Blue Melody

San Francisco-based Kelly Hohla Interior's clients purchased a white two-story Colonial Revival house in a bucolic area of Menlo Park. The neighborhood, shaded by mature oak, eucalyptus, and evergreen trees, boasts generous lots with rustic narrow streets sans sidewalks; a lack of streetlights adds to the enchanting ambiance. Principal Kelly Hohla worked on two previous projects with the homeowners, and for this one, she and Senior Designer Alana Dorn reconfigured the rooms to gain symmetry and function. They popped shades of blue against a cool neutral shell, juxtaposing traditional architecture with contemporary furnishings and art.

The designers collaborated with the architectural firm Remick + Sessions Design and the builders Peninsula Custom Homes. In the entry, Hohla and Dorn selected a white wall and ceiling paint color with just a hint of blue and a blue-gray white for the wainscot. The team installed honey-toned cerused oak floors throughout the house. Ian Kimmerly's painting, an indigo integration of abstract and figurative elements, greets guests; it surmounts Randolph & Hein's lyrical dark blue lacquered console with antique brass sabots. A faceted geometric pendant in white glass and brass illuminates the space.

From the entry, an elegant vaulted living room opens up where the white, blue-gray, tinted paint color continues. Birgit Jensen's atmospheric fog-hued landscape hangs over a streamlined Holly Hunt sofa upholstered in blue velvet. Across the room, the team installed a neoclassical-style mantel in Carrara Venatino marble, which they bookended with modern Lawson-Fenning sideboards finished in a greige lacquer with walnut and antique brass details. The designers added A.Rudin's wingback armchair and ottoman covered in a French blue basket weave for daydreaming. A whimsical light fixture resembling champagne bubbles floats over Caste's minimalist walnut and bronze coffee table.

The dining room celebrates American craftsmanship with a Skram Furniture Company dining table and a John Pomp chandelier. Based in North Carolina, Skram believes in perfect imperfection, and the rectangular table includes a walnut top with a reverse bullnose edge profile and legs fabricated in bronze and carved walnut. Above the table, Philadelphian artisan John Pomp's brass mobile ceiling fixture dances in the air with hand-blown glass pieces shaped like calla lilies. The designers etched blue in the dining room and adjacent kitchen's textiles. In the library, they used a medium gray for walls where Trevor Paglen's photograph, Shoshone Falls Hough Transform; Haar, holds court. Draperies and pillows received the home's signature accent color.