Lexington, KY - Earlier this year, Stuart Hurt got a phone call from a couple who had recently purchased a condo at the The Woodlands. The couple, who travel frequently and own another home in Somerset, hadn't moved into the condo yet - and said they didn't intend to until the completion of a head-to-toe makeover of the space, which had been converted into a nearly 4,000-square-foot unit from two adjacent units some years before the couple purchased it.
"They said, 'We just wanna come home and walk in,' Hurt said. "Literally, I did everything from hanging their pictures on the wall to hanging their clothes in the closet."
The couple's vision was relatively open-ended - she liked the color blue; he's a UK fan, and wanted to make sure the home included plenty of televisions - and because they were out of town during the majority of the project, Hurt was left with the freedom to pursue his own design intuition, which included knocking down four walls to realign the floor plan and gutting and refinishing practically every surface in the home.
"Everything you see was gutted and started again," said Hurt, making his way through the home in November, just two weeks after he had revealed the final product to the couple. He was making some final touches, including adding in a bit of Christmas decor. "All the cabinets, all the fixtures, toilets, you name it. Every surface was ripped up."
During the remodel, which took a little over six months, Hurt traveled to Somerset a number of times in order to pick out items from the couple's other home to incorporate into the new space. Most of the new furniture purchases came from Lexington Furniture and Norwalk, while many of the new accessories came from Hurt's own Delaware Avenue shop, House, which he opened with fellow designers Dwayne Anderson and Jeremy Rice in March. The trio, who previously worked together at Corman's, are partners in the design company JSD Designs, which specializes in full renovations as well as accent pieces, floral and holiday design, and weddings and other events.
As for The Woodlands condo, Hurt considers the overall effect to be a "welltraveled look," incorporating many items the couple has picked up on their extensive travels, including artwork and various collections.
"That's what they do, that's who they are," he said. "(The home) had to have their collections and their taste, but they had to be able to live in it. They still needed to be able to walk around in their robes."