Meri, Nathan and Solee Simpson
Confident colors and fashion-forward furnishings brighten this Springville home
By Ashley Dickson
After a walk through the Simpsons’ Springville home, you might wonder where the family found such a creatively stylish interior designer. But this non-traditional decorator isn’t for hire.
Meri Simpson is the woman behind the work — she and her husband, Nathan, called all the shots on their newly built Classic Construction house. Meri’s chic choices were met with raised eyebrows from some of the home’s subcontractors, but she couldn’t feel more at home with the results.
Here are a few of Meri’s bold selections that break the Utah Valley mold.
Clean lines, simple fixtures and monochromatic colors create serenity in the Simpsons’ bathrooms. For the latest in lavatory fashion, Meri searched catalogs for wall-mounted faucets and artistic sink bowls.
“White and blue are wonderful together,” Meri says. “This room is a happy place to be — white furniture, of course, and bright blue walls.”
This upstairs space currently serves as Meri’s craft room but could eventually transition into a child’s bedroom.
The tall table provides ample work space and half-hidden storage, and the ladder-style shelves are home to attractive containers.
Meri’s love for white furniture carries into the master bedroom. The modern chaise is softened by curves and tufts, and the white globes embellish a typically unused space. The mirrored table was a serendipitous find — “I’d been looking for something just right for that spot, and I walked into Target and about passed out when I saw it,” Meri says.
For the laundry room, Meri’s motto was, “Why not have fun in a boring place?”
“It’s just a small space, but you want to be happy while you’re in there,” she says.
Meri originally purchased the turquoise-blue color at a local paint store to redo her daughter’s high chair. She loved the vivid color so much she brushed it into the laundry room. The hodgepodge of knobs and drawer pulls from Anthropologie ups the fun factor, and the patterned wallpaper, ordered from an England-based company, steals the show.
“I love white leather — I’m obsessed with white leather,” Meri says.
When furnishing the living room, the Simpsons didn’t worry about function — it was all about fashion.
“I definitely wanted something different. Nobody sits in that room anyway, so I wanted to find the most uncomfortable-looking couch.”
Function takes flight with the friendly light fixtures in daughter Solee’s room. The bright accessories are gender neutral, so they can be used for Solee’s future siblings, too.
The red tile backsplash glimmers with hints of magenta, yellow and teal. Meri loves red, so the tile was an easy choice, but the paint took a little longer to find.
“I didn’t want it to be matchy-matchy,” she says. “So I got a paint color that clashed with the tile.”
For the countertops, fixtures, furniture and appliances, the goal was to choose beautiful pieces with clean lines.
The Simpsons picked concrete for its adaptability — being able to choose a custom color guarantees a distinct look. Stainless appliances reflect the cheery orange of the walls, and the rich tones of the cabinets add warmth.