The suburban newspaper for Mountain Brook, Homewood, Vestavia Hills, Hoover and north shelby county
Kelly Lewis knows what she likes. Commercial Hospitality Furniture
When it comes to decorating the home she and her husband, Jim, own in Mountain Brook, she knows how to source the fabrics and rugs and art and furnishings to make the place uniquely their own.
Anyone can walk into The Kelly hotel in downtown Birmingham to get a sense of Kelly Lewis’ style. She was instrumental in decorating The Kelly Birmingham, which she calls “the bad little sister” to the more traditional Redmont. The Kelly, she explains, has more “life and verve and energy.”
She and her husband own this hotel, which is part of the Tapestry Collection by Hilton, along with the Redmont Hotel down the street, which is part of Hilton’s Curio collection, and the St. James Hotel in Selma, also part of the Tapestry Collection.
While Lewis had to work within Hilton’s corporate parameters at The Kelly, she left her own impression on the place with vibrant yet elegant touches everywhere. Her inspiration was Annabel’s, a private club in London. The Kelly has since won several design awards.
In her home, of course, she could do exactly what she wanted.
Lewis has refined her sense of style for years, and it continues to evolve.
“I read every design magazine just about,” she says. “My mom and aunt were both super into home stuff and were constantly doing and redoing. They had very different aesthetics but liked to keep it ‘fresh.’”
Lewis’ style is classy as well as classic. It’s also exciting and elegant, punchy and playful. And it’s highly personal. There are countless hints to things Lewis likes in details large and small.
For instance, in addition to being an attorney, Lewis is a certified gemologist, so there are minerals and splendid stone surfaces throughout her home. A huge amethyst crystal sits on a mirrored table in the Champagne Room. A honed marble table in the dining room contrasts with gold-colored mid-century chairs she got from an antiques dealer in South Florida. The desk in her office is a large, glowing slab of white onyx.
Marble on the kitchen counters and full-height backsplash, sourced through Alabama Stone Works Inc., at first appears black and white but features interesting bits of green and pink, too.
Her love of fashion is evident, as well, in the luxurious fabrics on windows and floors and furniture. She helped design some of her custom rugs with Angie Burge, who owns English Village Lane. She worked with Rollins Drapery Service on her lux window treatments.
Two fashion-themed paintings – one featuring a Karl Lagerfeld Chanel design, the other Dior – hang in the living room. Take a close look at the books in her office/library and you’ll see “House Dressing” by Janie Molster, Nina Campbell’s “Interior Decoration,” and “Glamorous Rooms” by Jan Showers. She’s dressed several of her walls and a hallway’s high barrel ceiling in textured wallpapers that look a lot like fabric.
And visitors cannot help but notice the cats.
The stairs off the foyer are covered in black and white leopard print. There’s a large ceramic leopard on a mid-century console in the den; it once stalked the pool area of a home in Palm Beach. There are other smaller cat figures here and there, the subtle hint of a cat in the pattern of a rug. She even manages to merge her love of felines and fashion. There’s a pink Gucci cat pillow in the Champagne Room, but the pièce de résistance is the Gucci tiger face wallpaper in the powder room. The fierce felines snarl stylishly from every wall, and their colors are echoed in the pieced marble tiles on the floor.
Lewis and her husband bought this house in 2021; it was built in 1990. She said they immediately loved the openness of it.
They ended up gutting the bathroom to make it what they wanted. It’s a gem of a sanctuary with a gold-clad soaking tub, striking black and white marble tiles and a vibrant rug with red dragons to anchor the space in a dramatic way.
Dive Into the Deep End
When it comes to renovations, she adamantly offers this advice: “You’ve got to do it all. We started out piecemeal.”
They did the bathroom. They painted. They worked on the kitchen some.
“So, it was a much more painful, longer, probably more expensive process than if we had gone in and said, ‘Here’s everything I want to do.’ You just have to bite the bullet.”
Lewis is her own interior designer.
“This is my house,” she said. “It should look like what I like.” But she’s always open to inspiration. “I guess that’s how you know you’re old,” she said. “I used to go to Dead shows, now I go to antique shows.”
She follows Instagram influencers and incorporates what catches her eye.
“I try to go to any of the decorator showhouses in Atlanta, New York, wherever for inspiration and (to see) how other people put stuff together –especially when they can go over the top. There’s nothing new under the sun, as they say, so a lot of it is just mimicry but putting a personal twist on it.”
She sources from close to home and around the world. She shops Trisha’s Treasures in Homewood and Design Supply at Pepper Place. She peruses 1stDibs online and scouts Scott Antique Markets in Atlanta.
“I travel a lot for work and fun,” she said, “so that gives the opportunity to find unique pieces.”
The mirror in the dining room is from the Paris flea market. The Murano glass vase in the foyer is from a recent trip to Italy.
She also loves mixing old things with new. The Paris flea market mirror reflects family heirlooms – a table, some gleaming old silver pieces – and the crystal chandelier original to the house.
She’s not afraid to go bold, either. Consider the textured gold range hood in her own kitchen and the very idea of a Champagne Room and, of course, the cat power in her powder room.
For all these flourishes, the Lewis home is open and inviting in a way that makes guests feel special. Little wonder that Kelly’s favorite room is the living room, which is perfect for entertaining.
It’s divided into two areas. There’s a lively, fun side anchored by an Italian wet bar from the 1950s; an antique game table in the corner cleverly opens up to a variety of diversions. Checkers. Roulette. Backgammon. Cards. A huge ottoman made of folded banana leaf fibers offers interesting seating for several.
On the other side of the large room is a more traditional arrangement in front of a lovely fireplace.
Her other favorite room is the Champagne Room upstairs with its huge mirrored bar, bright fuchsia drapes, pink rug and pink ceiling, comfortable sofas and a beautiful antique chair covered with a green reptile-print fabric. A sterling Buccellati champagne bucket is a party-perfect accessory.
While this home was meant to be a placeholder of sorts – the Lewis’ had planned to move into The Kelly – she said they are happy here.
“It’s a great house for entertaining, which I love,” Lewis said.
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