March 29, 2026After a relationship ends, some women find solace in breakup bangs or revenge dresses. Others reserve the makeovers for their houses.
That’s how Katie Cunningham acquired a new client in Bakersfield, California. “We’d done multiple homes for her friend group,” Cunningham says. “She was starting a new chapter in her life and reached out to us.”
Fresh off a midlife divorce, she had purchased a 5,600-square-foot Moroccan-inspired villa from its builder, who had also resided there. The single-story house came fully furnished, and Cunningham’s client had lived in it for a time before deciding to give it a refresh.
Her goal was a warm environment where she could entertain her large family — including four adult children — and her circle of close female friends. “She wanted the house to be livable, fun and welcoming,” says Cunningham, who became principal designer at Light and Dwell — the Oregon-based firm founded by Aymee Kuhlman — when this project was almost complete.
Cunningham found the bones of the house first-rate but decided the colors and textures needed modernizing. In particular, the sea of orange-hued Venetian plaster had to go. She replaced it with Roman clay and limewash.
“We kept everything that was Moroccan and timeless and great, and we stripped back anything that appeared to be done in 2005,” when the house was built, Cunningham says.
She also undertook some structural renovations, converting an office and a “snore room” — a part of a primary suite where the noisy half of a couple can retreat to allow the other half a good night’s rest — into a guest suite and overhauling the bathrooms.
Cunningham emphasized sustainability throughout the process, reusing materials wherever possible. “I’m not all about gutting for the sake of gutting,” she says. “This industry is just so full of waste.”
Below, the designer takes Introspective on a tour.
Entry Hall
A round marble table is the focal point of the entry hall, which leads to the home’s public rooms and sports several sets of French doors that open onto the loggia. Beside the heavy wooden doors, a prayer chair sits beneath a small Florentine mirror.
Living Room
Some of Cunningham’s favorite collaborators are family. She partnered here with her mother, Julie Johns, who had worked with her on previous projects and joined Light and Dwell at the same time. To tone down the orange in the living room, meanwhile, she tapped her brother, an L.A.-based artist, to paint the monumental stone fireplace with a subtle neutral wash. And she commissioned her father, an experienced woodworker, to make the coffee table she designed, using stained white oak.
To create the large seating area, Cunningham set a pair of sofas perpendicular to each other and formed the other two sides of the conversation square with button-tufted chairs, upholstering all the pieces in a mix of earth tones and burgundy. The ceiling, originally a redwood color, was stained a dark brown just this side of charcoal. On the floor, she laid a vintage Persian rug sourced on 1stDibs.
Dining Room
In the dining room, Cunningham retained the massive, dark chocolate-hued wooden refectory-style table left by the previous owner and surrounded it with custom-made chairs upholstered in green linen.
“The table was really already perfectly scaled for the space,” she says, noting the soaring ceilings. She also kept the existing carved wood armoire but suggested keeping its door open and lining the interior with vintage-style mirrored glass.
Kitchen
In the kitchen, the team reused the cabinets but excised some maximalist details, painting the dark cherrywood in more demure gray and putty tones to lighten and modernize the space.
They employed two different marbles — a gold-veined black one for the backsplash and around the range and a primarily white variety for the island countertop — wiring a pair of vintage French lamps directly through the island stone. For seating, they sourced a set of Design Frères stools with tie-on cushions on 1stDibs. “We designed the very simple hood, which was kind of a bear to get just right — the correct level of swoop with just the minimal projection,” Cunningham says.
Anchoring the breakfast nook is a vintage French draper’s table that was discovered at the Texas antiques show Round Top, to which Cunningham made several shopping trips. A large abstract painting by by Scott Kerr sits on a sideboard beside the table.
Lounge
A small ceramic parrot that once belonged to the client’s mother served as a jumping-off point for the decor of this additional hangout space, which the homeowner and her friends affectionately call the Cactus Club. Now hanging near a window, the colorful bird inspired a cheerful, feminine palette of blues and greens, with touches of pink.
The designers deployed various tactile textiles — from House of Hackney, among other sources — on the lounge-y banquette, swivel chairs and stools. “Everything was crafted very intentionally so that it would be a fun, light party room for a whole bunch of adult women,” Cunningham says.
Over the bar area is a peaked arched alcove — echoing the shape of the room’s large window — which the designers had tiled in a multicolored herringbone pattern. “The design assistant and I laid out all those tiles on our hands and knees,” Cunninghand recalls. “We wanted them set just right.” Below the arch are unlacquered brass cabinets topped by a slab of pink onyx.
Primary Bedroom
Subtlety was the goal in the primary bedroom, where the designers lightened the color of the beamed ceiling, switched out red curtains for a gentler taupe and used Roman clay on the walls to create a sense of movement.
The wall above the large bed — which is flanked by Nickey Kehoe nightstands — holds only a tiny Florentine mirror from 1stDibs, commanding attention despite its diminutive size. “I like to play with scale,” Cunningham says, “especially in a house like this. A lot of people would put something oversize, and I think people sometimes go wrong doing that. I’m looking for those mirrors all the time now, because that was, like, my favorite moment in the house.”
Vintage pieces in the sitting area — including a 1950s Belgian coffee table and a circa 1980 sheepskin-upholstered Dutch chair — convey a sense of timelessness. The tapestry fabric used for the bench and bed pillow stands out among the other minimalist, solid but richly textured textiles.
Primary Bathroom
In the homeowner’s bathroom, the team ripped out the saturated-orange stone floor and raised tub, replacing them with reclaimed black-and-white marble and a copper claw-foot tub. Above, they dangled a contemporary chandelier whose cluster of translucent cast-resin orbs are reminiscent of bubble-bath suds. Behind the tub, a seven-foot-tall mirror adds drama, while over the marble-topped vanity is a mirror by Gubi.
Along the bottom of the walls is a black strip of plaster, not baseboard, in keeping with a detailing technique Cunningham noticed in Moroccan hotels. She designed the carved arch as another ode to North Africa and also added a steam room. “It’s like her own little spa,” Cunningham says.
Guest Suite
The designers converted one of two adjoining offices into a bedroom. To attain a “really feminine energy,” Cunningham says, they covered the walls and ceiling in “palest, palest pink” Roman clay. The room is centered on a French oak-and-rush-weave bed by Lemieux et Cie, found on 1stDibs. A French armoire lends an air of old-world elegance, while the trio of hooks on the wall nod to convenience.
The ensuite bathroom features a limewash on the walls and zellige tiles from Clé. The designers outfitted it with the homeowner’s own ornate Venetian mirror and a vintage pine chest from 1stDibs.
Office
“When can you paint a room almost black?” Cunningham asks, rhetorically. “It’s when a lot, a lot of light comes in.” The designers went for a boldly dark aesthetic in the office, with a substantial mahogany desk and cabinetry to match. The turned-leg desk has an antique feel, while a more contemporary vibe radiates from a pendant light by Amber Lewis and wallpaper whose abstract floral motif provides pops of red-orange and turquoise. “This wallpaper is by Gucci,” says Cunningham, noting of the homeowner, “She loves fashion, so it was fun to give her something like that.”
Powder Room
A wall of zellige tile, once again installed in a herringbone pattern, adds interest to the limewashed powder room, while the densely veined marble counter provides a burst of color. Above the sink is a Louis Philippe mirror from 1stDibs, which is flanked by spherical Allied Maker alabaster wall lights.
