Artistic Licence

Top design visionary Kelly Wearstler took on a spacious apartment in Austin, Texas, and turned it into a dramatically expressive celebration of colour and style

- Ian Phillips

Whitney Casey and Nav Sooch have a photo of interior designer Kelly Wearstler lying on the floor of their apartment in Austin, Texas. It was taken during the building work in the midst of both scaffolding and dust. ‘The construction guys were like, “What’s going on? This beautiful woman lying flat in the middle of the sitting room!”’ recalls Whitney with amusement. ‘She was demonstrating how much space would be needed for a sofa you could sleep on.’

The apartment in question is on the top floor of one of the tallest buildings downtown. Several things attracted the couple to it. One was the eight-metre-high ceilings, another the mind-blowing view over Lady Bird Lake towards the rolling hills in the distance. ‘There are just such magnificent sunsets here,’ says Whitney. Then there was the central location. ‘I’m a big-city girl and wanted to live where it’s a little more gritty, a little edgy,’ she says. ‘There’s actually a dry cleaner and a deli you can walk to.’

The 370m² space, however, was initially ‘lifeless’ and ‘sterile’. There were white walls, concrete floors and little in terms of character. Today it could hardly be more dramatic. There are perforated brass doors and a vertiginous fireplace wall made from Nero Marquina marble, both skilfully installed by a local contractor. And then there are also chairs adorned with graffiti and zebra-skin motifs, and crazy handpainted wallpapers. The one in the master bedroom features a criss-cross pattern of bold lines in different shades of blue. ‘It’s really wild,’ says Wearstler. ‘Whitney loves things that feel artistic and are a little more avant-garde.’ At 50, Wearstler is very much the queen bee of