DesignSTL September/October 2021

WHEN MY HUSBAND and I moved back to St. Louis, 15 years ago, we had no doubt about where we wanted to live. Though neither of us had grown up in the city, we hoped to start the next phase of our lives there. As was the case for so many suburb-raised St. Louis-area kids, the architecture of the city’s historic neighborhoods made a lasting impression. Our first house, a white-brick home with a columned porch, was on Washington Place, a street on the precipice of a renaissance when we moved in, in 2005. We loved that house for everything that our New York City apartment was not: old, spacious, full of character. When we decided to move, 10 years later, we vowed not to go far. Our next house—like…

VICTORIA CATES IS Potion23. With her turquoise hair, bright-blue eyes, and dressed in clothes straight from her latest collection, she’s the essence of her brand’s whimsical vibe. Born in New York City, Cates moved to California to study fashion at The Beverly Hills Design Institute. After graduation, she moved back to New York to work for an accessories company. Then a friend from St. Louis persuaded Cates to move to her hometown with her. Cates says she was looking for a fresh start and motivated by the thought of living in a smaller city with fewer barriers to entry. Six years later, the decision seems to have paid off. In fall 2018, Cates launched her first collection. Today, items from the collection can be purchased online. Cates, who works out…

ANTLERS, TORTOISE SHELLS, and badminton rackets adorn the walls of Lauren Berry’s University City apartment. Neutral colors, rich wood finishes, and natural elements fill the space. “I want my house to feel like someone stepped into a hunting club,” she says. It’s an unusual aesthetic for a 25-year-old, but even more surprising is the fact that Berry has sourced nearly every item from an estate sale, antique shop, or family member’s basement. “I love clean, traditional lines,” says Berry, a designer at Wolff Interiors, “and [this style] is so easy to find—that’s the amazing thing. You can go to any estate sale and find cool furniture that has this look.” Berry was just a teen when she started going to estate sales. By 17, her finds were spilling over into…

CONNECT @eurotrashannie MORE THAN 20 years in the design business has taught Annie Brahler a thing or two about historic properties, and she’s drawn on that experience to guide the newest iteration of her design studio, Euro Trash, which she relocated from Ballwin to Webster Groves this past summer. “We did a little bit of detective work to see if this [space] was something that could be restored,” says Brahler. “We didn’t want to recreate history; we wanted to uncover it.” There were encouraging early signs that a rescue plan would yield promising results: glimpses of limestone beneath the concrete, hints of copper under a coat of blue paint on the window surrounds. “It’s like a treasure hunt,” says the designer. But it hasn’t been easy or inexpensive to restore…

BUYING A HOME sight unseen is always a gamble, but it paid off for Dan and Sarah Mirth. During the young couple’s house-hunting days seven years ago, they quickly learned how fast a home can disappear from a seller’s market. So when a fixer-upper with loads of charm was listed in The Grove, they wasted no time. “Our Realtor, who is a friend, said, ‘This house just came on the market, put an offer in and go a little over asking now and worry about seeing it later,’” says Sarah. The next morning, the couple got a text from the Realtor: “Do you want to come see the house you just bought and make sure you want it?” “The house was a good balance of needing to be renovated but…

REAL ESTATE, CONTRACTORS, ARCHITECTS Betsy Blancett-Nacrelli, the force behind jewelry brand Collections by Joya, found a silver lining during the pandemic. She watched with admiration as women business owners found ways to support one another. With her latest endeavor, the workspace MPWR STL, she’s hoping to give those owners a place to grow. Pronounced “Empower STL,” the organization aims to assist entrepreneurs as they navigate the challenges of building a company. “What we want is to be a home base,” says Emily Nicole Konczal, MPWR’s community manager. “For people just starting out, we want them to have a place where they know they can go.” A membership grants women access to its collaborative spaces; assistance from in-house photographers, lawyers, and graphic designers as well as invitations to networking events.…