Designer Patrick Lewis and Architect Harry Schrader Give Homeowner a Fresh Start

In 2018 the search commenced, and Keele found a sprawling flat lakefront lot that would afford her the land to build her dream home. Once the existing home was razed, Keele began to put her team in place, enlisting her longtime friend, designer Patrick Lewis, to head up the interior design, and architect Harry Schrader and builder Kingswood Homes to bring to fruition the house she envisioned. “Kathryn was clear that she wanted to design a home for the first time that was all about her,” says Schrader. “The decisions we made and the priorities that were integrated into the layout were specifically about what served her and her lifestyle well.”

“By every account Kathryn is a sophisticated client, so I wanted this home to summarize all of that,” says Schrader. “The detailing needed to reflect the culture of her life now. My thought was to design a throwback room. The grand salon was this elegant space with a hint of feminine geometry.” The room—which was initially inspired by Keele’s home on Kiawah Island—was also a nod to refined European architecture and style, a formality that complemented her sophisticated style. “The idea was to design a home that was rooted in this English manor house DNA, and, as a result, more formal rooms like a grand salon come to light,” explains Schrader. “But we didn’t want to distract from the more modern, open flow, dramatic views, and the laid-back lifestyle everyone wants on the lakes.” Small pockets of living spaces were designed like spokes on a wheel off the grand salon that make the home feel more cozy and comfortable for everyday living but functional for entertaining big and small.

Schrader’s traditional architectural details, such as grand archways that thread spaces together and 3-and-a-half-foot serpentine crown molding that dramatically defines the grand salon from the adjacent rooms, feels formal and elegant. Lewis used Schrader’s architectural details as inspiration for the aesthetic. “With this home, the architectural details became a lot grander in scale,” says Lewis, who had designed the interiors of Keele’s previous home as well as a mountain residence. “Everything in this house was bumped up a bit. We weren’t looking to make the home more modern with the interior design, but instead we wanted to find a balance between casual and sophisticated.” To achieve this, Lewis took the color palette from her previous home, which was more saturated blues, reds, and golds, and toned them down to complement the natural light, which floods the entire home. The gold hues transitioned to a sandy color, while the red was discarded and the blue made less bold and softer. “We modernized the home with the color palette versus doing so with the furnishings,” explains Lewis.