polished nickel and black or copper for everything from furniture and cabinet hardware to lighting and drapery hardware. Plus: “Printed velvets are luscious.” Spring fling: Update with new pillows, window treatments, candles, pots of blooming flowers and succulents.

• Mia Brous, Kerri Goldfarb and Louise Marsh own the Madre shop in Bluffview: “Fresh paint goes a long way.” For their Dwell with Dignity vignette, they chose pale blue (Constellation AF-540) accented with a soft blush (Beautiful in My Eyes 1170) and minty green (Veranda View 541).
• Morgan Farrow of Morgan Farrow Interiors designs for clients in Preston Hollow: “Layer fresh flowers and potted plants throughout your home.”
• Mione Plant, 2019 Thrift Studio art chair, sells her silk scarves at Tootsies: “Fill your home with potted hyacinth bulbs and artwork bursting with colors.” Plant also suggests moving one piece of furniture to a new spot.
• Leslie Jenkins of Jenkins Interiors designs for clients in Preston Hollow: “Take everything off your bookshelves and restyle them with what you already have. It helps you think creatively while also feeling like you changed things up.”

https://prestonhollow.advocatemag.com/2020/02/22/spring-home-design-trends/ 

Photography by Danny Fulgencio

Like a lot of women her age, Jody Clarke found herself alone in a big house after a divorce. She moved from a 3,200-square-foot home near Midway and Merrill to a 1,907-square-foot home in Sparkman Club.

“I wanted something I could fix up,” says Clarke, owner of Jodell Clarke Designs. “I’m an eclectic person. I like quirky and old things, things that tell stories. I grew up with antiques. My family didn’t have a lot of money, but I inherited a lot of furniture. I’ve just added to it over the years.”

Clarke bought her home in 2018 and finished renovating it in February. There’s very little original left in the house. “I think the disposal in the sink, the backyard fence and the garage door survived,” she says. “Everything else is new.”

The home has three bedrooms, a family room, living room and dining room. Her favorite space is the family room, which boasts a skylight. The wall in the family room features a photo gallery of art, including two images of places she loves: Paris and Raveloos on the Amalfi coast of Italy. “After I was single, I had this dream of being in Paris on a romantic weekend with somebody handsome.”

The room highlights a piece called “The Atomic Ant Farm” that Clarke purchased from a Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS (DIFFA) event. She served on the board and as president of that organization. The work of art is composed of an old microscope box, parts of a microscope and the original manual.

African mud cloth and baskets, American folk art, Italian tile from Deruta and art from Santa Fe and Mexico can be found throughout the house. Her dishes are a collection of antique English Ironstone. She is passionate about architectural prints. A sculpture in her hallway is a project she welded when she was in art school, collecting rusted car parts from the woods and manipulating them together.

Clarke wanted to be an interior designer when she was in high school, but a guidance counselor talked her out of it. She got her degree in art education, became an art teacher, worked in visual and store design, did product development and was a stylist and designer. At one point she worked at Fossil. Her 25-year-old daughter, K.C. Thompson, is a copywriter who graduated from Hockaday.

“I love working with what people have. Some designers strip a room and buy everything new,” she says. “But people have family things they’ve collected, and I like to work those in. I love helping people tell their stories.”

Her living room features expanded windows so that she can open the door to a front-yard verandah with table and chairs. She enjoys watching the neighbors while drinking coffee. “It’s private,” she says. “People walking their dogs don’t necessarily see me, but when they do, they wave and say ‘hi.’ It’s a friendly neighborhood. That’s one of the reasons I chose to live here.”

Clarke decorated the dining room as a library space. “This is the first time in my life I’ve ever been able to choose everything I wanted.”

Photography by Danny Fulgencio

https://prestonhollow.advocatemag.com/2019/12/21/jody-clarke-home-design/