A vivid remodeling dream
Janet and Phil Jenkins’ home is alive with color.
Turquoise and orange — an unexpected palette at a time when pale neutrals are so popular — show up in their kitchen, dining area and living room on the first floor of their Memorial Heights three-story townhome that’s now filled with midcentury-modern gems.
It wasn’t always so. The couple had lived in their very traditional home comfortably all of the 13 years they’ve been married until about a year ago, when they decided they wanted something fresh and new.
House-hunting turned up interesting homes and neighborhoods, including one in Fall Creek near the Redstone Golf Course, which the avid golfers thought would be fun. But Phil works at NASA — he’s a project engineer for crew life-support systems on the Orion project — and the commute from Humble to Clear Lake seemed daunting. Janet’s the operations manager at an investment advisory firm.
Plus, the Jenkinses have built their life in the city — with friends, favorite restaurants and other things to do.
The more they looked elsewhere, the more they knew they were right where they wanted to be. So they decided to remodel.
It’s not an uncommon scenario for Greymark Construction president Leslie King, their contractor, who has conversations with all clients about why they want to change their home before deciding what they really need to do.
“I tell them to go do their research. What keeps them where they are is the location, location, location,” King said of people who opt for remodeling kitchens, bathrooms and other parts of their home. “For the Jenkinses, entertaining was their prime driver, so let’s make it a functional place that will work for entertaining.”
As people move through different stages of their lives, King said, it’s not uncommon for them to shift from traditional to contemporary, modern or even midcentury-modern design.
The Jenkinses started with a plan to install new counters and backsplash to update their kitchen, plus add stone to their fireplace.
Soon they realized that a new bold, turquoise stacked-glass backsplash and contemporary white quartzite counters would make their traditional kitchen cabinets look dated and, honestly, shabby.
More practical considerations came with changing up their pantry, which stuck out 3 feet in one corner yet had just 12-inchdeep shelves. Since the pantry ate up precious floor space and didn’t really deliver much storage, they converted it to a tall cabinet, with a second set of cabinets above.
That move allowed for a longer island, which now has three bright turquoise midcenturystyle barstools — bargains they found on wayfair.com — tucked underneath.
There’s more turquoise in an upholstered corner banquette, and orange enters on diningchair seats and in window valances with a tiki-style print. Janet’s new, orange Keurig machine fits right in.
This bold color scheme didn’t come by accident.
When the couple thought about colors, Janet looked straight at a beautiful bowl they bought on a vacation to St. Louis. Sitting in the center of their dining table, it’s deep turquoise with a pineapple, butterfly and plumeria flower.
That single bowl represents so many things they love: bright, happy things, including favorite vacation spots in Hawaii and at Disney World, where they loved the Polynesian feel of the Trader Sam’s tiki bar.
They’re also both children of the ’60s — Janet’s 57 and Phil’s 55 — so everything midcentury felt like home.
It was at Disney World that the couple first spotted Josh Agle’s Shag art — mod illustrations of tiki bars and Palm Springs, Calif.-inspired scenes — that they now collect. There are four Shag pieces in the kitchen and dining area, where grasscloth wallpaper provides a neutral background, and a large serigraph over the fireplace.
King said it’s not often that her clients pick out turquoise tile, but when they do, she loves it.
The same goes for interior designer Missy Stewart, of Missy Stewart Designs, who helped them know how far to go with color.
Stewart noted that the turquoise backsplash in the kitchen is permanent, but aside from that, the walls are tan, the floors are oak and the fireplace is covered with neutral shades of stone.
Crown moulding — a definite sign of traditional design — came down, and wooden baluster spindles were swapped out for a more current geometric metal design.
So it’s the furnishings that bring in color in a big way.
When Stewart took on the project, the Jenkinses were already sold on turquoise and orange.
“Janet had a pile of fabrics for her dining-room chairs, but they weren’t the right color. A lot of them were burnt orange,” Stewart said. “I said, ‘You have to keep it bright. If you’re going to go for it, go for it.’ ”
They knew the feel they wanted their home to have, they just didn’t know how to get there, Stewart explained.
Once she convinced the couple their traditional, bulky Ethan Allen furniture wouldn’t fit their midcentury theme, Stewart guided them through purchases of new furniture, lighting and accessories. (They sold some old furniture but donated much of it to charities.)
Every weekend, and even on their travels, they shopped.
When Phil discovered the Atomic Ranch magazine — devoted to midcentury-modern design — he had an aha moment. Suddenly he had images to pair with his searches.
They found furniture and lighting at Metro Retro in Pasadena and Reeves Antiques in Montrose. An old record-player console was bought through a Facebook midcentury-modern trading site.
For their kitchen, they found a set of chairs that went beautifully with a table they found separately. Scouring through shops and websites produced an original Herman Miller foldout table and Gerald Thurston lighting that add authenticity to the décor.
There’s a very mod cocktail cabinet filled with midcentury barware and a hutch that holds mementoes in the living room. Phil saw that hutch in the Atomic Ranch magazine, so when he saw it while shopping, he knew he had a winner.
The magazine taught him names to know — designers Charles and Ray Eames and manufacturer Herman Miller — and every local store they shopped at seemed to recommend ideas for other places to score great finds.
Phil, an engineer, was never into shopping, but he understands how to work a project.
“My biggest thing with them was getting them to quit buying stuff,” Stewart said, laughing. “They would send me an email or text: ‘What about this? What about that?’ I’d go, ‘You don’t need that. No, you don’t need that.’ ”
Shopping finds included an old, rotary-style turquoise phone a ’60s-style turquoiseand-orange clock and a brightorange planter.
Their low-profile, white sofa is paired with rattan chairs that came from Janet’s parents’ bay house. Phil and Janet had new chair cushions made in a bold, orange leopard-print fabric that Phil declared “groovy.”
When they also wanted to buy chairs that matched the sofa, Stewart called them off: Their room was full.
After all, what the couple loves to do is host parties. At Christmas, 50 friends came for a “Mad Men”-themed party, dressed in vintage clothing and donating a 33 LP to the couple’s vinyl-record collection.
They all fit so much better in the less cluttered first floor. And next they’re planning a luau, and they figure their tiki décor will be perfect.
“We used to spend all of our time on the third floor,” said Phil of the mancave that has a big TV. “Now we actually come down here.”
Kitchen upgrade and bold tiki color scheme inspired by travels set tone for couple’s midcenturymodern space to entertain By Diane Cowen