This Pepper Pike Home Is Revitalized With Bold Pinks and Gilded Touches

Libby Palmieri Schwartz estimates that the interior of the 1950s Pepper Pike colonial hadn’t been updated since sometime in the 1990s. The founder of Warrensville Heights-based House of L Designs describes a “dismal” brown-and-white color scheme that contrasted sharply with the personalities of the house’s new husband-and-wife owners — particularly that of the outgoing, effervescent mother of three. She envisioned a decor that approximated the look and feel of the family’s second home in Florida.

“She wanted some contrast … between light and dark, and she liked gold,” Schwartz says. “Those were her stipulations of what she wanted incorporated, along with durability.”

Schwartz spearheaded a gut job that transformed the home into a transitional showplace that is colorful without the commitment. Timeless neutral finishes and furnishings provide a backdrop for vibrant art and more affordable accents that can be swapped out as tastes and trends change.

The illusion of a more open floor plan was conjured by removing a section of wall next to the foyer staircase and replacing it with glass that doubles as a wall of a wine storage room carved out of square footage in a neighboring informal dining area. The wall-hugging steps were replaced with an open white-oak-tread counterpart and the banister swapped for glass panels that don’t impede the view. The space was floored in a marble-look porcelain tile and painted a soft white, creating a gallery for displaying a pop-art painting by Italian artist Marco Grassi and a Terzani-brand chandelier of tiered, gathered-and-draped gold chains.

“We had a jewelry theme for our lighting,” Schwartz says.

The white walls and porcelain tile floor extend into the informal dining area and kitchen.

“We doubled the size of the island,” Schwartz says. “That gave the sense of a much larger kitchen.”

A linear Terzani lighting fixture featuring pendants of polished gold disk clusters — along with a brushed gold range-hood shroud, plumbing fixtures and cabinetry hardware — added punches of color in classic metallic finishes that eliminate the idea of white cabinetry and white countertops as common. In the dining area, a table consisting of a sculptural brass base and black faux-shagreen top was paired with claret velvet chairs from CB2 that complement the various reds displayed in the wine-storage room.

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The desired use of contrast is most evident in the great room and client’s office. A focal point was created in the former by installing a linear gas fireplace between black painted wood built-ins in a wall covered with white marble-look porcelain slabs. A black painted-wood wet bar punctuates a perpendicular white wall. Schwartz placed a white boucle sectional and pair of black velvet armchairs on a black, white and gray patterned rug, then warmed the arrangement with a dark-apricot velvet occasional chair and rusty-red ottoman. Accents include amber and latte velvet accent pillows, amber and pale-maize throws, and pale-maize draperies. The luxe look belies its ability to stand up to three kids.

“Everything in the house is performance fabric,” Schwartz notes.

In the office, Schwartz ameliorated the stark difference between graphite walls and white marble surrounding an existing woodburning fireplace with caramel tufted-leather swivel club chairs placed in front of a black wooden desk. The brown shade “pulls in the color of the (bookcase) ladder,” she notes. She then made the space the client’s own with pieces in colors pulled from a Grassi painting hung over the fireplace, everything from a dark-peachy-pink velvet desk chair, to a pink ombre wool-and-cashmere pillow and throw, to a garnet mohair ottoman. Even the books were ordered with hot pink covers.

Schwartz concedes that the client voiced reservations about painting the ceiling the palest of blushes — the one feature that couldn’t be simply removed or replaced.

“But it was a perfect foil to complete the room,” Schwartz says. “She loved it.”

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