Jewel tones, dramatic veining, and cheeky neon lights take center stage in this Oklahoma abode.
Project Details
Interior Designer: Mel Bean of Mel Bean Interiors
Location: Bixby, Oklahoma
Client Review: We designed this home for a family of four but mostly worked with the wife, who is an energetic ray of sunshine and a fun person. At the first meeting, when we talked about hopes and dreams for the project, she told us, “I just really need it to be bitchin’.” Right away, that was a green light for us.
Design Aims: When I heard “bitchin’,” I thought about adventurous colors, bolder patterns, and stronger elements that a lot of homeowners either aren’t open to because they’re a little scared or wouldn’t suit their home’s architectural language. It has these jewel-toned punches of color, but then it also has a soft shell. We [painted the home] in Farrow & Ball’s Peignoir, which is just so perfect: In certain lights, it looks lavender, and sometimes looks gray or blush.
Our client wanted what she called “party tricks” that create an experiential element: She wants to have a story unfold as you experience [the space]. The fact the home was minimal also gave us free reign to take it in a lot of different directions. We used the setting, their personality, and the minimal bones of the architecture, but reworked a lot of the things within the spaces to feel softer and warmer.
Designer Spotlight
In our initial meeting, I kept picturing some of my favorite boutique hotels — the ones that feel very personable. This is the house kids gather at: They will have 20 kids there on a Friday night, and it’s completely normal for them. It needed to stand up for adult entertaining, but more so for those having kids piled all over the living room. It’s very welcoming, and it really encourages you to stay a while.
The details we put into the fireplace helped provide a lot of architectural character in a room that is otherwise wide open to spaces around it. Getting the floating hearth across the front, and transitioning to wood, took a lot of engineering. People do sit on it, so it needed to support [a crowd]. We knew we wanted a dramatic veining moment: I remember digging through slabs, seeing this one, and thinking, “That’s the one.”
We locked in the fireplace [marble] pretty quickly, but were working with a larger surface area in the kitchen. We were never going to repeat the same material from the living room, but really liked the impact of the stone in the kitchen: It seems to have a touch of burgundy in it and reads as somewhat neutral, yet still a color. We kept the kitchen cabinetry very simple and treated the hardware like jewelry.
The pantry door is closed most of the time, which makes the kitchen beautiful and softer. But when you open the pantry door, you have a neon pink light, fuchsia-lacquered cabinets and ceiling, marble striped tiles, and a pink quartzite countertop. It makes it clear you’re supposed to come into the pantry.
We also wanted to do something unexpected in the powder room. [The space has a] silky wallcovering that catches the light and it looks very neon, which transformed the whole space. We wanted some kind of art moment, but we didn’t want to put just anything on that beautiful wallpaper. It’s such a dark space, so we thought light could be great. It was our client who said, “How about ‘Nice Ass?’” It’s like everyone’s getting a pat on the back on the way out of the door.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Photography by Kacey Gilpin.
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