Energy and Color Aplenty in a Live-Work Lease

Designer Caitlin Wilson lives in and works out of a rental home in a classic building in Philadelphia, and she desired her furniture to represent a timeless look but with a twist. Details like lavish English wrapped arms, tufts and female silhouettes root the distance into a traditional style, but bold colour and pattern options showcase a modern eclectic soul. “My design has evolved from modern to eclectic to a kind of new traditional, and I believe my home reflects this development,” Wilson says.

in a Glance
Who lives here: Caitlin Wilson, husband Brigham and kids Olivia and Penn
Location: Center City, Philadelphia
Size: 1,400 square feet

Caitlin Wilson Design

The foyer of the designer sings a note in Key Largo Green. Wilson bought the mirror out of Joss & Main and hand painted the ampersand canvas. Art from her parents’ collection, digital prints and family photos make up the gallery wall.

Caitlin Wilson Design

A Pindler & Pindler Winston sofa brings you in with its pink colour, a color trim and repeated throughout the room in the accessories. Wilson custom made her curtains to frame her perspectives of Rittenhouse Square and Center City. She wrapped in a brass bamboo coffee table along with a pair of Chinese brass lamps; a Thom Filicia rug ties the room together.

Caitlin Wilson Design

Ikea bookshelves flank one of Wilson’s prized possessions: a camel-colored tufted leather settee with rolled arms, a lavish hand-me-down out of her parents.

Caitlin Wilson Design

A happy arrangement of roses in bloom picks up on the pink colour seen throughout the space, including the final colour layer to the room.

Caitlin Wilson Design

“We moved to Philly to a student budget, so I scored our huge dining table and seats from Craigslist. I reupholstered the seats and wingbacks in my signature fabric, Navy Fleur Chinoise,” Wilson says. Her parents lent their artwork into Wilson and her husband to remind the few of the prior home in California.

Caitlin Wilson Design

Wilson’s home office is a study in pattern and colour. “It is so enjoyable to work here. The room is filled with vibrant fabrics out of my fabric line, so there is this obviously bright and cheerful surroundings,” she states.

Background by Nina Campbell produces a unique backdrop and ties together all the colours in the space. The Roman shades are Wilson’s Jade Byblos fabric. She found the desk on Craigslist, along with the Greek key closets are still an Ikea hack. The Chinese brass lamp originated out of a marketplace in the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai.

Caitlin Wilson Design

The designer says that the best thing about working in the home is that she can run her business and raise her family under a single roof.

Caitlin Wilson Design

An Asian-inspired tangerine mirror over a Chinese gold and black silk-screened shoe cabinet echoes the home’s eclectic international style. “Thanks to our travels, our home has a collection of quirky pieces in the Middle East and Asia, which obviously have influenced my fabric patterns,” Wilson says.

Caitlin Wilson Design

Wire baskets shop and organize Wilson’s fabrics without obscuring them entirely out of plain view.

Her office is the hardest working space in the home. With a fulltime helper and also a design intern, it is almost always inhabited by a relative or an employee.

Caitlin Wilson Design

“Benjamin Moore’s Gentle Butterfly is perfect for any little girl’s room,” states Wilson. She had these Roman shades custom made, and she commissioned a java table to make a pint-size desk for her daughter that’s painted in Valspar’s Hint of Mint.

Rug: Rugs USA; pouf: Dubai marketplace

Caitlin Wilson Design

A Laurence Amelie tutu painting out of Bonpoint hangs above daughter Olivia’s art table, from Pottery Barn Kids. “It had been the first piece of artwork we ever purchased,” she states.

Caitlin Wilson Design

In the kitchen Wilson spiced up a wall for Olivia and swapped out the old linoleum for Armstrong Crescendo Marble Gray vinyl tile. “It looks so much like marble and feels great underfoot,” she states. “And the very best thing about it is that you peel off the back and stick it.”

Caitlin Wilson Design

She painted the rear wall with chalkboard paint and wrapped eyeglasses and bulldog clips for displaying artwork. “I DIY’d the leopard seats using a Sharpie on solid cream Ikea seats,” she states.

Caitlin Wilson Design

Benjamin Moore’s Classic Gray provides Wilson’s master bedroom with a neutral, subdued backdrop. She made the headboard to showcase her Fleur Chinoise cloth in a berry pattern. Cleft pillows in Coral Fretwork fabric and Berry signature pillow shams out of Wilson’s Garnet Hill collection produce a lavish hotel look. However, accurate to Wilson’s design savvy and what she calls “school funding” roots, the glammed-up nightstands are Ikea hacks, painted grey and with new gold oil knobs.

“A happy family lives in this vibrant and vibrant home,” she states, “and you can see and sense it in most of the small and big things, in most of the larger rooms and quiet corners.”

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