unit. “We didn’t want an armoire in the classic sense,” says Amen, pointing to the unique wooden cabinet with dozens of three-dimensional pyramids embellishing the doors. “It is as dimensional in the usage of wood as the rugs are in the usage of color.” This functional furniture not only houses Debbie’s television, but makes an artistic statement.
Two French bergeres and an ottoman in the TV room are not new but were reupholstered in three fabrics: a silk, a stripe, and a woven fabric. Amen based his selections on texture, color, and dimension. In the living room, he created new pillows from the sofa’s silk damask, a woven silk, and one of the fabrics used on the TV room chairs. “Pillows are a personal thing,” says Amen. “They are a piece of three-dimensional art a person can feel comfort in holding.”
New shutters for the master bedroom, painted and glazed like the other woodwork in the house, are as important as the living room’s silk taffeta draperies. “They make the room appear bigger,” says Amen. “See the solar shade behind the shutters? It’s like dressing a bed. Layers and layers create intrigue.” On the floor in the master bedroom Amen spread a basket-weave sisal dyed four different colors – cinnamon, neutral, gray, natural. The same sisal rugs warm the tile floor in the kitchen.
“There are all these subliminal games,” says Amen of the interaction of materials in the space. “You don’t know why it works but it does.”
The comprehensive coordination of every aspect of Debbie’s home is subtle – you don’t sense it immediately. You must experience the space before the flow becomes slowly and subtly more obvious. Furniture can move from one space to another. Mirror and fabric weave individual spaces together. Glazed woodwork and ragged ceilings create vertical and horizontal exchanges. “It is a science,” says Amen. “It is thought out, and it’s conceived.”
Debbie is pleased with Amen’s results. “It’s almost like a gift to yourself,” she says. “I’m gone a lot, so when I’m home I want to enjoy the space and share it with my friends.” Amen concurs with his usual enthusiasm, “She can kick off her shoes and say, ‘I’m home, baby!'”
