We’ve got news. As you hopefully know by now, we at Kathy Kuo Home pride ourselves on providing access to the absolute best in furniture and home decor. But what you may not know is that outside of traveling the world and attending trade shows to find the best furniture, we also dedicate our time and efforts to design projects! In the past, we’ve done projects with partners like A+E Network and Homepolish, but we’re SUPER excited to announce that our design services are now open to all through our KKH Design Bar. With our new Design Bar initiative, just reach out to us through this short form or send an email regarding your home project to design@kathykuohome.com. You’ll receive a FREE consultation with one of our KKH designers, and we provide a range of services from simple e-design boards, to scaled design schematics, to shopping lists, to full service interior design. And don’t worry, we’ll help you figure out what you need based on the scale of your home project. Have questions or suggestions? Definitely feel free to reach out to us (or comment on this post!) as we continue to grow and shape this new initiative!
Now for the fun stuff. If you’d like to see an example of the work we do and the scaled design schematics we can provide, here’s a recent project we’re excited to share with all of you that we recently completed in Naples, Florida. Take a look at the first part of this project… with more rooms to come soon!
The Kitchen
It was very important to our clients that the kitchen be a place where the family could gather and spend time together. So immediately going in, we wanted to make use of the spaciousness and openness that the house provided to create an accessible and atmospheric kitchen for family events and entertaining guests. Who doesn’t want a kitchen that you feel comfortable in? The double kitchen island features stunning carrara marble that waterfalls down the sides, but outside of aesthetics, it also offers maximum kitchen seating and additional cooking and serving space. You can eat a quick breakfast there, grab a midnight snack, or have a few drinks with a friend.
Design Bar Pro Tip: Don’t forget to include seating for a versatile kitchen.
Get the Look
We all know the details make the design. We went with a white-on-white palette to bring a clean and bright feeling to the kitchen. The walls and trim are Alabaster White by Sherwin-Williams, and we custom upholstered both the counter stools and the dining chairs in an all-white faux ostrich fabric. Above the dining table hangs one of our favorite chandeliers on the site, our Seasong White Coral Chandelier, that provides an element of rustic coastal charm that plays well with the box beamed ceiling and the vintage photograph of a thinking toucan.
Design Bar Pro Tip: As much as we love white on white, the absence of color will make your space look stark and flat. Learn why we love to incorporate blue into all white rooms, like we did here in the subway tile backsplash, accent wall, and Roman shades.
Quotes from Kathy:
Q. What was your inspiration for this project?
A. My design inspiration for this project was a clean, transitional coastal aesthetic. The client has another home in Naples on the Gulf. It was very traditional with imported Italian travertine floors, dark mahogany millwork, and just exquisite Tuscan details, but it was built on four floors with an interior elevator, and the client wanted a home that was all one floor since they mainly gathered around the kitchen. This new space is just jaw dropping and made much more sense for their family. Our goal with the new build (completed by another firm) was to create an open floor plan in which indoor and outdoor spaces would seamlessly meld into each other. So when we went in, we wanted to design formal and non-formal living spaces that would visually be brought together using a navy, white, grey and green palette. Upscale, tailored, yet comfortable and coastal.
The Family Room
When you walk into the family room, we wanted the immediate feeling to be sophisticated comfort. This is why we took to the soothing grey and green tones and why we chose seating with down cushioning and soft grey fabrics. The sectional we went with is our Bexley Modern Classic Sectional customized to fit the room (One of the perks of using Design Bar is that we offer so many custom furniture options so that the pieces you choose will fit your space impeccably). We added two custom upholstered Norwalk linen armchairs for additional seating, and to add warmth and bring a natural element into the room, we placed a petrified wood side table between them. The ivory and nickel end tables, which came from our beloved Gretta series, were placed to tie together the family room with the adjacent open concept kitchen.
Get the Look
Quotes from Kathy
Q. Where there any specific requests from the clients? How did you work with them to achieve a look they love?
A. The specific request was to make it look amazing! I knew the design style of the client, and I knew if she was in love with something immediately—she would use a few exclamation points on her emails if she liked the item. Our goal was at least two exclamation points for each piece. To achieve the look, we went room by room. The space is quite large, with over 9,000 square feet. Room by room, we chose wall covering, upholstery, and paint and created design schematics for each. Each room went through many rounds of approval. This is the type of effort and deliverable you can expect when you work with us at the Design Bar. As we are in NYC, install had to happen slowly and in phases, and FaceTime “styling and art direction” would happen frequently. We chose the tables, accent pieces, and art last. The custom drapes were made last but chosen in tandem with the upholstery fabrics, paint, and wall coverings. Each of these rooms were packaged into a bundle and FedEx’d to Naples for approval. Let’s just say with clear communication and concise, action-oriented emails, we were able to wrap up this entire house within a year. It certainly was a labor of love!
The Dining Room
Let’s start with the gorgeous custom triptych we put in the dining room because just as there are three paintings, the triptych set the tone of the house with three design styles we were trying to delicately weave together—abstract, modern, and coastal. You can see these three elements at work here in the dining room. Our Crawford Terrace Gold Pedestal Table grounds the room with its two elegant pedestals and terrace-like construction that gives it a departure from the average dining table. We paired the table with the Ring Pull Ivory Dining Chairs from the same Crawford series. Pattern play was also important in this room, so we decided on the Karissa Cream Hand Knotted Wool Rug and a custom Kravet fabric for the drapes. We wanted to add lavish lighting to the room to elevate the look, so for over the table we placed our Cynthie Chandelier, and we used white glass table lamps with a structural, star-shaped body for the atop the built-in console.
Get the Look
Quotes from Kathy
Q. Were there any memorable design obstacles or decisions you made while working on this project?
A. I think the hardest part was designing remotely, which thankfully our clients were very able to adapt to. I think it would be quite hard without the right screen sharing technology and CAD design tools to translate vision and scale. Also, with such a large project and long lead times for custom pieces, staying incredible organized not just in project management but also in email communication was so important. You don’t want to be digging through hundreds of emails to find an email chain about the confirmed yardage for a specific drapery fabric. Staying on topic, creating concise emails and starting new email chains for different subjects… In short, communication was so key! Clients expect you to have an answer to their question immediately, and it’s our job at the Design Bar to always have that answer available as soon as possible!
We’re so excited to be starting Design Bar! Have any questions? Excited to see more of the home? Comment below!