With a move across town, Dan and Heidi Meckes turned their vision of having more time to enjoy life into a reality. The couple were the first to buy a condo in The Barclay building in Kirkwood in 2019. Once their unit was ready in 2021, they moved from the 3,100-square-foot home in western Kirkwood where they’d raised their daughters into the 1,800-square-foot condo.
“I’m able to spend more time with friends, be involved in the community and read! All things I like much better than housework,” Heidi says. “Dan took care of our lawn for years and that took up a lot of time on the weekend. Now on the weekend, we spend more time riding our bikes, and we love hiking in Missouri and southern Illinois.”
The house they moved from was traditional, with smaller rooms separated by walls, beautiful woodwork and crown molding. They wanted a different look for the condo’s décor. “While the condo is beautiful, there isn’t the crown molding, so I wanted the furniture to add a lot of interest and also warmth. I wanted patterns, texture,” Heidi explains.
Maintaining comfort was important. “In our old house, so often people would come over and say it’s so comfortable being here. So even though the space is much different than where we came from, I wanted that same feeling,” Heidi says. “I wanted people to feel welcome here—that they can kick back and relax.”
Heidi worked with designer Kris Keller, owner of Design Source LTD, through its service, Moving Transformations. Kris and her team helped them decide what items to keep, what items to release and what new items to acquire. “Most everything that Heidi and Dan felt particularly keenly about worked brilliantly in their space,” Kris says. “I believe we were able to showcase things much more to their advantage and for her to be able to appreciate them in the new environment because it is so open.”
They added a couple of small floral chairs in the living room. “We chose them specifically to incorporate the color palette and also to give it a bit of current strength because floral is so popular again,” Kris says.
The neutral paint color throughout the home gives a cohesive look, and lets the colorful furniture and artwork—like the piece hanging above the dining table—shine. Heidi and Kris found the painting on fabric piece at Warson Woods Antique Gallery. “It was interesting, different from some of the other pieces of art we had in here. It’s eye-catching. I liked the colors,” Heidi says.
Dan and Heidi don’t miss having a yard to care for, but having an outdoor deck was a necessity. “It is a perfect size in that it holds four chairs and an outdoor coffee table. And, not too much to take care of!” Heidi says.
Resources
Artwork: Warson Woods Antiques Gallery
Furniture: Arhaus
Interior Design: The Design Source Limited
Window Treatments: Walbrandt Technologies, Linda Fluchel
