Designer Shaun Smith made sure to keep the home's history intact.
New Orleans shop owner Shaun Smith transforms his 1950s ranch house with a makeover that’s one part swanky chic and another sweet nostalgia.
Smith, a 2015 House Beautiful Next Wave designer, in his favorite living room chair.
The living room was formerly cluttered with chunky, outdated cabinetry and furniture.
Smith lacquered the walls, ceiling, and cabinetry in his living room in a luminous white by Fine Paints of Europe. For a graphic splash, the 19th-century Italian settee from nearby Wirthmore Antiques was covered in a Dedar ikat. In the adjoining hallway, the wallpaper is Bibliothèque by Hermès.
An antique portrait hangs over the original mantel, illuminated by a Ralph Lauren for Visual Comfort picture light.
In the living room, a custom sofa is flanked by a pair of Christopher Spitzmiller lamps with glossy red shades made to order by the Newport Lamp & Shade Company.
Smith gave the dining room an overdue upgrade with fresh antiques and eye-catching wallpaper.
The dining room’s 1830s grisaille wallpaper panel speaks to Smith’s love of all things equestrian. He purchased the eight-foot-long French fruitwood table at Wirthmore Antiques and the 1920s French chandelier from Kevin Stone Antiques & Interiors. Smith found the antique lyre-back dining chairs on a shopping trip to Parma, Italy, and covered their seats in Dedar’s Amoir Libre. The 19th-century stone urn from Italy is on a Plexi-Craft stand.
Smith kept the master bath’s vintage tilework and added a Waterworks washstand; the photograph of Rock Hudson is by Sid Avery.
Once a plain porch, the refreshed space is now an elegant garden room.
Smith transformed the porch into a romantic garden room by painting the sliding-door frames and adding a high band of paneling painted in Farrow & Ball’s Chappell Green. The Lee Industries sofa is slipcovered in Colefax and Fowler’s Bowood chintz. The button-tufted sofa is by Wesley Hall. Matchstick shades, Lowe’s. Artwork, Michael Marlowe. Chandelier, Visual Comfort.
Detailed wallpaper and white accents freshened up this dark bedroom.
Smith fell hard for the room’s wallpaper, Twigs’ Gallop Club, sold through John Rosselli & Associates. The open shadow box contains his grandmother’s collection of souvenirs, thimbles, and other memorabilia.
“This house is all about sentiment,” says Smith, who gave his late grandmother’s secretary pride of place in a guest bedroom. The vintage cane folding chair is from his shop, Shaun Smith Home.
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This story was originally published in the February 2018 issue of House Beautiful.
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