Room We Love: An Indoor Garden in Myers Park

COURTESY LAURA SUMRAK

After a successful career in fashion, Charlotte native Hadley Quisenberry left New York City in 2012 and returned home to raise a family and work alongside her mother, Lisa Britt, a longtime interior designer. Lisa Britt Designs rebranded to become West Trade Interiors, and by 2018, Britt retired and gave the reins to her daughter. The West Trade team continues to handle a range of design-build projects across the city, including a recent multi-room refresh in Myers Park. The client hired Quisenberry, whom she knew from their years at Myers Park High School, to update the living room, two bedrooms, and the dining room in her two-story, 3,500-square-foot brick home. As parents of two preschool-aged children, the homeowners wanted a grown-up space to host dinner parties and family gatherings. Quisenberry designed the room around the Schumacher wallpaper panels her client selected and incorporated some transitional pieces to give the space a contemporary twist. 

COLOR YOUR VIEW
Quisenberry says her goal was to “find the balance between a space that can be restful but is also vibrant and inviting.” She installed custom white linen drapes and added a blue leaf trim from Schumacher to pull in some color from the wallpaper panels. The pale blue tones in the Oushak rug add another subtle pop of blue, and the coral in the chair’s upholstery repeats in the printed lampshade—a find from local vendor International Shades—on the sideboard. The flowers and soft tones in the wallpaper lean more toward spring and summer, but Quisenberry says they “present a mood rather than a season.” The homeowner also rotates the tablescape with seasonal botanicals and foliage throughout the year.

COURTESY LAURA SUMRAK

LIGHT AND BRIGHT
The wallpaper panels served as the inspiration for the room, but first, Quisenberry had to lighten up the walls so the pearly white tones in the panels stood out. “The original walls were deep navy,” she says, “and the painter used three coats of white primer before they were light enough to hang the wallpaper without the dark color coming through.” The panels arrived in 12-foot strips, and the house had 9-foot ceilings, so Quisenberry removed the chair rails to give the panels more room to shine. 

SOMETHING OLD
The homeowners wanted to keep their dining room table and sideboard, so Quisenberry anchored the dining room with those key pieces. She gave the eight dining chairs a fresh coat of paint and upholstered the shield-shaped backs in a soft coral velvet. She replaced the dated brass lighting with a transitional white chandelier from Visual Comfort to complement the traditional furniture and add some visual interest by incorporating gold and glass.