Photography by Alise O'Brien
“A little piece of nirvana”: That’s how Deborah Patterson describes her house. As Monsanto’s director of social corporate responsibility and president of the Monsanto Fund, Ms. Patterson gives out grants to help establish schools in Brazil, farmers’ academies in Africa and rural theater outreach programs in the Midwest. After a day of engaging in such intense work, few people would choose to live in an overly formal or intense house—one with dark walnut wainscoting, for instance. Or curlicue chandeliers dripping with crystal. Or a house in which every room is painted a different color.
In fact, when Ms. Patterson and her two daughters (Emily, 11, and Sarah, 9) moved into this Ladue house five years ago, every room was a different color ... and very dark and formal. Wanting to give the house some lift and brightness, she phoned her decorator, Randee Jacobs of RJI Design, and prepared to make the house truly feel like her own.
“I like warm,” Ms. Patterson says. “I bought the house because of the sunlight—it’s so bright and sunny ... so I thought warm colors would enhance all of the windows and all of the light.”
“We totally transformed the personality of the house,” Ms. Jacobs agrees matter-of-factly. “We started with that piece—” she nods toward a stunning Edwardian cabinet made of bird’s-eye maple, circa 1890—“which came from the other house. It’s a functional piece,” she adds, almost as if to apologize for its outrageous beauty. She strides across the room to open an ornately carved door and reveal neat, sparkling rows of crystal and glassware.
“I love that piece,” Ms. Patterson says of the cabinet, calling it her “first real piece of furniture.” It was purchased 17 years ago, when the two women began working together; Ms. Patterson was one of Ms. Jacobs’ first clients.
“Randee helps me find things—I know what I want,” Ms. Patterson says. “I’ll say, ‘I want some really comfortable green chairs,’ and she’s like, ‘Okay, I can do that.’”
Indeed, Ms. Jacobs did, locating a pair of velvety Stuart chairs in moss green with gold bullion fringe, which now sit in Ms. Patterson’s living room. Nearby, a Beachley ottoman, upholstered in cotton burlap, was transformed from footrest to minitable with the addition of a glass tabletop. On the floors are simple sea-grass rugs by Merida Meridian; an apple green–and–citron couch, finished with pillows patterned with elephants and palm trees, ties into Ms. Patterson’s heirloom dining-room set, updated with the purchase of some new chairs, upholstered in a similar, African-inspired fabric.
Another way that Ms. Patterson has warmed up this house is with her art collection, which includes contemporary paintings from St. Louis–born painters John Rozelle and Jerald Ieans, African masks and beaded statues and art prints like the one in the living room announcing the appearance of La Grande Dame—Josephine Baker—at the Bobino Theatre in Paris.
“The majority of my art was done by black artists,” Ms. Patterson says. “Some of those pieces are symbolic, and they speak to me in terms of some of the dilemmas of black people; others are really just characters, so when I look at them, I see composites of people that I’ve known throughout my life. My art brings me incredible comfort—it keeps me connected to who I am.”
Upstairs, in her daughter Emily’s room, Ms. Patterson hung two paintings that she bought off the street in SoHo (“I think I paid more to ship them back home than for the paintings themselves,” she laughs) created from discarded windows.
“Emily likes purple,” Ms. Patterson says, explaining that the girls picked their own paint colors. “And
Sarah likes yellow. The nice thing was, when I bought the house, the bathroom was hand-painted—it was lavender with little yellow flowers, so it kind of worked!”
Ms. Patterson’s very first art acquisition hangs in her own bedroom: a mixed-media canvas reminiscent of Romare Bearden, which she purchased in the East Indies. Her armoire is late Victorian, balanced by a metal Tuscan bed with a custom finish from Artefacts, which she dressed with linens from Bed Bath & Beyond.
“We mix and match the inexpensive things with other things that cost more,” Ms. Patterson says. It helps, of course, that both women have a preference for timeless, rather than trendy, pieces, updated with a little twist. “It’s very old-world,” Ms. Jacobs says of her taste. “I can do modern houses, but I like antiques. That way, you get a little bit of history. I much prefer to have the history there.”
So does Ms. Patterson. There’s no mistaking the warmth in her voice when she describes how much she adores her house; the living room is one of her favorite spots, though it definitely has a contender for her affections.
“I like my living room, but I love my bedroom,” Ms. Patterson says. “I feel like a princess there. But,” she muses, “I still need more tchochkes in there. I have to call Randee ... She’s the best at finding tchochkes.”
