How do you combine Hollywood glamour with traditional European design? With bold elements, luxury ingredients and a sense of history.
Lisa Cole, the owner of Lisa Cole Design, has been creating these scenes for more than a decade. The Baltimore interior designer says this unique style gives people something to discover – and there’s a lot to discover at one of her latest projects in Guilford.
The Guilford project started with a longtime client of Cole’s looking to move to a bigger location. Cole says she was immediately excited by the “canvas” – a historic home with classical architecture, detailed moldings and marble fireplaces.
“I wanted to create an elegant European aesthetic while keeping true to the playful sensibilities and adding drama,” Cole says.
To create this style, she says there has to be a sense of history because when rooms are too flat and predictable they lack personality and won’t reflect the identity of the client.
“This client happens to love a lot of different types of things, so bringing it together and making it cohesive is sometimes the most challenging, but also rewarding, part of what I do,” Cole says.
Elegance Inherited
Part of creating a space that will work for the homeowner is incorporating their personality both in design choices and in physical elements.
For this long-term client, Cole knew exactly how to do that.
The client’s grandmother had been an artist and when the grandmother died, the client inherited a collection of sculptures her grandmother had made. The sculptures are composed of clay, iron and steel.
Now the sculptures have a home in the outdoor garden space, where the homeowner entertains guests.
“We tried to find ways to incorporate that into the space so she could feel the presence of her loved ones and have a connection in there that made her just feel loved and relaxed,” Cole says.
The dining room ceiling features Phillip Jeffries gold leaf paper and custom molding to match the space.
“We did a high-drama black ceiling around the perimeter, and it really offset the feminine look of the room and it just created the drama we were looking for,” Cole says.
But she wasn’t done; Cole added a John Richards chandelier designed to look like branches laden with large drops of water, leaving the room dripping with drama.
