Last updated : Wednesday, June 24, 2009

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When Southern Charm Meets the Hollywood Hills

For someone who didn't know much about interior design as a child growing up in rural Louisiana, Kenneth Brown has come a long way. A former medical student, Brown discovered interior design in college and never looked back. From the two boxes of belongings he brought to Los Angeles when he moved as a young graduate, Brown has built his own design firm, acquired a show on HGTV and is designing a line for QVC. With his chic, yet comfortable approach, he has attracted clients like Mia Hamm, Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron. He spoke with us here at iMag about his unique style, which falls somewhere between Baton Rouge and Beverly Hills.

How would you define your style?
I'd say my style is the ability to blend both Louisiana and LA. LA represents the lifestyle people are after -- laid back, bright, chic, warm and modern, so I've evolved down those lines. But I'll always have the color palettes of the south: mossy greens, terra cotta, browns, all very romantic colors.

What makes a design successful?
Comfort always holds the key to successful design. It's up to me to carefully go about a project so it can be a home someone can grow up in or build a family in. You have to think down the road, like what the design will be like when you get your first dog or when you have kids. I've seen many beautiful designs, but I don't often see them being comfortable. It's the biggest challenge any designer faces.

What makes for comfortable design?
You should feel like you can put your feet up on the furniture, eat from the coffee table and let the dogs up on the furniture. There are so many rules outside of the house; the last thing you want is to follow rules at home. You should just be able to plop down and relax.

When you first meet a client, how do you get to know him or her in order to develop a working relationship?
It's all about conversation, and it's never the obvious question like, "describe your style." That automatically puts people on the defensive. More than likely they are insecure about style or else they wouldn't have hired a designer, so I ask them things like, what did you do last weekend? What do you do for holidays? What are your friends and family like? You want to disarm people in order to get a sense of who they really are and their lifestyle. You have to make people feel comfortable and foster that inner designer.

You are currently working on separate homes for the young Hollywood couple, Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron. What has that been like?
They are both such great people, so together, so smart and so aware. But they're young and they've been catapulted to this level where they can afford to style their homes, but it's like having a crash course in design. Most of my clients are a little older, and their tastes have evolved. Like with Zac, we'll looking at furniture and he's gone from saying "that's so cool I have to have that," to "you're right, can we get something more comfortable ...?"

How do their styles differ?
Zac likes more of a modern look, and Vanessa is much more traditional. It's almost opposite.

From where do you draw inspiration?
I'm very driven by fashion. I often ask myself, "Is this is something they'd wear?" I'm inspired by the way people are dressed. Living rooms and dining rooms don't have legs, so I can't see how they present themselves. So I see how people choose to walk out of their front doors every day, and I get a sense from that.

As with fashion, color plays a huge part in interior design.
Color does everything. Lack of color does everything. It's the language of design. If you have no color, you have no voice. I often start with a color palette before furniture. It's the foundation of design. An all white room has a very quiet mystique.

Do you have tips for wall color/trim combinations?
I am a strong believer that all trim: baseboard, crown molding and doors should be pure white semi-gloss oil base. This helps to define the planes of colors you're going to add to walls. My tried and true color is relaxed khaki from Sherwin Williams. It is warm and it features art well, it works with any type of light and creates this cocoon-like environment. The ceiling should always be white, but in a flat finish because it's often speckled with smoke detectors and vents and things like that.

What is the most cost effective way of updating a room?
Move all the furniture out of a room and take down all the art and put all of it somewhere else. Leave the room empty overnight and go back to it the next day. Then put it back together in a completely different way. This will make you feel like you spent a fortune on a makeover. We all become accustomed to our surroundings and this exercise allows us to see our environment with a fresh set of eyes.

What are some other easy updates?
You can do things like change out pillows and accessories with the seasons. Generally, the heavier, darker items go with colder weather and the lighter, more reflective items are for warmer weather.

How can you make a small room appear bigger?
Most designers would tell you to paint the room a light color and scale down the furniture. But I believe a room filled with furniture will always appear bigger than an empty room, so do larger scale furniture, but less of it. I know it's against the grain, but I believe it. Also, large scale artwork, big canvas paintings act as additional windows. They work to extend the eye beyond the room.

How do you make a dark room appear brighter?
It's all about flooring material. Lay down a light-colored area rug. It adds an instant lightness to a room. Brighten up the plane on which everything sits.

If you could be any piece of furniture, what would you be?
I would be a solid piece of wood, probably a wood pedestal that you often see in hallways and entryways. They've been around forever and they've always held something important. It would be my task to showcase something else, like a vintage bust or brass sculpture. I'd want to support something special and shed light on the less-seen rooms.

For more on tips on decorating, go to the At Home section.

 

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