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Interiors

Louise Copeland Brings Confident Color to a Stately Charlotte Home

Starting with a blank slate, the designer replaced brown-on-brown with an abundance of saturated hues, natural materials, and commanding artworks

By Kathleen Hackett
Cozy living room with blue walls, patterned rug, and framed horse photograph above a beige sofa with colorful cushions.
In a Charlotte residence designed by Louise Copeland, the music room is blanketed in a Phillip Jeffries royal blue velvet where a photograph by David Yarrow holds court. The marble lamps are by Flair Florence. Photo: Adam Kane Macchia

When Louise Copeland first connected with her Charlotte, North Carolina, clients in early 2020, the country was on the verge of what became the Covid pandemic. The couple, he a Charlotte native, and she hailing from Savannah, Georgia, and their two school-age daughters, had just relocated from the Eastover area into their contemporary Federal-style home in the city’s family-friendly Myers Park neighborhood. So it wasn’t until the following summer that Copeland got to work. In the meantime, her clients gifted her with a blank slate. “The interior was very dark, mostly brown, everywhere,” she says. “The wife couldn’t bear it, so she painted every room in Benjamin Moore’s Simply White just to get through lockdown.”

elegant dining room with wooden table, chandelier, pink flowers in vase, large painting on wall, soft lighting
Italian dining chairs upholstered in Moore & Giles leather with Pierre Frey fabric surround a Studio Moe table. The mixed-media canvas is by Marcus Kenney and sconce is by Apparatus. Photo: Adam Kane Macchia

Give Copeland a blank canvas and her impulse is to pull out the fan book and slide straight past the neutrals. Lucky for her, this was a couple who put their full trust in the interior designer’s flair for color and deferred to her on the entire palette. Well, almost: “I was showing them burgundies and all of the shades you would associate with a smoking lounge for their music room and they said ‘Absolutely not.’”

View of a dining room with colorful art on the wall, wooden furniture, and large window illuminating the space.
To the left of the entryway, a vivid Geraldine Neuwirth painting beckons from the dining room. Photo: Adam Kane Macchia
Elegant dining room with wooden table, chairs, chandelier, patterned curtains, large colorful artwork, and sunlit windows.
The chandelier is by Ercole Barovier from the 1940s. Photo: Adam Kane Macchia

Traditional Southern decor was not what they were after. In fact, the pair had no interest in any of the decorating tropes associated with the American South: no excessive layering or over-accessorizing was the brief—as well as using only synthetic-free materials. The pair did go deep in the music room—a.k.a. the “adults-only” room where a beloved vinyl collection is stashed in a custom Built By Steele console—but the Phillip Jeffries royal blue velvet wall covering conjures moody music-filled evenings rather than late-night cigars and whiskey.   

Modern bedroom with two twin beds, floral curtains, colorful artwork, and a white armchair by the window.
A pair of artworks by Geraldine Neuwirth hang above custom beds in the children’s room. Photo: Adam Kane Macchia
Stylish bathroom with blue vanity, gold accents, floral wallpaper, and wall mirror above sink with a flower vase.
In the powder room, Hector Finch sconces contrast Pierre Frey wallpaper. Photo: Adam Kane Macchia

That endless expanse of white was clearly a joy for Copeland, but it did present the challenge of determining where to start. “Typically the client wants to hold onto something that already exists,” she says. She tiptoed into the palette by starting in the kitchen and family room, where most of daily life happens. “I didn’t go for making too much of a statement, but I found ways to bring textiles into parts of the room to give it dimension and cohesion,” Also, Copeland felt, the other public rooms must relate to it.

Dining room with a round table, blue cushioned chairs, and a floral centerpiece, framed by large windows with garden view.
The airy breakfast room’s vintage Henning Kjærnulf chairs are upholstered in a Peter Dunham linen. Pinch designed the pendant. Photo: Adam Kane Macchia
Spacious modern living room with neutral tones, sofas, armchairs, open kitchen, and large windows letting in natural light.
A palette of understated blues and creams define the living room. Window treatments are by Imogen Heath. Photo: Adam Kane Macchia
Modern bedroom with a large bed, floral bench, wooden dresser, armchair, and stylish overhead light fixture.
In the primary bedroom, a daybed by Julian Chichester sits at the foot of a bed covered in Pierre Frey fabric. Allied Maker designed the pendant; the custom mirror is by artist Margit Wittig. Photo: Adam Kane Macchia

Indeed, the 5,200-square-foot home, built in 2014, features a traditional layout with large openings between the rooms. All the better to take in the art the couple chose specifically for the house. Geraldine Neuwirth’s Spring Bloom, which hangs in the dining room, can be enjoyed from the entrance hall and the music room. Likewise, David Yarrow’s Lakota, hanging over the music room sofa, is easily viewed from the other side of the house. “We kept the art big because my clients didn’t want visual clutter,” says Copeland. “They wanted less stuff and more wow.” And they got it.