After a two-year search and a lengthy renovation, Amy Studebaker Design has found a new home in Ladue (9749 Clayton). The 1,950-square-foot space is a tour through owner and principal designer Amy Studebaker’s take on some great destinations, from an English conservatory to a French café to Palm Beach, Florida.
The studio’s design reflects the European feel that many of the firm’s clients are looking for, “bringing in those English and French antiques but mixing it with new items in a variety of aesthetics,” Studebaker says. The result “feels very layered, and that mix of new and old makes it feel very welcoming.”
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With its natural light, touches of rattan, hand-painted floors resembling tile, 12-foot ceilings, and interior windows with glass-cased openings, the conference room and the greatly expanded materials library evoke an English conservatory. The carrara marble top table was one of the few pieces Studebaker brought over from the previous studio space in the Interior Design Center of St. Louis.
The studio also has a kitchenette with cabinets painted in Behr “Ovation”—“I love a blue kitchen!” says Studebaker—that features a large, moody portrait over the sink. Studebaker is interested in old portraits and thought it fit perfectly with the French café theme. The kitchenette includes green-and-white checkered tile from Zia Tile, which brings in a touch of the conservatory feel to help the spaces flow together.
“When it came to my personal office, I really wanted to have more of that traditional, old-school Palm Beach feel,” she says of her office’s bright colors and patterns. The walls are painted in Sherwin-Williams “Dishy Coral,” with Sherwin-Williams “Greek Villa” detailing and Benjamin Moore “Stokes Forest Green” trim. Behind the couch hangs a large, hand-painted vintage mirror that Studebaker found on chairish.com. “It was so over the top and fabulous that I had to have it as a statement piece.”
The studio also includes a green powder room, decked out in ornate “Hydrangea Drape” wallpaper from Schumacher with Coleen and Company wall sconces. Here, again, the wood floor has been hand-painted based on an initital sketch by Studebaker.
“Even though [the spaces] are different, they all still speak to one another, with the exception of my office,” she says. “You have that café feeling in the kitchen, but there’s the checkered tile, which relates to a conservatory. So, it makes sense when you step out of the kitchen and you’re seeing these glass partitions and painted floors.”
“This is what I like to do in our clients’ houses, too. Each room speaks to the other, but when you leave one room, you do feel like you’ve gone into another space. And now you’re going to enjoy that space for what it is.”
Throughout the design, Studebaker and her team drew from their favorite brands and vendors. They also purposefully brought in various elements into each room to create a “living showroom.”
“If we’re saying [to a client], we’d love to design your cabinetry with inset cabinets, or here’s how we’d like to place your brass pole, or this is what I would like to do with your marble, we can bring them to those little rooms … and show examples,” she says.
As they put the finishing touches on the new studio, Studebaker is pleased to have a beautiful space that represents the brand–and offers room to grow.
