If you looked at this home in black and white, you would likely think it was filled with varying shades of white, cream, and gray – a beautiful, classic property that feels very comfortable and familiar. Turn on the color, and it’s a wonderful surprise to see timeless shapes and silhouettes are actually set against backdrops of bright, bold, layered color palettes. It's a lesson in creating something timeless, without relying on the 'safe' color choice.

Designer Lindsey Herod wanted to do something unexpected with this Houston home, something that made the spaces feel both familiar and original, timeless yet extraordinary. Something had been missing from the owners’ last home; their tastes had changed, becoming bolder and braver, and they wanted this new house to better reflect their style.

‘This was a new construction project, and my team and I were involved from the very beginning of the architectural phase all the way through installation,’ explains Lindsey. ‘We worked closely with the architect throughout the build and designed all of the cabinetry, along with a large portion of the architectural finishes. Being involved that early allowed us to really think through how the house would function and flow before we ever got to the decorating.’

Being introduced to the home in the earliest stages also meant that Lindsey could collaborate closely with the homeowners, getting to know their personal style and what they really wanted from the house. ‘This was the second custom home they had built together, so they came into the process having learned a lot from their first house,’ she explains. ‘Their taste had evolved, along with their needs as their two children got older, and they wanted this home to feel completely different.’

'Overall, they wanted something fresher and lighter than their previous home. A formal dining room and better flow for entertaining were both really important because that was something they felt had been missing in their old house. At the same time, they have two young, active kids, so everything needed to be durable and family-friendly without sacrificing the polished, pretty feeling she wanted.'

'It was a really easy, collaborative process,' says Lindsey. 'They knew our work and trusted our style, so they were comfortable letting us lead the way, but they also brought some great ideas to the table that ended up becoming important parts of the project. The wife really took the lead, and she was so much fun for me and my team to work with. She was always genuinely excited about what we brought her and very open to trying things. She loves color and pattern and was game to push both, which is always fun for us. It made the process feel really creative and collaborative.'

It’s the colors that give this home its uniqueness. There isn’t a neutral room in sight – greens, blues, pinks, reds – they all mix throughout the home, and yet as you move from room to room, it never feels disjointed or like too much. There’s a cohesion to each color palette and to how they work with one another.

Lindsey explains that her client was ‘drawn to blue and green for the majority of the house, but she also loves a pop of pink, so we threaded that throughout the project.’

‘The trickier part was making all of those colors feel intentional from room to room. The spaces are defined, but because you can see from one into another, they all needed to talk to each other. From the kitchen, for example, you look through the butler’s pantry and into the mudroom. We wanted each room to have its own personality, but the color story still had to make sense as you progressed through the house. It became a huge puzzle and was probably one of the hardest parts of the project.’

‘The aubergine bar is directly across from the dining room, so we pulled that deep color from the Scalamandré wallpaper and the “party perch.” But it also had to relate to the kitchen and mudroom, which are less formal spaces,’ explains Lindsey. ‘The study works in a similar way. It’s essentially a richer, deeper version of the blue-and-green palette in the living room.’

The kitchen might be unexpected in color, but it’s so classic in style that pale blue feels as timeless as white. The shade is Sherwin-Williams Sleepy Hollow, a balanced, slightly cooler blue with undertones of both yellow and gray, so it works in a scheme of both warm colors – the wood tones of the seating – and cool colors – the greens used throughout the adjoining living area.

The subtler decisions were important to Lindsey, too – the things you don’t necessarily notice, but would really notice if they were off. The layout and sightlines of the room were things she considered carefully.

‘We worked really hard on the symmetry of the kitchen cabinetry,’ says Lindsey. ‘I wanted the range hood to line up properly and the island to align with the fireplace. When you’re standing at the sink, I want your eye to land on something that makes sense. Symmetry is one of those things that makes a room feel right, even if you can’t immediately explain why.’

‘Those were decisions we could work through with the architect early on, which is one of the reasons I was so glad to be involved from the beginning rather than having to work around an existing layout later.’

This needed to be a family kitchen that worked hard, too, and Lindsey made small but impactful changes to ensure the space not only looked beautiful, but also suited the busy young family with elementary-aged children who might not be the most marble-countertop-friendly.

‘The client loved the look of marble but knew her family would be tough on it, so she had the marble treated with UV-cured protection,’ explains Lindsey. ‘That gave us the natural material we wanted while easing some of her concerns about damaging it. I especially wanted to use real stone on the backsplash. When you bring stone vertically up the wall like that, I think the authenticity of the material really matters.’

