In the BOH series What I Love, we’re asking designers to build us a mood board of what’s inspiring them right now.
Delft, aquamarine, azure: Shea Soucie and Martin Horner have got a case of the blues. Far from being sad, though, the principals behind the multidisciplinary design firm Soucie Horner are using the primary hue to imbue a recent project in Naples, Florida, with upbeat brightness. From damask and ikat to plaid and mosaic, the color serves as the common denominator across a diversity of materials and patterns. “Until you see them all come together in a space, you’d never think they would work,” says Soucie of the textural interplay—a signature of the company’s residential, commercial and hospitality interiors. “That’s what makes it interesting.”
Because their relationship with the clients—a husband and wife with five grownish sons—goes back 20 years (and spans the firm’s locations in Chicago and Naples), the partners felt confident pushing the envelope on their latest property. Following previous interiors for the couple in the colder, darker climes of Chicago, Michigan and Maine, the new waterfront home in the Sunshine State offered an opportunity to lighten up a bit. “The previous houses are more subtle,” says Horner, “but these are really vibrant blues.”
For a family of boys, the masculine-coded shade makes an apt choice. “It’s always been an anchor color for them,” says Soucie. “The feminine undercurrents can be found in the patterns, and in whimsical shapes like the chandelier.”
“The wife also sneaks in a touch of pink every now and then,” adds Horner—a tendency reflected in the mood board’s Osborne & Little zigzag embroidery fabric. Stealth shots of rosy hues aside, the client’s impressive collection of tramp art—and what Soucie describes as the “rickrack” nature of the pieces—brings dimensionality and woodsy warmth to the true-blue scheme. Here, the design duo describe their selections for the not-quite-empty-nesters, including a trio of luxe carpets from Shiir, the firm’s custom rug brand.
1. DAMASCUS RUG IN BLUE BY SHIIR RUGS
“The design of this rug is inspired by an antique damask print we’d seen. Here, the traditional pattern takes on a more ethnic feel when layered with all the other elements. The carpet has a lot of texture to the face of it, and a heavy, exposed foundation that contrasts with the luster of the dark blue silk knots.” —Shea Soucie
2. MURANO GLASS CHANDELIER IN AQUAMARINE BY BARBINI AT 1STDIBS
“With her children grown, the client wanted what she called a ‘grown-up house.’ And this fixture is so elegant. It creates a beautiful silhouette behind the curtains, and placed in front of the dining room window, you see the sunsets coming through the blue glass.” —Martin Horner
3. DUNE FABRIC IN BUXTON BLUE BY ROMO
“With all the texture from the silks and the embroidery, we needed something to counterbalance it, because otherwise there would be so much going on that your eye wouldn’t know where to start and stop. I think of this brushed cotton fabric as a neutral, even though it’s colorful. And it’s not just flat—it has great texture too.” —Horner
4. CRISTALLO QUARTZITE IN BLUE FROM UMI STONE
“When we saw this, we were like, ‘OK, we’re done. This is something we must have.’ The quartz is injected with cobalt blue dye for the dramatically colored veining. We used a not-quite-as-bright version for the kitchen countertops, so as not to overwhelm the balance of colors.” —Horner
5. ARTISAN OAK FLOORING BY APEX WOOD FLOORS
“The trend in Florida right now is everything light. But our clients are from the north, where they had really dark, almost black floorboards in Chicago. We wanted a rich wood in Naples as well, with the hand-hewn feel of graining. It creates a different backdrop than a paler floor, especially when paired with lots of whites and blues—and the gallery of tramp art in the living room.” —Soucie
6. TRAMP ART WOODEN BOX
“Tramp art started in the late 1800s. It’s made out of the simplest everyday materials, like wooden cigar boxes and shipping crates, into the most intricate patterns imaginable. Everything is highly architectural, often with interlocking ‘crown of thorns’ joinery. It’s all about the craft. Often, the makers were itinerant farmworkers, factory workers and other laborers, not fine artists. Along with boxes, there are mirror frames and the rare piece of full-size furniture. Our client, who first became interested in tramp art when she lived in Chicago, now has one of the largest collections in the United States. It’s a fascinating art form.” —Soucie
7. ZOUINA EMBROIDERY STRIPE FABRIC BY OSBORNE & LITTLE
“To break up all the blue—I mean, the actual room has way more pink in it than we show on the mood board, but—this embroidered fabric has such wonderful texture. The stripe feels masculine to me, but it’s rendered in a feminine palette that brings different colors into the project.” —Horner
8. HANDMADE WOODEN BONE INLAY TABLE BY BBCREATIVESDESIGNERS
“We see this as the focal point in the center hall. Once again, it’s not blue—it’s black-and-white—and it’s got so much intricacy. Sitting on top of the laser-cut marble flooring, it presents a lot of pattern in the space. It’s an interesting interplay with the various rugs elsewhere in the house. This whole home is all about the craft, and you can see that in the handiwork of the inlay.” —Horner
9. nimbus rug in nocturne by shiir rugs
“This is another exposed-foundation carpet, with a tighter overall, ikat-influenced pattern and smaller scale than the Damascus—it’s almost the inverse. The Damascus reads cream-colored with blue highlights, while the Nimbus is really blue with a little bit of light shining through. You have the roughness of the foundation right next to the silk pile. They play nicely off each other and the plaid of the Kett.” —Soucie
10. kett rug in Bay by Shiir Rugs
“This flat-woven carpet with embroidery on top introduces a geometric pattern to the other more organic ones. The plaid goes toward the masculine, just as the ikat of the Nimbus or the damask of the Damascus read more feminine. When we’re designing a home, we look at the rug program as a whole—how they tie the rooms together. We’re creating collections not only of furniture and decorative objects, but also of rugs.” —Horner
11. antique andirons from iconic snob galeries
“We found these over in West Palm Beach at the Iconic Snob shop. They’re Victorian era, from the turn of the century, and have a hand-forged look. This particular house has just one fireplace, which, being in Florida, is the appropriate amount, and these andirons give it a lot of personality.” —Horner
12. MJ Blue Blazingstar Marble Tile by Soho Studio
“We did this pattern in custom colors for the foyer. It was not off-the-shelf: We picked all the stones. It came later in the project, as a way to brighten up the entrance—a marble mosaic to contrast with the dark wood floors.” —Horner
13. GRANITE GORGE FABRIC IN DELFT BY the house of SCALAMANDRÉ
“The clients didn’t want a rug under the dining room table, so our thought was to take the colors of the living room rug, which is the Damascus, and pop them up and onto the dining room chairs. It’s an interesting fabric because it has both vertical and horizontal striations—stripes going in both directions.” —Horner
