This designer’s Vickery home is layered with festive and sultry details

Jennifer Schoenberger showcases her rock and roll style this season

December 24, 2017

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“I love the fretwork on those front columns,” says Jennifer, in front of her house with her husband, Michael, and children, Jack and Sophie. “I grew up in a small town where every home is unique and different, and everyone knows your name, so Vickery was very appealing to us,” she says of the live-work-play community.

The python-patterned wallcovering in a powder room, above, is an ode to Alice Cooper and Iggy Pop, two iconic Detroit rock stars.

Jennifer Schoenberger loves the charming village of Vickery in Cumming, where she and her family have lived since 2003. Their bucolic farmhouse-style home on an acre of woods even has a parterre garden. But alongside the sweet setting, this Michigan-raised girl makes sure the interior design casts an edgy vibe, too. “Growing up downriver Detroit, I carry a little rock and roll—and some Detroit grit—wherever I go,” Jennifer says. To this end, she covered a man-cave powder room with python-patterned wallpaper, chose black for dining room walls, and customized screens in the living room to create a moody setting. “I feel like some of these spaces really have a bold confidence about them,” she adds.

Brass lighting by Visual Comfort brightens the kitchen. Custom bar stools show Jennifer’s love of pattern.

Jennifer’s canvas is a circa-1982 cottage that once belonged to Vickery founder and builder Pam Sessions, who later hired renowned architect Bobby McAlpine and designer Susan Ferrier for some updates. Jennifer, who was living down the street, always thought of the Sessions house as her “forever home—maybe someday.” The designer was thrilled when Sessions let her buy the house a few years ago. Since then, Jennifer’s personal stamp has involved mostly cosmetic changes, thanks to the striking features already there: a living room clad in pecky cypress, large rooms for entertaining, and a European-style kitchen with open shelves.

With the pecky-cypress walls and ceiling to distinguish the living room, Jennifer chose to create a quiet palette of camel, lavender, and bronze. As a focal point, she re-covered two screens flanking the fireplace with an ethereal mural, then added a layer of glaze on the murals for an even more aged patina. She adds interest to sitting areas with unique accessories, like a modern decanter, chunky agate, and bronze urchin sculptures.

Jennifer covered the family room’s custom banquette in faux-ostrich for texture. The Schoenbergers use this space as their breakfast area.

Jennifer upped the wow factor of the master bedroom by designing an oversized tufted headboard in orange. Python-patterned fabric on pillows and French-style nightstands embrace her philosophy of mixing something provocative with traditional elements.

The entryway makes an immediate statement with its earthy tones and a colorful abstract painting. Jennifer added the grass cloth wallcovering, but, always the perfectionist, she wasn’t satisfied with the color and had her faux painter give it a deeper hue to complement the room’s rich draperies. Nearby, she papered the hallway in Cole & Son’s bold gondola wallcovering as a background for reclaimed columns with an aged patina. “Those columns have a great ‘crust’ about them—which is my favorite buzzword in design,” she says.

An antique reproduction chandelier and sideboard ground an otherwise modern dining room, with black painted walls and open-weave linen curtains hiding a wall of shelves. “Styling the shelves has always been a sore spot for me,” says the designer. “I’m not one for visual clutter just sitting on shelves, so I covered them with draperies, and they are now functional storage space.”

Jennifer collects vintage shoji glassware, mixing it with a Neiman Marcus gold-leaf glass and Saint-Louis red hock wine glasses (called “bubbles”) for holiday entertaining. The china is Hermès, inspired by a dining room that designer Melanie Turner did for a showhouse years ago.

Painted grass cloth on entryway walls (below left) is livened up by bold art Jennifer scored at Scott Antique Markets for $10. “That was quite a find,” she says.

Jennifer was a fan of the existing green-quartz countertops in the kitchen, so she updated the cabinetry with a gray-green hue. Brass features bring out the warm tones, including her favorite thing in the kitchen: star-shaped sconces flanking the range. The adjacent sitting area has a sophisticated spin. The custom banquette is covered in faux-ostrich vinyl, while other textures—lambs-wool pillows and an antelope rug—display a little edge.

Michael has a desk area and bar cart that are masculine but still light and modern. “The chair was an estate sale find that I recovered in Kravet’s Thom Filicia faux bois fabric,” Jennifer says. “I’m a huge fan of faux bois anything.”

Jennifer jokes that she has “multiple design personalities,” but her range also extends to budget. For every high-end antique or window treatment, she also incorporates an inexpensive find: a desk from Cost Plus World Market or the snazzy bar cart from Target, believing that good design includes equal opportunity for sources. “I do not discriminate against price and storefront,” she says. “If a piece has great lines and is made well, I buy it because it’s all about overall style.”