Find Design Inspiration for the Whole House

Hampton and Bart Stephens never expected to find a 20-year-old La Cornue range in the basement when they moved in to their 1930s Birmingham, Ala., home. But Hampton, an architect and designer, was so struck by the bright yellow vintage appliance that she searched for an expert to get it working and decorated the whole house around it. "I picked a palette of ocean blue and apple green that I thought would look great with the sunny yellow, and I worked it through, room by room," she says.

Luckily, a repairman eventually got the stove running, and the brightly colored home came together just as Hampton and Bart had imagined. In the kitchen the couple brought in comfy turquoise barstools with arms and backs, and a gorgeous fridge with a glass-front door (also a basement find!).

For the Stephens family, a bank of 26 drawers was a better option than cabinets. When the couple couldn't decide on knobs, they went with carved-out notches instead. To keep the color scheme going, Hampton painted the insides of the drawers blue (for a similar look, try San Francisco Bay by Benjamin Moore).

Electric-blue walls were a risky pick, but Hampton and Bart knew the splashy color (California Blue by Benjamin Moore) would set off the white table, pleather chairs and the wood buffet from a local antiques shop. Plus the blue helps carry the palette through the home. All those colors make the patchwork rug versatile: Switch rooms, repaint the walls and it still works.