A Home Inspired By the Sun, Moon and Stars

I truly enjoy having clients that inspire me with their talents and artistry, whether its cooking, painting, graphic design or writing. The ones with the strongest point of view (whether design-related or not) inspire me the most.

While working on one of our recently completed projects, my client first told me that she wanted her home to feel happy. I always hope to infuse homes with functional and beautiful elements in turn making them happy places to be, but what does it mean for a home to FEEL happy? My client knew!

“Pinky” is what my client called her home during the construction process.

This home is filled with so many unexpected color choices. Perhaps the colors were inspired by the owner’s love for astrology. Stacey Sexton @staceymsexton is an astrology guru, human design reader, breathwork advisor, “a mystical soul living in an urban mama’s body”. I think of her as a poet because her Instagram stories are like introspective haikus about motherhood, astrology and spirituality. I have really come to enjoy reading her posts at night while winding down from my exhaustive work days.

Around the start of Covid last year, I attended a new moon yoga session, where the leader of the group took us through the sacral chakra describing each phase with a color to focus on, with the crown chakra being purple through the red of the root chakra. Each chakra represents a different energy points in our body which then corresponds to our personality traits like confidence, awareness, intelligence, communication, love, sexuality and creativity. Each chakra is also represented by color.

Sherwin Williams Eminent Bronze

It makes sense to me now where this need for color comes from. Without color, how do we express our mood, excitement or happiness? Without color, how do we translate and communicate what matters to us?

So what does this home look like? Well there's warm, green hues in the kitchen. I didn't even know "warm green" existed before this project. There's a peachy-pink historic parlor with a complimentary disco ball bouncing the afternoon sunlight around. There's smoldery black walls of a seductive bedroom and dressing room.

Stacey says New Orleans is on her Jupiter line in astrocartography, and as a Sagittarius sun, she really wanted to this house to feel playful. The disco ball and some of the other décor that feels a tad extra and over the top is a nod to that big Jupitarian extravagance and the perfect anecdote to 2020.

Farrow and Ball Breakfast Room Green

Eminent Bronze on the ceiling and crown of the family room

“In addition to feeling happy, I remember wanting the house to be literally smile-inducing.” Stacey, the owner, told me.

I never thought to use astrology as a form of design influence, but working with Stacey has influenced me to look outside my normal bags-of-tricks or technical solutions for making things work. Sometimes our “feelings follow function”.

photo by @katedearman