1 of 5
PHOTO BY ALISE O'BRIEN
2 of 5
PHOTO BY ALISE O'BRIEN
3 of 5
PHOTO BY ALISE O'BRIEN
4 of 5
PHOTO BY ALISE O'BRIEN
5 of 5
PHOTO BY ALISE O'BRIEN
In 1922, businessman Arthur Stockstrom hired architect Ernst Janssen to build a home for his family in the Wydown-Forsyth District of Clayton.
Stockstrom had long admired the work of Janssen, a German-born architect who had designed several residences in St. Louis, including the Compton Heights house belonging to his uncle Charles Stockstrom, co-founder of the Quick Meal Stove company (which became the American Stove Company and then the Magic Chef Stove Company).
The Clayton home of Arthur Stockstrom, named president of the American Stove Company in 1938 (the company changed its name to Magic Chef in 1951), is a three-story brick-and-stucco house, one of four French Eclectic–style homes in the neighborhood. It features an asymmetric floor plan; windows, doors, and corners outlined in exposed red brick; and a tall hipped roof with a slight bell-cast shape.
The exterior’s formal air, including three iron balconettes and arched pediments, is matched by the home’s interior: classic French windows and doors, high arches throughout, and terrazzo floors.
The current owners are a young couple who moved from a nearby two-bedroom condo into the 7,000-square-foot house one year ago.
“We weren’t looking for something this large, but we fell in love with the house and made an offer the same day we saw it,” says the wife. “This is our first house with a yard and a stairwell. Sometimes it feels a little surreal to live here. Is this house really mine?” she asks.
With little more than a sofa and a dining room table and chairs to furnish the rooms, the owners reached out to interior designer Joni Spear, whose bold use of color had caught their attention.
“When I saw the house I was, like, ‘Hallelujah! I can do this!’” says Spear. “You can really make an impact in a house this large.”
The home’s most formal space is the living room, where 12-foot ceilings, a spiral iron staircase, and a wall of windows draped in voluminous black-and-white window treatments command attention. Despite the high-style underpinnings, the homeowners wanted the design to feel less intimidating and more welcoming. To soften the look, Spear used an array of high-contrast fabrics and patterns throughout the space. The tuxedo-style sofa with track arms and turned legs is upholstered in Lelièvre from Stark. Two French Bergère chairs are covered in an animal-print fabric from Pindler & Pindler, and the geometric-print rug and a glass cocktail table, purchased from 1stdibs, echo the room’s arches, offering a playful mix of style and substance.
The wife says she wasn’t quite sure of her design preferences when she first moved into the house—“I don’t think I knew what my style was,” she admits—but she did know that the home’s black-and-white palette, left unchanged from when the previous owners lived there, needed some color.
PHOTO BY ALISE O'BRIEN
Rather than repaint the walls and strip the windows of their glamorous coverings, Spear introduced color in the furnishings and fabrics. She worked in an Asian-inspired blue console, an oval gilt mirror, and an embroidered floral fabric from Osborne & Little that covers two wingback chairs. A subtle sheen, in the form of an acid-washed gold-leaf cowhide area rug, blankets the east end of the living room’s terrazzo floor.
“I really had to sneak that in,” says Spear. “It was a little too funky. But as I always tell my clients, ‘If you don’t like it, I’ll buy it.’”
Spear likes to combine high-end fabrics and custom furniture with accessories from local resale shops and estate sales, such as the wood-top table from Miriam Switching Post and an antique lamp from The Refind Room that she had rewired to hold a new shade.
“I love to take something old and make it look new. Lamps are easily $500 to $1,000,” she says. “I try to mix in finds with higher-end pieces, which helps to distribute the budget.”
When friends and family come for a visit, the airy family room becomes the movie-viewing room, designed with comfort in mind. Spear says the existing draperies—though “gorgeous and impactful”—were a challenge to design around. She opted to work her way from the floor up, selecting a charcoal-and-white rug by Nourison, then the fabrics and furniture. Spear pulled in touches of blue, carried over from the living room, in the form of a pair of wall sconces and two tufted slipper chairs, as well as the room’s club and wing chairs. A set of Christopher Guy–inspired side tables adds a dash of drama. Spear also incorporated the owners’ existing sofa into the design.
The kitchen allowed Spear to break from classic design themes and integrate a farmhouse table. “After seeing the room, I just knew it could take a more rustic piece,” she says. She and the owners hired Rustic Grain to build a table of wood reclaimed from a Missouri barn; Spear designed a banquette and covered it with a bronze crocodile-print fabric. “I wanted something fun and durable,” she says.
Though Spear worked with most of the home’s existing window dressings, she elected to switch out what was in the kitchen in favor of a new fabric with a charming splash of red. To complement the new window treatments, she ordered red bistro chairs from Serena & Lily. Together they lend a whimsical touch to an otherwise formal space.
“Without Joni, I would have made everything symmetrical, a straight line,” says the wife.
“It’s sometimes hard to work into someone else’s vision,” says Spear, referencing the home’s existing wall colors and window treatments.
“Designers have egos, and it can feel like you’re stepping on someone’s footprint,” she says, “but there’s enough character in this house that I knew we could easily come in and complete it. I just did my best to add more beautiful things to the house.”