The breakfast nook was also designed with the whole family in mind – a relaxed place for everyone to come together. ‘The breakfast room is a bump-out nook, so we ran a banquette wall-to-wall to maximize the space and create comfortable seating for the kids. The ladder-back chairs belonged to the client, and she really wanted to incorporate them, which I happily agreed to. I think they add a perfect touch of warmth and charm.’

‘We had the dining table custom-made to fit the space exactly, and the chandelier is vintage and was custom-painted for the room. The banquette cushion is laminated, so no one has to worry about spills or messy kids’ projects. It looks beautiful but functions really well, which means the family can actually live in the room without it feeling too precious.’

Creating a home for hosting was a key part of the brief, but this didn’t mean going totally open-plan with the layout. The owners wanted ‘a certain formality to the way the rooms are defined,’ explains Lindsey. ‘But the house still flows very easily from one space to the next. Because we were involved from the beginning, we were able to establish that balance early on. The client wanted clearly defined rooms, but she also wanted the main living spaces to connect and flow together purposefully.’

The kitchen and breakfast nook open out into the main family living room, creating the perfect multipurpose space. This room also connects seamlessly with the backyard. Sliding pocket doors were the right choice, as they can be completely moved out of the way to open up the whole wall to the outside. However, Lindsey didn’t want this modern addition to clash with the more classic interiors.

‘The rear sliding doors pocket completely into the wall, which was something the client really wanted,’ she explains. And to ensure the sleek doors didn’t look out of place, ‘we configured the bookshelves, walls, and curtains around that idea so they could have the functionality of a very open indoor-outdoor connection without making the room feel too modern. I also love adding a little quirk and fun to bookcases, so we played with two tones and an unusual corner detail.'

‘I am so happy with how the tray ceiling turned out. Tray ceilings can easily feel a little old-school, so we used trim and wallpaper to give this one a fresher point of view. The wallpaper almost acts like a rug on the ceiling, defining the living area within the larger open space.’

Lindsey’s favorite space to work on was the dining room. It’s a contrast to the kitchen and living space – those light and airy pale blues and greens are swapped for pale pinks, purples, and deeper teals.

‘It all started with the Scalamandré mural wallpaper, which I had fallen in love with because it gives you that traditional chinoiserie feeling but is printed to scale for the exact dimensions of the room. I was obsessed with the color palette, and it gave us so much to build from,’ says Lindsey.

This room had an interesting challenge, one that Lindsey, with such an eye for symmetry and classic design principles, could not ignore. ‘The large picture window was off-center in the room.’ Her solution was both an aesthetic and practical one. ‘We added the banquette to help balance the architecture and create a great little spot to sit and sip. We aptly dubbed it the party perch. It’s not a huge seating area, but it became the perfect little martini moment. It balances the room visually while bringing in another rich, jewel-toned layer through the velvet.’

‘For the ceiling, we used a beautiful bamboo motif from Fuller Architectural Panels. I had always wanted to do a fun bamboo ceiling, and it paired so well with the chinoiserie mural on the walls.’

The colors get deeper and moodier in the study. In this smaller space, the teal walls feel cocooning yet elegant – perfect for an office, but also well suited to entertaining, which was the plan. It needed to be a space in which to work, but also to relax, and the color scheme does a lot of that work.

The layout was also a consideration in this multifunctional room. ‘I love doing a four-seater arrangement with an ottoman in the center. It’s such a good configuration for conversation and entertaining, particularly in a room like this that needs to serve several purposes,’ explains Lindsey. ‘The study functions as his workspace, but it’s also an alternate seating area and music lounge with a record player, so we wanted it to feel comfortable enough to actually spend time in.’

The bedroom is a large, airy space, and Lindsey wanted to bring it in slightly, balancing those big proportions with furniture and a layout that didn’t feel like tiny pieces floating in a cavernous room.

‘We played with the layout in the primary bedroom and created a seating area facing the bed to help fill and balance such a large room. A side door leads directly out to the patio, so we wanted the arrangement to make sense with that circulation as well.’

‘With the lofty vaulted ceiling, the room really needed pieces that could hold their own against the scale. We used a four-poster bed and a large-scale chandelier to draw the eye up and fill that height. We kept the room traditional but wove in the pops of pink she loves.’

'The primary bathroom was inspired by a garden, which led us to the latticework from Fuller Architectural Panels,' says Lindsey. 'The room has a beautiful barrel-vaulted ceiling, but with so much height, it could have easily felt tall and narrow. Bringing the latticework onto the walls helped visually bring the scale down while adding another layer of architectural interest and reinforcing that garden feeling.'

'In the shower, we used two tones of marble and glass French doors, which I love. They keep such a large shower feeling light and open, and having access from both sides makes it function really well too.'

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