Known for her highly personal approach to design based on close collaborations with her clients, Jennaea Denhardt of Jennaea Denhardt Interiors created a harmonious aesthetic for a Georgetown, Texas home. Her inspiration blended the homeowners’ love of music ranging from classic country to soulful southern vibes. “Think Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson, but add a little ‘70s Stevie Nicks and a bit of hippie yoga Zen, and I started there,” she explains. The interior designer also showcased pieces the homeowners have been collecting from their travels as well as photos, record albums, sculptures, textiles and artwork into an exceptionally imaginative and cohesive concept.
Keeping the spaces a soft, warm white throughout and highlighting the homeowners’ collections helped Denhardt develop the unique interiors. “The owner is a high-powered tech PR executive, but underneath she is truly a hippie, and her husband is a surgeon originally from Chicago who has embraced Texas full-on after moving there 20-some years ago,” Denhardt said. “Travel to rural places in the U.S., Mexico and Africa really inspired the spaces to lean toward natural tones for the accents, while mixing metal and textures, modern and vintage, handcrafted and manufactured objects, investment and budget-friendly pieces.”
Denhardt noted that the couple’s favorite space is the lounge, a front room that was originally the dining room. “We turned the lounge into their ‘hotel lobby,’ with comfortable but super interesting seating, a bar nearby and a music listening niche. It has pieces that they brought with them from their former place, plus elements and pieces we added, and the mood is very much their eclectic vibe. And that amazing plant in front of the windows? They inherited it with the house!”
One of the designer’s rules was that the owners should be inspired by each aspect of the interior. “We made sure that every single piece we selected, whether it cost $10 or $10,000, made one or both of them smile, exhale, relax or get excited. And I mean EVERY piece. Like when you’re washing the dishes, you’ll look over and just smile because the light fixture over your kitchen table is just so freaking cool!”
Something Denhardt tends to do in her projects is throw out the labels on the floor plan and rename the spaces. “What was the living room became the dining room, and by placing a dining table in the space that is actually a full-size ping pong table, we created a place they use any time they want, whether it is just the two of them or a crowd.”
Fashioning an interior that deeply reflected the owners’ personality was essential in every room, including the primary suite, Denhardt explained. “The main request was that the spaces truly feel like them. If it came from their hearts, made them feel relaxed and chill and gave them a space to just flop into at every turn, I was on the right track. For me, the music that my clients love truly gives me a peek inside who they are at their core when they are relaxed and happy and enjoying life. I let the music inform and inspire the mood and vibe for the space.”
Scroll through for more images from this design project by Jennaea Denhardt Interiors:
Photography by Wing Ho.
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