It's Always Sunny in this Downtown Loft

Sometimes the heavens align and you get to work with the coolest clients living in the dreamiest location with equally covetable taste. Startup mavens and power-couple Kelsey Janda, VP of Design at Hudl, and Tony Noecker, Co-founder and CTO at Flywheel, were just that, and I got lucky when they approached me about helping them with their new home.

After a few years living in the same historic downtown building, they’d recently made the move to a larger loft a few floors up. With more room for entertaining and killer views of the urban landscape below, they were itching to update and create a space best-suited for their love of hosting dinner parties with close friends and laid back lounging on the weekends.

A quick note: these aren’t my typical “before” photos. I initially toured their home at night and we all know everything looks grand bathed in a swathe of glorious natural light. Still, while these photos aren’t a true reflection of the transformation, I’m including them because they are helpful in showing some of the adjustments made to the layout as well as the existing elements that were worked into the final design.

A few of their key pieces – like the cheery yellow Ikea glass cabinet, extendable dining table from West Elm, and cozy leather lounge chair were staying – but most everything else was up for change. They also had a burgeoning record collection in need of a home.

To kick things off, I suggested a tweak to the layout on the living room side of the loft. The larger room could handle more furniture – two full size sofas to be precise! The ever popular Sven Sofas from Article create an intimate arrangement with their sectional-like corner configuration, yet provide additional seating with plenty of space to sprawl.

And a larger TV console, also from Article, provides more presence and breathing room for the most important fixture in the living room. Side note: I don’t get why designers are always trying to hide TVs. It’s like being embarrassed of a toilet when shooting a bathroom. It’s just a part of the room.

That gorgeous wooden display shelving was another keeper, made by Tony and his Dad, and all the shelf styling was done and already in place before I arrived by Kelsey. It’s not often your client happens to be an artist and expert stylist in her own right, which meant the final photo shoot was a breeze! Seriously, I arrived in my typical fashion with an assortment of props and other styling tools in tow, only to pleasantly find my job was basically done, making only a few tweaks here and there to get specific shots.

Exhibit B: This incredible gallery wall. Comprised of prints and other works by local artists celebrating the local Omaha landscape, as well as Kelsey’s own abstract paintings, it stopped me in my tracks when I first toured their space.

To solve the record storage and display issue, I was pleased to find this stunner of a cabinet from Urban Outfitters. It boasts enough room for their growing collection all with a nod to beautiful midcentury Scandinavian design. Placed directly behind the sofa, it acts as a console table minimizing the not so hospitable back-of-the-sofa view. Even better, it centralizes the music so that the skill and thrill of selecting the next perfect album to absorb in its entirety is now an activity everyone can participate in and enjoy.

The dining room side of the loft remained predominantly the same, the only change was the addition of six Bernhard chairs in white from Ikea. Initially, they had a collection of artfully mismatched chairs around the table, but were hoping for a more cohesive look. They already owned two of the now sadly discontinued golden yellow Bernhard chairs and loved the look and how comfortable they were. With no chance of finding enough to complete the set, I had the idea to incorporate the white into the mix. This gave them the cohesive look and comfort they were after with the added bonus of allowing the two yellow chairs to add a jolt of quirky personality.

Oh, and if there was any question up to this point, Kelsey’s favorite color is yellow.

Perfection.

A not-oft used color in interior design and arguably underrated, it’s a hue both cheery and cheeky with the power to jump start even the coldest of hearts. After what felt like the 147th day of January here in the Midwest, I can think of no better view to short circuit the winter doldrums than this oh so sunny project.

Thank you Kelsey and Tony for entrusting me with your space! It was a thrill!

Photography: Bethany Gilbert