Amen designed the foyer and adjoining dining room walls and ceilings as studies in reflected colors and light. The hand-painted border, in warm, rusty shades, alludes to ancient-frescoes, and walls are decoratively painted with tints of sand and terra-cotta. The gold-leaf mirror hangs over one of the designer’s signature mirrored walls. Taffeta silk draperies recall swirling ball gowns.”If you stick with the laws of nature – light, the colors of the earth – rather than someone else’s rules, you can never go wrong,” says Amen.
Daring color, a self-portrait by Kermit Oliver, and antiques combine in creative synergy for the foyer and dining room. Seafoam green walls, highlighted with taupe and gold, coolly frame an opulent room designed for entertaining.What Amen does exceptionally well is create wholehouse color schemes for his clients. Sometimes, he works totally from scratch; other times he starts with clients’ rugs, art, or upholstered furniture.
“For every house I do, I begin with about two hundred colors I put on a table, and I pick from there,” the designer explains. I find I need that many for the choices I want.”
Amen intensifies colors by choosing dramatic shades and faux finishes for adjoining rooms. Lavendar walls, laced with plum, play off the aubergine of the music room’s ceiling. Armchairs with an ottoman replace the more conventional sofa and coffee table.Coloring the ceiling is an Amen signature of which he is justly proud. “The ceiling is one-sixth of the space of a room,” he says. “To me, it’s criminal to leave it unappointed. I go beyond doing a tint of the wall color to choosing a color and a glaze that are beautiful in their own right.”
This “chair brassiere,” a clipped-corner fabric cover for the piano seat, allows peeks of the burled wood.”I enjoy the effect of painting all the woodwork in a house either white or a neutral and glazing it either ecru or beige. The consistency of the woodwork throughout the house is one of those design quirks that I find stimulating. It’s a unifying technique.”
In a library warmed by textures, a kilim rug covers a vintage armchair with carved detailing and nailheads.”The stimulation of design is there will always be surprises in any project,” he adds. “The best elements of design to my mind are the beautiful mistakes that just happen and are exactly right. The process is one of boldly jumping in and going where the project leads you.”
Traditional fabrics and finishes pair with contemporary pieces, and contemporary textiles update the most traditional of fine furnishings in Kelly Amen-designed rooms. In projects where using the finest-quality materials and craftsmanship is the only abiding rule, Amen’s careful eye is the final arbiter of what colors, fabrics, textiles, and details interact to best advantage.
The entry makes a strong design statement with the faux-finished green walls and terracotta ceiling as backdrop for an Amen-designed aluminum console table with sandstone top.Although he helps clients choose art and accessories with discernment, a Kelly Amen-designed home isn’t truly finished. “Interior design is an evolution,” he says. “It never stops. When you quit adding one little element of change, a room dies. A room should be like a beautiful, classic dress that you keep changing with your accessories.”
Bedroom walls and ceiling quieten the mood with shades of buff and umber. Amen designed the upholstered bed.But what the designer calls integration of the old and new, past and present, also means careful refinement of elements. “I encourage my clients toward a minimalism with their accessories. Filling bookshelves with books you don’t read or cluttering the coffee table with five hundred things is frankly a nuisance. And who wants to bother with that much inventory in life?
Amen worked with Houston artist Theo Ostler to create the fantasy wall finish that cools the brilliance of the circa-1920 Chinese rug. Enriching the mix are the Venetian glass mirror and the custom-made poufed and fringed cat bed.Amen often works with family antiques, frequently pairing them with his own custom-designed pieces. And with his interest in art, he uses Houston artists to create painted designs of flowers, animals, and even insects for silk chair or sofa coverings.
