Even before the ink had dried on the purchase of their first-ever home together in Lake Oswego, the owners contacted Portland interior designer Max Humphrey asking him to view the property together with them. Humphrey describes it as a contemporary, newly built traditional style home reminiscent of some California homes he’d known while living and working in Los Angeles. Seeing it without furnishings, he says, enabled him to more easily visualize the transformation he would make.
Never having worked with an interior designer before, the couple was excited to have chosen Humphrey, calling him “their first choice.” Humphrey never ascertained how they knew his work, possibly from design articles about him or having read his books. From the art they had collected individually, however, he knew they each had a good design sense. Now the job was to bring their individual tastes together into a stunning whole.
With the house empty of furnishings, the first thing Humphrey suggested to help unify the design was to refresh the existing white oak flooring with a lighter finish. Paint was a close second. “Whenever I see a television installed over a fireplace, I like to use dark tile or paint to make the television disappear. I don’t shy away from keeping living rooms livable,” he says, “and that paint color was the perfect choice to do that.”
A stunning chair and ottoman covered in a velvet green mohair pops against the now blackened cabinetry in the living room. During a joint excursion to Aurora Mills Architectural Salvage, the husband spotted a vintage miniature green truck for sale. When Humphrey tucked it into a cubby above the chair, the wife immediately noted how it reiterated the lounge cushions’ color. “She would pick up on things like that which illustrated what a good design sensibility she has,” he says.
While Humphrey loves accompanying clients on shopping forays, not every client has the desire or time to hop on a plane with him and explore the high-end showrooms. To broaden their access to extraordinary resources, he suggested this couple come along. “Happily, they did and both really enjoyed it.” He likes taking first-time clients to showrooms with a distinct perspective, which he, in turn, believes will help the clients begin to sharpen theirs. In fact, during a visit to Rose Tarlow Melrose House, the husband spotted a chair with zebra-style striped legs and announced, “I don’t know where it will go but I have to have that!” A 22-carat gold shellacked tree mirror was also discovered there, both of which found their way into the entry. “None of those entry elements go together naturally,” explains Humphrey. “The chair doesn’t go with the sideboard, which doesn’t go with the mirror, but that ended up being the point. It was a white space and the furniture needed to be the loudest part of the ‘wow factor’,” he says.
With the kitchen opening directly onto the formal dining room, Humphrey reiterated the rope light ceiling fixture’s Danish influence with the woven cord found in the backs of the kitchen island stools he chose. “They speak to one another,” he explains.
After spotting one of the salespeople at Melrose House using one of the Eco dining room armchairs at her desk with such regularity that the patina of the warm leather shone as though it were a century old, they all agreed they would make perfect dining room chairs to accompany Tarlow’s elegant walnut table. With the dining room board and batten walls, they became the perfect backdrop for graphic artwork. Humphrey then reiterated the same gray in the kitchen island’s surround cabinetry, and as a call out in the bar stool upholstery. Humphrey describes his kitchen pendant choices as being very industrial, even nautical - reminiscent of The Titanic. “It’s about balancing both masculine and feminine to give the clean looking kitchen some edginess,” he says.
He explains that themes start to take place when he’s designing. “Florals and greenery, for example, with the outdoors brought in.” The more the threesome worked together on the design, however, the more they began to push one another to more daring choices. The upstairs guest bedrooms are a prime example, enrobed in fanciful wallpaper, one with plenty of rosy style. “It was the clients who suggested painting the trim green, and eventually the window casing pink,” he says. A second guest room features Humphrey’s own wallpaper design.
The back porch, which opens off the living room, features more of Humphrey’s product designs from his Sunbrella pillow collection that help to cozy up a two-piece sectional.
“This couple was very aligned,” says Humphrey, “which isn’t always the case. They shopped together, made decisions together and were very involved the entire time. They would just light up over certain things, and I’d know that was something they would pick. Their tastes were very complementary, and every decision was made by the three of us all together.”
The biggest transformation, says Humphrey, was renovating the powder room off the kitchen. There he chose all the materials, wallpaper treatment and wood wallboard and batten design. “It was a small space, but I had a lot of fun with the materials,” he says. The vanity and plumbing fixtures are new and a leather mirror makes a handsome addition with its interesting oval shape. The hexagon floor tile is reminiscent of East Coast brownstones.
Humphrey delights in reminiscing about some unforgettable, specific design facts they discovered. For one, Rose Tarlow believes cocktail tables like the one he chose for the couple’s living room should be high. Why? “So you don’t have to bend over to put your teacup down on them. I just love how specific that is,” he says.
Artfully guiding the couple through the transformation of their new space was rewarding for the designer and the homeowners. Working as a team allowed the creation of a unique and beautiful home they could all stand behind.
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Max Humphrey
maxhumphrey.com
