Lauren Hood has a knack for designing spaces for children and families. “Most of my clients have kids, and they all want the same thing— spaces that are family friendly and comfortable, but also sophisticated and stylish,” explains the owner of Raleigh-based Progeny Interiors. “I’m not opposed to taking on childless clients, but that’s sort of my thing around here—trying to conceal the toys and the mess and not make a child’s rooms look childish.”
Though not formally trained as an interior designer, the former nonprofit grant writer launched Progeny Children’s Shoppe in Raleigh in early 2014 when her children were young, and she couldn’t find the type of fashionable clothing she sought for them. And later that year, when patrons of her store began asking her to design their nurseries for them, she decided to launch her design practice. One of her first clients was Julia Kerr, who was pregnant with her first child at the time and hired Hood to design her baby’s room.
When Kerr became pregnant with her second child and she and her husband, Matthew Peterson, bought a traditional fivebedroom, five-and-a-half bath house in Hayes Barton in early 2017, they naturally commissioned Hood to complete the interiors. “Our goal was to make it a warm, family-friendly, forever home,” Kerr offers. “We wanted to update the kitchen and bathrooms and add our touch to the other rooms by keeping the classic, elegant feel of the home.” Since they were putting money into renovations, they didn’t want to spend their budget on unnecessary cosmetic elements, so they made things work where they could. For example, they retained the wallcovering in four of the rooms. “The house had so many fabulous wallpapers and colors. We just wanted to update and add to the style of the house,” Kerr says.
The first order of business was creating an impactful entryway. The previous foyer had dated gold wallpaper that extended up the stairway to the hallway above, and Hood redesigned the space to make a statement with intense blue wallpaper from Lake August. “That was a huge investment and something that we felt would last for a long time. It’s just so vibrant and cool and still sort of traditional,” she says. “And that’s what the whole house has been like. It’s a very old house, very traditional. But we wanted to do some contemporary accents and just make it feel young.”
Hood was able to perfectly translate the style preferences of Kerr—who formerly worked in the New York City fashion scene and has impeccable taste—and deliver on all the must-haves that her client sought. Design requests included a master bedroom that serves as a respite with a seating area, installing grasscloth wallcovering somewhere, and using Schumacher’s Citrus Garden fabric, which Kerr had always admired.
Hood employed a serene palette for the master suite, painting the walls in Benjamin Moore Palladian Blue and using light neutral tones in the Lee Jofa Allegra Linen cornice behind the bed and Hill House Home bedding. The seating area consists of a custom Duralee sofa, a Lee Industries chair, and the Clover Ottoman designed by Windsor Smith for Century. Hood found a home for the Citrus Garden print in the breakfast nook, where the vibrant pattern livens up the space, as do the vintage chairs upholstered in a rich orange textile. “Before we redid the breakfast nook, it felt like a second playroom, so we completely took out all of the toys, redid the bench seat, and got a more modern-looking table,” Hood explains. “We also put a little bar area back there, too, that is right off of their backyard.”
The lovely neutral-toned grasscloth wallcovering by York adds texture in the family room and juxtaposes with the bold navy sofa. This living space flows seamlessly into the dining room in terms of structural layout and design elements, which was a deliberate strategy of the designer. “That’s really what we had in mind,” Hood says of the circulation pattern. “They do have a lot of parties, so we wanted every space to feel like it flows into the next throughout the house. It’s so cool when they entertain; everything is very open.”
To renovate the kitchen, Hood simply replaced the old granite countertops with marble and swapped out the dated tile with subway tile, finished with a darker grout to create a fresh, modern look. “That was all we did, and it completely changed the whole space,” Hood says. “The big island in the renovated kitchen perfectly lends itself to hosting gatherings, as everyone always likes to congregate in the kitchen.”
Kerr agrees that the design is well suited to the way her family likes to socialize in their home. “We love having friends over for backyard fun or some front porch cocktails. And it’s a great flowing house for a fun family dinner party,” she says. “The updated kitchen is a perfect gathering place for cocktails and cooking.”