Innholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2022 i DesignSTL

GARDENERS ARE SOME of the most passionate people I know, and St. Louis is home to many. I’m excited for you to read about some of the homeowners we discovered last summer and interviewed for this issue—people like Krystal Kearns Coxon of Ballwin (pg. 48) and city dweller Dr. John Merkle (pg. 34), both of whom graciously opened up their gardens to us. Another lovely homeowner, originally from South Africa, gave us the go-ahead to photograph her French-inspired outdoor spaces last year, too. The veranda, which she had built to remind her of the indoor/outdoor lifestyle she grew up surrounded by, is the kind of place you want to spend time in, reading, relaxing, or entertaining. Turn to page 44 for the story. I’m often asked how I find such…

LIVING WITH DESIGN AS PEOPLE LOOK for ways to live their values—by embracing slow food and slow fashion, for example—one local family is counting on people to apply that same mindset to their floral choices. Eureka residents Jeremiah and Kristy DeGuire are the founders of Wheels 2 Fields Flower Farm, which they’ve run from their home since 2018. The company is named for Jeremiah, who’s been in a wheelchair since being injured by falling debris from a building during a storm. A former U.S. Marine, Jeremiah owns Veteran Supply Warehouse, an electrical distribution company. The farm, he says, gives him the opportunity to “do something to show what [can] be done” by someone in a wheelchair. For Kristy, president of DG2 Design Landscape Architecture, nature has always been a source…

WITH THE AMOUNT of time we’ve spent in our homes over the past two years, it’s only natural that many of us have found new ways to make the most of them. “Outdoor living spaces are very hot,” says Bobby Krull, owner of St. Louis–based Bobby K Designs and Rescue Landscaping and Outdoor Living. Krull designs and installs decks, patios, and the like for a living, but his thousands of followers on YouTube and TikTok know him as the friendly design talent whose creative ideas help bolster curb appeal. “[Outdoor areas] are an extension of the home,” he says. “A lot of times, those rooms crush the inside rooms—they’re that cool. With HGTV and YouTube and all these DIY shows, it’s made our business and market explode. People see the…

First-time visitors to the home of 66-year-old radiologist John Merkle always ask him who maintains his gardens. It’s a fair question—the backyard is designed as a series of elaborate verdant rooms, each a canvas for the owner’s creativity, and Merkle gets the credit for tending to it all. “I do the work, because I’m picky. I want it done right,” he says. “I have a staff of three here: me, myself, and I, and the only one who can do it right is myself.” Three decades ago, Merkle purchased a historic Compton Heights home, then had to spend his first two years in it getting the infrastructure sound before he could turn his attention to the backyard, which held just two beleaguered trees. “It was pathetic. It really was,” he…

A pile of butterfly wings on the ground beneath a stand of milkweed: Such a sight puzzled Ballwin resident Krystal Kearns Coxon and her three kids. Their home garden bristled with the native plants, which they’d planted in hopes of supporting monarchs on their life journey. The Coxon kids had even raised milkweed seedlings under grow lights and sold them to neighbors at the end of their driveway. If the monarchs had plenty to eat and a safe place to rest, the family wondered, why were their orange-and-black wings littering the ground? The Coxons decided: Let’s be investigators. They searched online and found that praying mantises, which resemble milkweed branches, survive by snatching up hapless monarchs who land on that species of plant. Sure enough, the kids went looking for mantises…

OUTDOOR FURNITURE Amini’s From dining to lounging to making memories around a fire pit, Amini’s can help you make your vision a reality, offering a wide selection from the best brands, including Brown Jordan and Castelle, many of which are exclusive to the store. aminis.com Centro Modern Furnishings Centro is known for its high-design modern furniture, lighting, and accessories for both indoor and outdoor spaces. Like a gallery’s curators, the store’s team takes great care in assembling a collection of world-class pieces, guiding clients toward what best matches their style and needs. centro-inc.com KDR Designer Showrooms With a curated selection of high-end outdoor furniture, lighting, rugs and more, KDR prides itself on offering only the finest products. It sells furnishings and textiles from both iconic brands and small artisan-run companies.…

JUST LIKE HOMES built for humans, birdhouses are designed with trends in mind. In the case of a spring 2022 birdhouse by Nature Creations, the whitewashed walls, black trim, and use of wood and stone reference the farmhouse aesthetic that’s so popular right now in new home construction. “Every spring, we come up with a new style. We update our offerings, update the colors and trims, and bring in new models, ” says Scott McDowell, 65, founder and owner of Olney, Illinois-based Nature Creations. Such stylish abobes inspire clients to hang their birdhouses indoors as works of art. “We watch trends and styles of houses and really pay attention to the [Pantone] Color of the Year, ” says McDowell. “Oftentimes, people are decorating with that color, and we want to…

PRODUCTS AND PLACES COLLECTOR AND ST. LOUIS native C.C. Lowery loves to change things up, both at home and at her shop in the Warson Woods Antique Gallery. Since opening Mockingbird Designs in March 2021, she’s started studying retail patterns, paying close attention to what items sell best. “It always amazes me what does or doesn’t sell. There is no rhyme or reason. Items I think will sell quickly because they’re hot on Instagram sometimes just sit in my booth. St. Louis has its own design style, ” says the 50-year-old entrepreneur. ‘What is popular with designers in other cities doesn’t always translate here. Of course, a booth in an antique mall is a small audience compared to an Etsy store or Instagram.” Lowery enjoys the process of discovery: furniture,…

IT’S A COLD November day, but the 3,000 logs stacked inside Nicola Macpherson’s greenhouse are warm and dry. Plastic mesh is draped to form a roof above them, shielding the space from sunlight. Industrial fans suspended from the ceiling circulate warm air. In one corner of the room, a wood-burning furnace radiates heat as sprinklers positioned under the mesh material dampen the logs below. There’s nothing out of the ordinary about the woodpile at this point, but a visit to the farm nine months later reveals something new: Shiitake mushrooms have sprouted from their bark. Nearly four decades ago, Macpherson, 64, and her husband, Daniel Hellmuth, 65, turned their mushroom-growing hobby into a small business. With the help of a handful of seasonal employees, the family—which now includes son Henry…

REAL ESTATE, CONTRACTORS, ARCHITECTS Shawn Lipe and Suzanne Woodard, the husband-and-wife team behind The Refind Room, are expanding their furniture resale and consignment business with the Annex, a destination for art, auctions, antiques, and high-end home interiors.¶ “We thought we needed a little twist on The Refind Room,” says Woodard. “There are certain design categories that we don’t have in the store and we didn’t want to confuse the mix at the present location.”¶ At the new warehouse, located just a few miles away from the store in Richmond Heights, there’s ample room for the couple’s vision to unfold. “This is our tenth year, so the timing is absolutely perfect,” says Lipe, a certified appraiser with a background in art. “It’s [given] us experience and knowledge of the St. Louis…

IN MISSOURI, more than 2,500 sites, including battlefields, banks, schools, and houses, are listed on the National Register of Historic places. The historic significance of some—such as Louis Sullivan’s Wainwright Building, whose construction marked the birth of the skyscraper, and the house on McPherson where writer Kate Chopin lived and penned her final works—is apparent. But the relevance of others is less clear. Earlier this year, at one of several annual gatherings of the Missouri Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the body responsible for reviewing, approving, and submitting applications to the National Register, submissions were mixed. A proposal to expand the borders of Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield seemed like a shooin. Located in Republic, near Springfield, it’s the site of the first major Civil War engagement west of the Mississippi…