I have long admired Jenny Brennan of Ava Suren Interior: ID’s exquisite taste and fabulous design sensibility, so when I got married and moved into my husband’s home of 18 plus years, Jenny was my first telephone call.
The house was slightly dated and, of more importance, my husband had lived there with not one but two previous spouses! OY! It didn’t make sense for us to move as the house is in a great location and interesting architecturally, so the questions were how to update the look and how to transform the house into my home and into an expression of our new life together….without breaking the bank!
In addition to bringing together a few must-have pieces of furniture and art from our different households, my husband and I had just re-painted the first two floors of the house so Jenny focused on blending together aspects of the color and design palette that were in place.
My husband can be very particular so we chose our battles, identifying the few necessary purchases and choice upgrades, as well as offering several practical ideas about how we could revitalize what we already had and how we could improve our storage spaces.
Our living room, dining room and kitchen have an open floor plan. Through select purchases such as oxidized steel bar stools, a matching coffee table, and mounting an exquisite Asian panel as a painting with colors echoed throughout the first floor, Jenny was able to unify the spaces. Knowing of my passion for collecting artifacts from our travels, Jenny was able to rearrange my finds by shape, materials, and color, transforming clutter into artfully displayed and aesthetically pleasing treasures. Simple custom-made doors and specially installed bins transformed ugly shelves into a tasteful entertainment center. Our pantry doubles as a laundry closet and through judicious installation of drawers and shelving, not only did we greatly increase the storage space, it was infinitely easier to find items and infinitely nicer to look at!
We work at home and unfortunately my office is the last place that gets my attention! I am so grateful to Jenny for creating a room of my own that both soothes my spirit and inspires me to work. A place of calm where I can focus, yet expresses different facets of my personality. Once Jenny found the red desk that I love, a complementary credenza, and unique wooden boxes to present extraneous items, she set up the file cabinets, drawers, and practical storage bins to create an organized and efficient work-place. She helped me identify what i needed to have on hand and what could be archived in basement storage.
Like many people, my home matters a great deal to me. A good designer is both a psychologist and an engineer, seeing into a person’s soul and implementing practical solutions! I greatly value Jenny’s sensitivity in seeing who I am and her formidable ability to translate that into an environment that is beautiful, comfortable, and functional.
-Andrea Herz-Payne