Chicago-based designer Stephanie Wohlner’s mental mood board was two decades in the making, so when it came time to work on her Arizona home, she had plenty of inspiration. While her overflowing mind was “chaotic,” as she describes, the house—which radiates tranquility—is anything but. “All of the colors are from my hikes and desert walks. I never knew it was going to affect me in that way,” says Wohlner. That’s not all she discovered: “This is who I really am,” she confides, “layer upon layer, pattern upon pattern.”
An intricate kitchen floor tile by Exquisite Surfaces became the jumping-off point. The great room’s sofas are in a plush green Mokum velvet from Holly Hunt, with chairs sporting a Donghia swirl-pattern fabric from Kravet. Zigzag-motif curtains echo the shape of the mountains seen everywhere through the numerous French doors. “I probably would have done more,” Wohlner laughs. A neutral textured Stark carpet anchors it all.
Deep turquoises recur in chaises in the primary bedroom, the powder room wallpaper, the terrace kitchen backsplash, even the kitchen cabinets of the charming casita. Repetition, says Wohlner, “makes you comfortable in a home.” Eclectic pieces, like her mother’s horn-hide hybrid chair in the powder room, surprise the eye.
Wohlner didn’t keep everything in her head. She carried around a photo of a patio trellis she’d found in France years earlier. With a little engineering help from her husband, she got her “roof within a roof.” Now it’s time to kick back and enjoy the view.
Photography By Laura Moss.
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