Designer Alexis Warren infuses her Myers Park home with color and pattern.
Alexis Warren was very pregnant. And as the baby grew, the walls of the two-bedroom, one-bath Dilworth bungalow she shared with her husband, Bob, seemed to be closing in alongside. “I knew we needed a bigger home once the baby arrived, but Bob was adamant that our home was big enough. It definitely was not,” laughs the designer.
So four months before her due date, Warren reached out to a Realtor friend to help them find something larger and more fitting for a growing young family. While the initial search turned up a lot of noes, one listing eventually caught their eyes: a charming 1946 traditional English cottage in Myers Park that was move-in ready and required simple cosmetic updates. The blank canvas was exactly what the color- and pattern-loving designer was yearning for. “Color is my way of expressing my personality,” Warren explains. “To me, color is calming. Neutrals are fine and they’re great for certain spaces and people. But when I try to go neutral, I inevitably start to add color.”
Where to start was simple: wallpaper—with lots of color and pattern. Warren began by installing an elegant floral design by House of Harris in her living room. “With it being one of the first rooms you see when you enter the home, I knew I wanted a whimsical wallpaper in this space, and this House of Harris pattern was perfect,” she says. “It was important to me that our home spoke to our personalities, which is why every room is slightly different while also keeping a common thread.”
That unifying thread: yellow.
For Warren, it was less about color-drenching and more about introducing subtle nods to the hue throughout the home. Custom draperies in a Titley and Marr fabric seamlessly tie in with the goldenrod Thibaut wallpaper that wraps around the connecting foyer. Across the entry, the dining room is dipped in a striking but moody Farrow & Ball Sulking Room Pink accented by draperies by Décors Barbares that feature that same yellow thread. A chickadee yellow on the walls sets the stage in the game room off the living room.
While color and pattern were high priorities for Warren, it was also important for the home to feel comfortable. “Whenever I design a home, whether it be for myself or a client, I want it to feel lived in and have layers of charm,” she says. “I love to weave in personal details to add to the storied aspect of the home. I never want people to walk through the door and feel like they are in a showroom or a sterile space. I want everyone to sit down and feel welcomed and at home.” For years, the designer has amassed a collection of bunnies, which are discretely styled on side tables, shelves, and even in artwork like the “bunny” art by Hunt Slonem in the foyer. “Collections are so personal to a home,” says Warren.
For her, color is easy, relaxing, and personal—without it, a house doesn’t feel like a home. “I’ve always had an eye for, and adoration of, color, and I love to play with it in all of my designs,” she says. And her personal home was the ideal laboratory to infuse color and pattern in a way that was exactly as she had imagined.
