Home Tour | A Look Inside Caroline Cecil's Thoughtfully Curated Home
At Maiden Home, we’ve long admired Caroline Cecil’s graphic textiles. With her unique eye, she creates sumptuous fabrics and wall coverings for the home that skillfully balance an artisan approach with a modern sensibility. So when we learned that Caroline had selected Maiden Home pieces for her new, lovely Phoenix abode, we were beyond excited. And we were especially delighted to see how she added her own personal touch by customizing a set of Leroy chairs with her own gorgeous KETUT fabric, which is the perfect complement to the Irving sofa in her living room.
It has been a busy year for Caroline who, in a short period of time, has relocated to Arizona, settled into a new home, and is now expecting her first baby - all while running a thriving business. We were lucky enough to catch up with the designer and get her insights on how to create the ultimate living space for an active and growing home, from choosing the right upholstery for her Maiden Home pieces to artfully pairing color and pattern.
Tell us about your new home project and how it relates to your work?
About a year ago, my husband and I purchased our first home in the Arcadia neighborhood of Phoenix, Arizona. As someone who owns a fabric and wallpaper business for the home, it was a really exciting milestone. My collections all originate from my own artwork, and celebrate artisan and “Made in America” production methods, so when designing our living room it was really important that all of the products we used were beautiful and functional, as well as had integrity and told a meaningful story.
What was your vision for the design of the living room space?
I knew I wanted to use one of my favorite hand-printed fabrics from our collection, KETUT / Black Natural. Working with a minimal color palette, I kept the furniture and soft goods subtle and integrated color with the beautiful framed photograph by Petros Koublis. It was love at first sight when I saw the Maiden Home Irving sofa. The lines are sophisticated and clean with the right amount of practicality and coziness mixed in. The Maiden Home Creme Performance Linen matches the certified Belgian natural linen in my collection, so I knew it would be a perfect pairing! And to bring everything together, we customized two Maiden Home Leroy chairs in our KETUT / Black Natural fabric. I really love the rounded arc of the chair silhouette combined with our linear KETUT pattern. When people come over, the custom chairs are always a topic of conversation!
How did your plans to grow your family (congratulations!) factor into your decisions for upholstery and other products in this home?
Our home reflects our family in how it looks and how we care for it. My husband and I are both very organized and treat our home as an extension of ourselves. That said, life is messy. We have a 6-pound toy Pomeranian named Taos, and he occasionally has accidents and gets sick. And now that we’re expecting our first baby, I’m extra happy that we chose the Irving sofa in Performance Linen with non-toxic construction and deep cushions. I’m sure we’ll have many surprise messes with the new baby and I’m not worried one bit about maintaining our beautiful living room. Another reason I was drawn to Maiden Home's furniture is because it's free of toxins like formaldehyde and flame retardants. As someone who values these qualities in my own product line and has a hypoallergenic home, I avoid chemicals whenever possible for the health of my family.
Having lived with your Maiden Home pieces for the better part of a year, what is your experience with their comfort and durability?
By the time I purchased our Maiden Home sofa, I had spent a lot of time shopping the market and ultimately found that the Irving sofa was the perfect combination for us: It is formal looking yet cozy, nearly white yet durable, and has pretty legs that weren’t covered by a slipcover. After a year of spending most nights curled up on the sofa, it still looks so beautiful. The cushions still maintain their original shape. I really love the construction of the sofa as well—the upholstery work is beautifully done and the L-shaped part of the sofa has a smart way of locking into the main body.
Are there other brands that you discovered through this design process and are excited to have incorporated into your new home?
The main visual anchors of our living room are the Irving sofa by Maiden Home, the Leroy chairs upholstered in KETUT / Black Natural fabric by Caroline Cecil Textiles, the framed photograph by Petros Koublis, the sconces by Aerin, the coffee table by Room & Board, the wooden stump end table by AIM Handmade, and the bone nesting tables by Regina Andrew. I love that our living room is a mix of “Made in America" pieces, unique materials, and artisan-made objects.
Your textiles are so gorgeous, and we love how you incorporated them on the Leroy chair. Can you share your top tips for incorporating pattern and color tastefully into a living space?
Pattern and color can quickly overwhelm a space so it’s important to exercise a curatorial eye!
- Every space should have a balance of solids and prints.
- Integrate pattern and color in a way that encourages your eye to move around the room as opposed to getting fixated. A good way to test this is to step back and squint. If something really stands out, it could be overwhelming the space. Another test I like to do is to take a quick iPhone shot and look at it on my phone screen. Sometimes seeing things from a different perspective is all you need to pick out what is or isn’t working.
- If you go with a bold statement print, balance out the rest of the space with a smaller-scale texture or pattern in a neutral color.
- This may come as a surprise, but I consider myself someone who doesn’t like a ton of print and pattern in a room. It needs to be curated and deliberate. If you’re a pattern newcomer, stick with smaller-scale prints in a naturally derived color palette. A good rule of thumb is if you can’t find the color somewhere in nature, it’s probably not going to stand the test of time.
Caroline chose the Irving sofa in Creme Performance Linen paired with two Leroy chairs that she custom upholstered in her KETUT Black/Natural fabric.
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