DESIGN: From Child’s Bedroom to Grown-Up Lounge – Charlotte Magazine

A few years  after he purchased his lakefront home in Mooresville, Laura Aguilar’s client was ready to update the dark, Tuscan-inspired interior. The divorced dad also had a teen daughter who would soon be away at college. As part of the first-floor renovation, he wanted to convert her bedroom into a moody lounge to host friends and house his spirit collection. “He entertains a ton, so that seemed like the obvious thing,” says Aguilar, lead designer of Cornelius-based Aguilar Design Studio. “Rarely do we get a client who says, ‘I trust you. Do what’s best,’ and this was one of those.”

REINVENTED AND RADIANT

Instead of removing the mermaid wall mural his daughter had left behind, Aguilar decided to work with it. “I thought, We can’t get rid of this! When do you see a room that has that?” she says. “So we decided to play with it and make it a focal point.” She also kept the wainscotting but painted the walls in Benjamin Moore’s Polo Blue to give the dark wood more impact. “Not every client is up for deep, moody tones,” Aguilar says, “but every now and then, we get a brave one who lets us saturate a room with a deeper color.” 

PREPPED TO PARTY

The homeowner didn’t need privacy or sun protection in this room, so the linen drapes just “soften up the hard edges” of the windows, and the custom sisal rug has a stain guard to stand up to spills. “The ottoman is performance fabric, too, because this is a place for parties, and it has to be stain-resistant,” Aguilar says. “The four chairs are natural leather, so they’ll only get better with time.” The iron accent tables from Four Hands provide a place to rest a wine glass or whiskey tumbler. 

OPEN HOUSE

Aguilar installed open iron shelving to maximize space and allow the glassware to stand out. “He has a beautiful collection of expensive bottles and wanted to display it,” she says. “It’s a smallish room, and we knew any custom built-ins or big storage units wouldn’t allow us to get as much seating into that space.” She warmed up the room with suede pillows and an ivory knit throw and found a cocktail tray to accommodate more beverages. “Everywhere you reach, you have a place to sit,” she says. “It’s clean and modern but also welcoming and timeless.”