Cozy Natural Killarney Home
Interior Design
My client is a nutrition coach in Calgary and it was extremely important for her to feel at peace, healthy, and surrounded by nature in her home. She has a green thumb and a deep love for her family – and these two facts dictated the cozy natural home design.
As is my signature, we focused on natural materials, subtle neutrals, and a variety of textures to give her spaces a welcoming atmosphere. Wood played an important role in the scheme of this home, and custom fabric selections brightened it. However, we didn’t want the spaces to feel too ‘neutral’ and so we integrated black as a beautiful contrasting colour to modernize each of the two rooms.
We also selected paint colours for the whole home to lighten and brighten the main floor (as well as add colour and personality to the upstairs bedrooms – not pictured).
Living Room
This room was extremely narrow and had the added difficulty of having a corner fireplace that dictated the layout. In order to provide enough comfortable seating for this family of 4 we opted for a deep couch with movable ottoman that could act as a chaise, and two individual swivel chairs to fit snuggly into the opposite corner. We grounded these furnishings around a round sage knit rug which helped to define the space.
The client also wanted a back entryway, which was currently spilling into their living room. By floating the couch and backing it with a cabinet, we were able to create a proper zone for the mudroom, and a place to keep shoes. We also added hooks and a mirror to make it more functional as a stand alone space.
The two major requests from the client were that we incorporate her family photos and her plants. The photos were of varying sizes, colours, and themes so we framed them with heavy white mating and simple black metal frames as a unifying element. We then created a gallery wall that was neither rigid or random – the perfect balance for this modern earthy living room.
This gallery wall anchored the two creamy swivel chairs with wood detailing. The wall had a jut-out that created an awkward dead space behind furniture, which became the perfect spot for 2 nesting side tables to hold a simple black lamp and one of her beloved plants. We finished this corner off with fun custom pillows made from the fabric the client’s fell in love with as option 2 for the chairs.
Opposite the swivels we placed an extra deep bench-cushion couch. The space to the kitchen island was extremely tight and so we were only able to fit an apartment-sized sofa here. The depth ensured it was comfortable to fully sink into, and the moveable ottoman converted it into a chaise for prime TV watching.
And I can’t skip over my favourite piece in the whole design – the hand-crafted rustic console we designed to hold all of her plants. This reclaimed barnwood console was made by our neighbours at Natural Mattress to fit in the window niche. The rustic wood brings this whole design back to earth and injects that soul that the client was craving in her cozy natural home
Living Room Details
We took care to decorate with intention. Warm metals, sage candles, wood accents, and soft textures completed this cozy natural living room, with black grounding everything.
Living Room Before
Dining Room
Our client had been taking calls from her dining room and loved the jungle bridge art on the wall as her backdrop. However, I didn’t want that to be the main focus of this space and fell in love with a second piece of art that I had in my collection, around which I based my design. From it I drew the colours of the wood and decor, and the overall feeling I wanted this room to exude. Just look at how it perfectly compliments the new furnishings!! {squeels with excitement}
The dining table was finished into a rich dark grainy wood, which would not clash with the original oak hardwood. We also chose a statement circle base to soften the squares in the wainscotting and large artwork.
To avoid this new dining table feeling too dark, we sourced customizable dining chairs in two complimentary fabrics. It is difficult to see in the photos, but the two crown chairs have a distinct floral pattern to set them apart and add a femininity to the set, while the side chairs are of a more structured pattern to play off the ‘twigs’ surrounding them. The chair legs were then stained to match the dining table.
As cozy and natural as this dining room felt, like the living room, we needed contrast. The client invested in this stunning black sideboard with brass hardware to replace their original, which was orang-y and warn and simply too much wood-on-wood-on-wood. It was also too deep and made the walkway to the kitchen feel cramped. The new black wood sideboard kept the dining room feeling grounded, fresh and spacious, and played into the existing black metal spindles on their stairs.
Dining Room Before
