This Lakewood Home Brings the Drama With Bold Color Schemes

It’s an entrance so dramatic that every detail lingers in the memory.

Picture frame molding painted black, like the rest of the walls and woodwork, surrounds large panels of wallpaper resembling the Dutch masters floral still life paintings. Whitewashed oak demilune cabinets stand in stark contrast to the darkness. The stairs are carpeted in a plush cobalt runner that complements the indigo paint on the ceiling and grass cloth in the upstairs hall. Light filters through the elongated black linen drum shades of an angular custom chandelier.

The decor is a complete departure from what greeted Sean Carter, senior interior designer at Sapphire Pear in Rocky River, when he first toured the 1916 Lakewood colonial. The husband-and-wife homeowners weren’t quite sure what to do with the sage green foyer, along with the neighboring brownish gray living room and pastel green dining room, when they bought the house three years ago. So, they hired a contractor to paint the entire first floor white.

By the time Carter arrived, the couple was ready to embrace their true colors — seemingly incompatible palettes of deep jewel tones and natural neutrals. He employed the desired color schemes to create vibrant areas to meet and greet guests as well as a more subdued dining room where delicious food and lively conversation take center stage.

The color of the ceiling, painted Sherwin-Williams’ Luxe Blue, plus blues in the runner and grass cloth, were plucked from flowers in A Golden Age wallpaper by Ellie Cashman. The design is interpreted in the more gender-neutral Velvet Black colorway.

“I don’t do white ceilings. I find the ceiling is basically the fifth wall of a room,” he says.

The cabinets pull out the wallpaper’s creamy tones. Carter used them as an alternative to a central foyer table in an area that wasn’t big enough to accommodate one. They store soap, towels and other essentials needed for the nearby powder room.

Colors for the living room were pulled from a light green Turkish rug laid on the hardwood floor. Backdrop’s Night at the Opera paper, a large-scale stripe in deep blue and olive augmented by curving and geometric designs between the lines, covers the ceiling. The brand’s Formentera paint fills the walls. Carter tried highlighting the carved plaster panel over the fireplace in contrasting colors.

“It wasn’t working,” he says. “So I kept it the same blue as the walls.”

Carter furnished the room with a mix of traditional and contemporary pieces that serve as foils for the couple’s tufted brown leather sofa, a mainstay he enlivened with inky faux fur and velvety black-, white-and-yellow floral accent pillows. Two fuchsia velvet swivel chairs finished with a green velvet welt are punctuated by green polka dot lumbar pillows to round out the primary seating arrangement.

Across the room, a royal blue animal-print jacquard brings oak-frame interpretations of 18th-century French chairs into the present. They provide seating at a glass-topped table with a conical bronze base. The upholstery pattern is approximated in fuchsia on accent pillows flanking a nearby window seat. A Christian Lacroix floral on relaxed Roman shades repeats the foyer’s motif.

“If I were to bring in another print, it would start getting a little too crazy,” Carter admits.

The living room rug serves as a link to the dining room — in fact, the color of the dining room dictated it. The homeowners rejected Carter’s original idea of painting the walls aubergine, so he suggested a “softer, lighter” shade of green drawn from the foyer wallpaper, interpreted in Sherwin-Williams’ Dried Thyme.

“They were like, ‘(We’re) not sure that we want all of this darkness,” he recalls.

Carter introduced texture by hanging woven jute Roman shades. A green-and-white striped broadloom rug with a canvas border added color. The homeowners chose wicker-wrapped chairs with rattan cane panel arms and backs to surround a whitewashed oak table finished in a chocolate glaze that highlights the grain. A burled wood buffet and cherry china cabinet provide storage in a space devoid of built-ins, despite the home’s age. A candelabra-style chandelier repeats the brass finish on the furniture hardware.

Carter acknowledges that the dining room decor serves the same purpose in the home’s first floor, which includes a brown kitchen, as any neutral in a color-saturated room: It balances and grounds the space.

“Your eye needs a break at a nice, relaxing point,” he explains.

He adds that the homeowners thought it was more suited to the room’s purpose.

“They entertain a lot in there, and they wanted their guests to feel comfortable in the space,” he says. “Not everybody likes color.”

READ MORE: The 2025 Cleveland Home Issue: Are You a Minimalist or Maximalist?

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