A Neutral Hunting Valley Home Is Injected With Colorful Artwork

The warmth and charm exuded by the Hunting Valley home’s cedar-and-stone exterior belied the stark contemporary decor that stretched beyond the front door. Wendy Berry, founder and principal designer of Chagrin Falls-based W Design, describes the 7,000-square-foot interior as “a white box.” The white walls were perfect for exhibiting the new homeowners’ extensive art collection. But the couple didn’t want to live in a place that actually felt like a museum or gallery.

“It didn’t have any character or depth,” Berry says. “What we added was character and depth.”

Berry and her team were charged with incorporating existing architectural features into their cosmetic changes. They made a black-granite linear fireplace in the open living area worthy of its focal-point status by glazing the flanking oak-stained built-ins and covering the shelf backs in black croc-embossed paper.

Berry painted the tray ceiling a glossy dark taupe, uplit the recessed center to draw the eye and hung a chandelier of black-metal scoops with antique brass fittings.

Below, Berry topped an abstract charcoal-and-cream rug with a Roche Bobois cream-chenille sectional and sculptural two-tone swivel chair, both situated around a pair of custom nesting cocktail tables — one in ebony-stained walnut and the other in Paris-white marble. A secondary seating area was created by stationing a
quartet of chrome-frame Barcelona chairs cushioned in ivory leather next to floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the wooded property.

“They are art themselves,” Berry says of the furniture selections, all in the midcentury modern style that the couple loves. “We played off of the colors that were already in the space. That fireplace was not changing.” 

In the adjoining dining area, a wall installation of chains by Chicago-based artist Stef Ross commands guests’ attention. W Design commissioned the piece in shades of white, blue, gray and black.

The blue was repeated in navy Ultrasuede covering the interiors of Roche Bobois dining chairs. Hung over the simple oak table, a two-tone metal fixture by Visual Comfort functions as sculpture.

The homeowner’s office, located in an alcove off the all-white kitchen, received a big kiss of color inspired by her favorite Chanel Emblematique lipstick.

“She showed us the tube … and said, ‘This is how red I want my office,’” Berry recalls. She responded by covering the walls in Voutsa’s “Lips on White” print.

“When we showed her this lips wallcovering, she screamed,” Berry says.    

The big powder room, however, may be the first floor’s true wow-inducing masterpiece.

Berry covered an entire wall in sodalite-blue marble that acts as a dramatic backdrop for a massive vanity with drawer-framing brass inlays. The cabinet was painted Sherwin-Williams Indigo Batik and topped in 12-inch-thick quartzite with an integrated sink. The rest of the walls were finished in a Schumacher hand-combed off-white plaster wallcovering, the ceiling in a metallic bronze paper. W Design managing partner Carley Porter notes that the round mirror over the sink reflects a gallery wall created with pieces of the homeowners’ art.

“You don’t normally see gallery walls in a powder bath,” she says. “But it works so well here.”

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