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After spending a long 2020 in New York, Emily Kerans, founder of Emily K Interiors, craved change. So the designer and her bulldog drove southwest to Austin. Within a month, Emily’s mom, who was back in Connecticut, connected Emily to her first local client and soon-to-be friend Jacqueline Sigler.
A New York transplant herself, Jacqueline had just purchased an 853-square-foot bungalow in Austin’s up-and-coming east side. The pair immediately hit it off. “She had so much faith in me to understand her vision,” Emily says. “She went with any wild card I presented to her.” Jacqueline wanted her new home to reflect the other places she’s lived—London, New York, Connecticut—without going overboard. “Her taste is fairly minimal, so everything we chose is functional and intentional,” Emily says.
Noting that Jacqueline’s inspiration images revealed a penchant for powder blue cabinetry, Emily kicked off her design scheme by adding living room built-ins painted in Benjamin Moore’s Normandy. “This is the home’s blue moment,” Emily says. “We had to have this color somewhere!” The glossy millwork stretches floor-to-ceiling across an entire wall, providing storage and a backdrop for the television. Today, the room feels cozy and organized while the color and decorative tidbits, such as a piece of driftwood, allude to Jacqueline’s East Coast roots.
Although Jacqueline hadn’t initially planned on touching the kitchen, which already boasted homey wooden countertops and a playful penny tile backsplash, the room’s navy blue cabinetry competed with the new powder blue unit in the adjacent room. “We really wanted each room to have its own identity,” Emily says. The solution? To paint the kitchen cabinets and island in Sherwin-Williams’s Tricorn Black and swap the modern handles for antique brass knobs. “The knobs’ vintage feel ties into the existing pot rails and nods to London style,” the designer points out. Plus she adores the high contrast pairing of the glossy black millwork and matte maple butcher block countertops.
In the corner by the front window, Emily created an airy, multifunctional dining area. She detailed the base with horizontal boards that play off the wall’s vertical nickel groove paneling, then topped it with a luscious mustard-colored velvet cushion. “Local upholsterers had a 16-week lead time, so I put my sewing skills to the test making two long bench cushions with brass zippers on the backs,” she says. “The cushions pull warm golden tones into the corner.”
Jacqueline eats, reads, and sometimes works tucked into the bright and cozy corner. Mostly, though, she works at the desk in the second bedroom-turned-home office. It was her idea to apply paneling painted in a coral color reminiscent of Palm Beach to the wall behind her desk. “She wanted a killer Zoom background,” Emily says. Benjamin Moore’s Pink Polka Dot, a snappy hue with warm orange undertones, reads just this side of girly. “It makes the white walls glow, especially at sunset,” Emily says.
When it came to the bedroom, Jacqueline requested serenity. “Everything is a different shade of beige,” Emily says. Textural fabrics counter the lacquered Anthropologie nightstands and vintage Lucite lamps draped with melted brass. Emily, who loves to layer, couldn’t resist dressing up the glam pieces with pleated pink lampshades once Jacqueline acquiesced. “She said I could show her one pop!” the designer says.
The result is an efficient, personal home that can still evolve with Jacqueline over time. “I like to create a blueprint using existing pieces as placeholders so a client can layer in meaningful pieces over time,” Emily explains.
