See a Dingy White Room Transformed Into an Eclectic Lounge
When Detroit-area designer and architect Angie Lane was enlisted to revamp this space, it had a serious case of The Sads. “It was basically gutted,” she says of the former servant’s quarters in a 1907 estate that was recently transformed into the Junior League of Detroit’s 2020 Designers’ Show House. “No furniture, literally wires coming out of walls, no light fixtures!” she recalls.
The plan? To turn it into a lounge that’s tailor-made to live the post-pandemic high life, with plenty of Michigan-inspired moments for good measure. “A couple midwesterners come to mind—John Mellencamp or Dave Chapelle—people who could live anywhere in the world but come back to the Midwest to live,” Lane says. “This [room is] the female version of that person: super feminine meets old school hunting lodge.”
Lane sourced pieces by Michigan artists—including oil paintings by Gretchen Knoblock, embroidery by Kelly Darke, and a hand-dyed woven textile by Kayla Powers—to adorn the space, and custom-designed everything from the vintage tapestry pillows to the copper, iron, and concrete side tables herself. “The black-topped tables are a little vignette of Michigan's mineral history,” she says. “Michigan had huge iron and copper mines back in the day and, currently, the largest cement plant in the world is located here in Alpena.”
The 1974 film version of The Great Gatsby with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow also acted as a muse for Lane, who pulled lilacs and other jewel tones from the cinematic set. “I wanted an element of plaid, so really exploded that on the ceiling,” she says of the banded look, which was made using Benjamin Moore’s Classic Burgundy HC 182 and Central Mauve 1412. Wall sconces from Anthropologie are meant to add the opulent, feminine feeling of a strand of pearls, while a former built-in closet is now a de facto curio cabinet. Inside: a glass-domed cloche that puts an homage to Michigan’s craft beers on display; pudding stones (only found in a handful of places on earth, including central Michigan); and a vintage phone, because “Detroit had the first phone number in the U.S.,” Lane says.
“There are also lots of decor items inspired by the state of Michigan, including an Alexander McQueen rug [by The Rug Company] with a monarch [butterfly] pattern,” Lane says—a nod to local legislation that would make the butterfly Michigan’s state insect. It also imparts a fanciful feeling underfoot, a surefire way to banish The Sads for good.
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