Design STL May/June 2019

“The character of this neighborhood—that’s what drew me here,” says homeowner Steve Engel. “It was one of the few neighborhoods where I got invited to dinner parties just to meet the neighbors.

The current homeowners found remnants of the property’s past—a pair of pants, an old broom handle, a baby shoe, a soda bottle from the former Belleville Glass Company, a frequent-shopper punch card from Romeiser’s—inside the walls.

The slogan of the company? “Have your landscape and eat it, too.”

Eaton was looking for something that would take her speech therapy clients’ minds off what they couldn’t do and give them a little creative confidence. She wound up setting them a heck of an example.

“I thought maybe [the homeowners] had found old paintings in their basement, so I was totally surprised to discover they were talking about entire rooms covered with murals,” says Jill Arnone of the Sunset Hills Historical Society.

A recent trip to Paris inspired the interior style of the designer’s house.

“I don’t want to say the architecture is secondary, but it’s not the main event,” says Fendler.

Here in St. Louis, they’re a passion of landscape designer Kyle West of WESTdesign.

These six pieces are stylish and weatherproof.

The Spreitlers’ renovated backyard was recognized for its expansive use of native plants and white fringe trees, sumac, black chokeberry, and serviceberry trees.