Interior Designer, Barri Thompson, takes you inside some of her projects and inspirations.
Barri Thompson is an interior designer who offers full service interior design for both residential and commercial projects in Birmingham and surrounding cities. Barri has worked on a variety of projects bringing her laser sharp focus to her clients diverse homes. Her mantra is ‘love where you live.’
STEEL CITY LOFT
This loft was such a fun project. Mostly because my client (who later became my very best friend) loved color and wanted to use as much as possible to warm up his industrial space and create a happy, vibrant home. He is an avid book collector (mostly art, interiors, travel and fashion), so we started by styling his bookshelves with all of his collectibles which included vintage throws, pottery, found objects, candles and obviously plenty of colorful books! When I began this project, my client had already purchased the Jonathan Adler dining table. We added some punch with custom chairs from Kelly O’Neal in a fabulous cobalt blue wool and for a little extra “fun” we threw sheep skins on the Bertoia chairs to warm them up. The dining area such is an inviting space to hang out, entertain, sip some wine and enjoy a home cooked meal.
BACHELORETTE PAD
When my client, Kelly, hired me to work on her Highland Park flat, the first thing she told me was she wanted it to be girly, sexy and serine. I must say, I could not have been more thrilled! We started the process by designing custom pieces for the breakfast nook as well as her master bedroom. When I discovered the gorgeous Tiffany blue and gold wallpaper I knew we had to use it somewhere. We added the channel back banquette in a soft blue faux ostrich which was a perfect fit for her space and then sprinkled in the fantastic vintage Italian dining chairs (amazing find!) and the iconic Saarinen table. We needed to warm up the floors a bit, so I used a caramel and white cow hide rug which tied in to the skull on the wall. This space was extremely tight, so it was a bit of a challenge to make everything work. In the end, it became a cozy, feminine nook where Kelly could have her morning coffee with bright light, or an intimate dinner with friends.
HOLLYWOOD REGENCY
One of my long time clients came to me and said she was ready to remodel her kitchen and she wanted drama and glam. Well, from the moment I walked into Triton Stone and saw this stunning marble called Calacatta Cervaiole, I knew we were off to a great start! The client’s kitchen is fairly large, so we purchased five slabs to run the marble as a full back splash. The beautiful German faucets came from our friend, Harriett Alley, at Fixtures and Finishes. We used the smaller faucet that you see in the picture for the wet bar area and standard sized faucets for the two additional sinks. We painted the walls a beautiful warm white and repainted the cabinets Caviar by Sherwin Williams (deep black with just a touch of a blue undertone). All of the appliances came from our dear friends at Allsouth.
BACHELORETTE PAD
Kelly wanted a very soft and feminine bedroom. Our challenge was to create that space while also incorporating a dedicated area for her home office. We started by teaming up with a firm in LA who had done many custom pieces for my clients throughout my career. We decided to go with a grown up “princess” bed upholstered in pearl patent leather and finished with chrome nailheads. We selected all of the bedding from Ann Gish which is absolutely exquisite! We had our LA team make the white lacquer and mirrored console as well as the two bedside tables. We purposefully had the right side table made with a bit of an Asian flair to tie back to our “Goddess lamp.” The sea foam green sofa pieces were an amazing find at a local antique store. They were in absolute disrepair, but Kelly and I loved them so much that we decided to solicit the help of a furniture repair guru. He was able to breathe life into the pieces again by re-working the cushions, painting the frames in a high gloss white and upholstering them in a gorgeous velvet. We added Jonathan Adler pendants over the bedside table and warmed up the wood floors with Angela Adams rugs. Kelly couldn’t decide which rug she loved the most, so we ended up with three so that she could change them seasonally or according to her mood.
