An Interior with a Collaborative Beginning

Julie Moore and Erin ReVille take on the role of designing women

By Elizabeth Sugg   »  Photos by Mollie Tobias

Her husband’s late mother’s lamp. That became the starting point for the collaborative transformation of the interior of an expansive, traditional family home in the Country Club of North Carolina (CCNC) community.

A newlywed in a later-in-life marriage was looking for a color palette that she and her new spouse could build on as they combined households in his family home, and she loved a cloisonné lamp that once belonged to his mother. Persimmon orange and bright pastel blue flowers and their intricately painted green leaves on the lamp’s creamy porcelain background became the guiding color reference for this blending of families.

The bride’s former home was on the market in another golf community so there was an opportunity for she and her new husband to weed out furnishings of their own before the conversation turned to what to keep. With both working fulltime she wanted to enlist some help with the renovation process which focused on interior design more than structural changes. She also wanted to be part of the process because sourcing interesting furnishings had always been one of her favorite pastimes. But being wonderfully sensitive to moving into her new spouse’s home where his children had been raised, this new wife wanted an intermediary so a consensus on what was to stay, go, come in, and get updated became a shared process, not an awkward or stressful one.

Enter Julie Moore and Erin ReVille, the co-owners of One Eleven Main, a gift and furnishings store that offers interior design services. The new bride had gone looking for fabric for custom pillows for their living room, and she wanted something that boldly captured the colors in the beloved lamp. She also wanted custom pillows to accent an existing cream-colored loveseat in her husband’s study that was just off the main living room. Moore consulted on that initial sale, and the collaboration felt good to the new bride, so ReVille and Moore were tapped for the interior design. Three years later Moore now laughingly says, “And it all started with a pillow…”

The process began with a meeting at both the couple’s houses so Moore and ReVille could see what furniture and accessories the couple had. The bride is a Moore county native, her mother a collector of pottery from way back, including an 1890s Jugtown piece, a passion passed on to her daughter. In addition to the Seagrove pottery that needed to be incorporated, the groom is a collector of Toby jugs – sometimes called Fillpots – popularized by Staffordshire potters in 1760s England, pottery most often depicting the exaggerated cartoonization of the head of a recognizable person, the original ones often of a king or a Shakespearian character. Those became the focus for bookcases and tabletops while on the walls, both had lots of art but in very different styles.

The groom had traditionally themed prints often in pairs of pastoral or hunt scenes while she had cultivated a collection of original, contemporary paintings through the years, in particular a bold abstract by the late Southern Pines artist Elizabeth Morrison Barron which became a focal point in the foyer. Another canvas that became a central focus in the dining room was a self-portrait by an aunt who had been very close to the bride. These special pieces coupled with their collections added warmth and depth to the interior design process. The objects that remained had meaning, and created the underpinnings of an updated, bright and stylish home.

The result is a merging of a contemporary traditional style with a “lodgy feel,” says the bride. The couple enjoys the outdoors, particularly golf, hunting and riding, and enjoy family and friends piling in to watch a ball game so this blending of more rugged accessories into the mix added authenticity and a relaxed coziness to their living spaces.

ReVille has an interior design degree from Salem College, and represented artists through Portrait South for many years before joining forces with Moore to open One Eleven Main a decade ago. Moore grew up in Texas, attended Ole Miss where she earned a public relations degree with a concentration in hospital PR, then spent years raising three boys all the while cultivating her own sense of decorating style rooted in her southern background. The co-owners met when their children were in school together, and together they offer a friendly face to interior design projects, their creativity laced with personable proficiency that helped make even the daunting task of a large move spawned by a new marriage stand the test of time.


An Interior Comes to Life

The Living Room

The living room was where the project started. The cloisonné lamp has so many beautiful colors in it, and inspired the palette for this room and the rest of the home. Moore and ReVille used two sofas in creamy white along with two modern wing chairs in a persimmon velvet in order to increase seating options in this room. The sofas create a "blank canvas" for the colorful pillows.

The depth of the mantle was enlarged in order to accommodate the large jars sitting on it, and the art looks as if it was painted for this very spot, a piece found in a Winston-Salem gallery. The room is anchored by a black oriental screen and a large cabinet, painted black during the renovation process, that displays collectibles. The leather-top game table, one of ReVille’s favorite pieces in the living room, is a perfect place to play cards or for overflow seating for a holiday meal. The occasional tables, all individual in style, were gathered together to help create warmth in the room and showcase the accessories collected by two families.

The Study

In the study, the furniture was re-arranged, pictures re-hung and soft brown-and-cream leopard-print pillows were added to the small loveseat. The antelope horn sconces were already adorning this room so the goal was to showcase those and play up an "animal theme" in the rug and artwork.

Kitchen

The kitchen was recently updated with a new taupe-colored paint that the bride selected along with the appliances, countertops and light fixtures. The island, a tall and wonderful workspace which provides loads of storage, is the centerpiece of the kitchen, complemented by a large pottery bowl. During the interior decorating process, the island was painted a charcoal grey to help it stand out and command the space. The handsome top is Quartzite, resembling petrified wood, and was purchased through Set in Stone in Aberdeen as was the granite on the countertops and backsplash.

Breakfast Nook

The sunny breakfast nook is occupied by a 42-inch round copper top table and four chairs.  The chair and barstool cushions were custom-made by One Eleven Main’s upholsterer located in Troy.

The Keeping Room

The keeping room, the coziest room in the house, is located just off the kitchen. The living space provides plenty of built-in shelving to house family photos, an extensive collection of Toby Jugs and unique pieces to spur conversation. This multipurpose room also includes a wet bar with glass cabinets to showcase pretty glasses and pottery by Ben Owen III.

Transforming a Den

A bedroom was converted into a den by adding a sofa, an oversized ottoman and two handsome leather club chairs. The framed artwork hanging above the sofa was found at a local second hand shop, the persimmon-colored mats helping carry the color into that area of the home. The large brass lamp between the club chairs got re-wired and a new shade. This bright, airy, comfortable space is a sought after room in the house.

Bedroom

The inspiration for the master bedroom was based on the fabric selected for the pillows on the bed, colors and scenes from the Orient. The lamps were selected for their large scale as needed adjacent to the king-sized bed, featuring a carved wooden headboard, their contemporary style offering a nice contrast to the French night tables. Moore and ReVille found the hand-carved decorative wall hanging above the bed and knew it would be a perfect complement to the bed. The two “love a great find!”

The sleigh bench was enhanced by a geometric custom-made green-and-white cushion, while a lamp base near the window was painted a rich blue, both adding pops of color and warmth to the living space.

One Eleven Main is located at 710 S Bennett St, Southern Pines, one11main.com.