By Jon Shoulders // Photography by Tony Vasquez
Anyone passing by or driving through Bargersville’s Aberdeen neighborhood will likely notice the home exteriors and outdoor landscapes that make the community unique, along with its trails, wooded areas and various athletic courts. Nevertheless, the interior home design choices and layouts that bring each residence to life are no less distinctive, and attendees at this year’s First Internet Bank Home-A-Rama event can experience several of those designs up close.
From Sept. 16 through Oct. 3, on Thursdays through Sundays, guests will have an opportunity to view six homes in the Duke Homes-developed Aberdeen neighborhood. Read on for more information on several of the designers who helped to make each featured home shine, and to learn more about this year’s Home-A-Rama event, visit bagi.com/home-a-rama.
Dale Hughes Interior Design, (317) 698-3253, dalehughesinteriordesign.com
When Southside-based designer Dale Hughes set to work picking colors, materials and furniture pieces for the custom Aberdeen home owned by a family of four that includes two young boys, he went for a blend of comfortable and fashionable.
“I worked with the homeowners to create an environment that suits their tastes and needs,” Hughes says of the house, which was built by Greenwood-based Custom Homes by Cory. “There’s a beautiful stone fireplace that goes all the way through to the second-floor ceiling, and I decided to match the beautiful, versatile stone from the exterior of the house and put it on the inside for some consistency. I’m also doing a wainscoting to the left and right of the fireplace, all the way to the second-floor ceiling, in a beautiful shade of blue as an accent.”
In the kitchen Hughes went with a banquette-style bench in lieu of barstools, in keeping with his mission of blending comfort and fashion.
“I’m also doing a natural piece of wood made with wrought-iron legs for where the family will have their meals,” says Hughes, who handles residential and commercial interior design as well as remodels and room additions. “With the bench it’s a really neat look.”
Gollner Homes, (317) 432-7364, gollnerhomes.com
This year’s Home-A-Rama lineup includes a unique, stone farmhouse-style residence, and Teri Gollner of Gollner Homes, the Westfield-based company responsible for the construction and design of the home, says that while it features an open floor plan concept, it also includes plenty of spaces for solitude.
“We found that to be an exciting part of the project to work on. Open concept is so popular, but sometimes it’s hard to get away, so we tried to make a lot of getaway spaces for the family members and make interesting design choices to go along with that,” Gollner says. “I think people will enjoy seeing that in this home. It’s kind of the best of both worlds.”
She adds that the Gollner Homes team tries to create a comfortable, friendly interior design scheme for each home project they tackle.
“We wanted this home to be really welcoming and visually comfortable, with a New England country feel,” says Gollner, adding that her company’s small size and attention to detail make for an optimal customer experience. “We used a blend of stone to get the farmhouse part of it right.”
Sarah McCarty Designs, [email protected]
Designer Sarah McCarty worked alongside Duke Homes to bring life to the interiors of a home she describes as traditional with updated elements. “The homeowners at Aberdeen knew they wanted a somewhat traditional home and red brick, so we started from that,” she says. “There are so many cool things about the home, like the wine cellar in the basement, which is something I’d never done before. I’m always with the homeowner from start to finish, and I worked with Duke Homes and all of their subcontractors closely to make the dream home come alive.”
McCarty says each client’s vision and preferences are paramount in every step of her design involvement. “I never have an A-B-C list of things to do for a project, and it all stems from the homeowner and the energy they put out,” she says. “I always ask a lot of questions and try to get in their mindset, as far as what they want and, just as importantly, what they don’t want. In this day and age there are so many choices in design and decor that it can be overwhelming. I feed off of them and help guide them to make the best choices they can make. By the end it all cohesively comes together, and I’m wanting to do a cartwheel right next to them.”
RG Décor, (317) 873-6139, rgdecor.com
When the team at Indianapolis-based RG Decor was hired to handle the interior design work for a custom Aberdeen home constructed by Rick Campbell Builder, they endeavored to create a natural, pleasing flow for the house, via well-placed furniture and decorative pieces, to facilitate comfortable everyday living as well as entertainment of guests.
“We used a lot of neutral tones and a lot of texture,” says RG Decor owner Karen King. “It’s a very cool floor plan that is somewhat an open concept, but it has some really unique features as far as the trim work and things that Rick Campbell and his team did. Our goal with everything that we came in and did — furniture, the decor, the rugs and so on — was to make it feel very comfortable with warm tones and texture. A lot of the furniture we placed in the home is American-made upholstery, and the fabrics that were chosen are high-performance fabrics, yet have a very stylish, fashion-forward appeal.”
King adds that the RG Decor staff prides itself on making the design process as smooth and hassle-free as possible for each client.
“We’re a retail store so we’re open to the public with a 10,000-square-foot showroom, but we are a design studio, and we all work together to help the homeowner find what they’re looking for and fall in love with their home,” King says. “Whether it’s new construction or existing, we have many ways to help the client find what they love. We really try to take the intimidation out of working with an interior designer and get down to what they love.”
