My Favorite Room: Doug Davis

Hi there, Doug from Hannon Douglas Interiors here.  It's so great to be back with you on La Dolce Vita--today I'm sharing my favorite room in my home.

I was a little nervous when Paloma invited me to participate in this series because I've just recently moved.  My new place is about three times the size of my last house--and I am notoriously slow at making decisions for myself when it comes to decorating--so the progress has been a little slow so far.  I should back up just a little bit and tell you that the house I am living in actually belongs to my partner Hannon.  She and her husband Cameron bought this beautiful 1925 Classical Revival bungalow a couple of years ago when they got married.  Last summer when Cameron's job unexpectedly caused them to start splitting their time between Chattanooga, Tennessee and Birmingham, Alabama where our firm is based; we decided I should just "housesit" for them for a few years!  It's been fun to put my spin on a house I already knew so well.

One of the rooms that's farthest along so far, and which has definitely become one of my favorite spots to relax in the house, is my Sun Room.  There are three rooms across the front of the house--the Sun Room, a long Living Room in the middle and a Dining Room at the other end.  Big openings connect all three rooms to each other.  When Hannon bought the house a couple of years ago we decided to paint the middle room white (Benjamin Moore 'White Dove') and the rooms at either end charcoal gray (Benjamin Moore 'Galveston Gray').  The long wall of the Sun Room, which you face when looking from the Living Room or Dining Room beyond is blank--just a big grey wall.  I decided to go with a big gesture on this wall and collage it with "stuff" from floor to ceiling.  The opening from the Living Room kind of acts like a "frame" for the whole thing.

I've had collage walls in other places I've lived and was honestly a little tired of the look when I packed up to move in here, but it seemed like the best way to deal with this great big wall.  It's been a fun way to showcase photos I've taken over the years of architectural details I've noticed in my travels, a few small paintings I own and various building fragments I've collected here and there.

A previous owner of the house had tiled the room in travertine...not our favorite stone but neutral enough to work.  I covered most of the floor in a durable indoor/outdoor Dash & Albert striped rug. This rug is great because it's indestructible.  The house has an incredibly landscaped backyard and it seems like every time I go out to do yard work I come and go from this door and end up tracking something back inside.  So far the rug gets high marks from me for being really easy to keep clean despite being grey and white striped!

My Sun Room is furnished really simply--mainly just a pair of really comfortable leather butterfly chairs (I got mine at Urban Outfitters...they are no longer available, but CB2 has some that are similar  with a galvanized side table from Aidan Gray in between them.  The chairs are lightweight enough they can be pulled forward to add extra seating in the adjacent Living Room and I love the color of the camel colored leather against the dark charcoal walls.  The zebra pillow is a recent addition...we purchased one for a client's home not too long ago and I decided I had to have one too!  The Mad Men style floor lamp in the corner is another great Urban Outfitters find.

In one corner of the room a small table holds a few accessories and a lamp from Circa Lighting.  The Sun Room is a former open porch that was enclosed at some point so there's no lighting overhead in the original beadboard ceiling.  The staghorn fern on the wall is a recent acquisition...I have no idea how they work and will probably kill it soon, but at least it lived long enough for this photo!  The funny little painting hanging on the left of this photo was given to me by some friends a few years ago--they were attending the horse race at Keeneland in Lexington, Kentucky and an artist was selling little folk art paintings of former jockeys.  Apparently there was a jockey named Doug Davis once upon a time, so my friends snagged me a painting of him!  In a room filled with personal mementos and treasures, this seemed like the perfect spot to display this piece.

Paloma, thanks so much for inviting me to share.  I hope everyone has enjoyed the tour of my favorite room!