A Charming Evolution

Downsizing to create a cozy, colorful respite.

By Gina Parsons

Photography by Photographie by Li

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While growing up, Delia Garcia would sit on the porch of her family’s two-bedroom home and peruse home magazines while dreaming about the beautiful décor on the pages. Today, her home is magazine-worthy.

Perfecting her style has been a journey. After finishing her oncology training at Washington University, Garcia moved to Richmond, VA, where she became enamored by the historical homes there. She frequently attended open houses and shopped at antique stores.

She moved back to St. Louis and enjoyed decorating the two homes she and her family lived in throughout the years, the first in Town and Country, the second on Wydown Boulevard.

Then, after going through a divorce 12 years ago, she saw a for sale sign in the front yard of a lot on Forsyth Boulevard. A developer planned to build there. Garcia jumped at the chance to downsize, and put her stamp on a new home.

“I looked at the blueprint and envisioned where things would go,” she says. There were certain pieces that she wanted to make sure would fit in the spaces where she wanted them. One was a French hutch bought 25 years ago, which is in her hearth room. The other is an antique China cabinet, which graces her dining room.

Her years of living in Richmond and her travels in Europe have given her an appreciation of artwork and of walls being a part of the room’s decoration. Paintings and antique prints that she has acquired over the last few decades adorn her home’s walls.

“I’m not afraid of color. It makes the room pop,” she says. Among the paint colors currently enhancing her home’s walls are Grand Canal, a robust teal by Benjamin Moore, in the dining room. In the kitchen, the Benjamin Moore color Golden Gate brightens the room.

She says you have to live in a house before you can decorate it, and how it will look best comes to you over time. “You can’t rush a beautiful house. It’s a process,” she says.

Part of the joy she finds in decorating is the hunt —looking for items here in St. Louis, or while visiting other areas.

The chandelier that hangs over her kitchen table was purchased new, but it’s distressed to give an antique look. “I wanted a big piece that was see-through, not dense that would obstruct the view,” she says.

Outside the home, Garcia does not like grass in her landscaping. Colorful flowers and bright evergreens are much more her style. “I want plants that thrive and enhance the landscape,” she says. “It’s an evolution.” She says that if a plant isn’t thriving, you have to be willing to rip it out.

Both inside the home and out, she likes beauty, color, and calm. “Cozy spaces. It has more of a look of an English home,” she says. “There’s a lot going on visually.”

Resources

Appliances: AUTCOhome

Architect: Glantz & Associates

Artwork/Antiques: Selkirk Auctioneers & Appraisers, Jon Paul Designs

Remodeler: Dave Collins

Cabinetry: Markus Cabinet

Carpet/Wood/Floor Coverings: Tile Source, Premier Tile

Concrete: Orth Construction

Furniture: Forshaw of St. Louis

Glass/Mirror: County Glass & Mirror Co.

Granite Fabricator: Stone Fabricators

Interior Designer: Carolyn Groves Interiors