The great interior designer Kari Whitman was magazine cover at Colorado Homes&Lifestyle Magazine and Best Design Projects would like to share with you some parts of this interview.
Before she began designing homes for celebrities like Jessica Alba and Kristen Bell, Kari Whitman was just a kid growing up among Boulder’s distinctive combination of righteous cyclists, collegiate verve, natural splendor and Suburu-driving hippies. “It was a really cool place to grow up,” says Whitman, principal of Beverly Hills-based Kari Whitman Interiors.
What does Kari Whitman love best about her living room? The brass feathers that she purchased from Etsy and arranged in a dramatic display up the wall. “They’re the cheapest thing in the room,” she laughs. “There’s a lesson there.” Whitman had the lush sofa custom-made in Los Angeles and paired it with a black, angular coffee table from Caracole and a side table from Arteriors. The curtain “wall” of ball chain separating the living and dining spaces sparkles in brass and stainless-steel stripes. A turquoise chandelier from Currey & Company adds a glam jolt of color.
“To recycle is to reuse,” says Whitman. True to her word, she picked up this dining table from Clutter Consignment in Boulder and had the host chairs covered in turquoise pleather she had left over from a client’s project. She found the beige chairs at The Amazing Garage Sale in Boulder; the light fixture came from a vintage shop in Dallas. Whitman commissioned a craftsman to create the bench with the corset-wrapped chair backs. The metallic silver plaster on the wall and ceiling is from Firenze.
“I just wanted my room to be sexy but comfortable,” Whitman says. To that end, she covered the walls in romantic wallpaper and added skylights to let in Colorado’s incomparable sunshine. Whitman designed the side tables—“inspired by Pucci”—and found the lamp at Material Environments in L.A. The ampersand is from The Amazing Garage Sale in Boulder, and white bedding is “always the right choice,” Whitman says.
Whitman covered the bathroom walls in black lacquer and then hung the bold dandelion graphic as a tribute to her childhood. “My mom and I had this game. Who could find a dandelion and blow it?” she says. “It reminds me of my hippie childhood.” True to her commitment to eco-friendly design, Whitman kept the existing vanity and tub.
“People have to know that the nightstands don’t have to match, and a box of $50 feathers can be an art installation. That’s what this house shows. You can have glamour and comfort in one place. You can have fun with your design.” And, as Whitman proves, you can always come home again.
KARI WHITMAN INTERIORS
