Vibrant Accents Zest Up This Midcentury Home in Raleigh
Abigail Jackson
When Kate Anlyan chose to move back to her native Raleigh, North Carolina, in 2021, she made another major decision too: Ending her two-decade career in fashion retail to start her own interior design firm. With Yasu Home, whose name nods to Kate’s Greek roots, she draws on her expertise in textiles to create layered, colorful spaces for her clients—but there’s no better example than her own midcentury-modern abode.
Kate and her husband were immediately attracted to the 1965 home for its huge windows and functional layout. Only after their offer was accepted did they learn that it had belonged to the Sedaris family, making it even more special. “It is a cool house in its own right, but the story is especially cool and very personal to me,” Kate explains. “Growing up in North Carolina, and being a Greek American, I’ve read David’s books throughout my life and always felt like I knew them. When we found out they were the previous owners, it just felt kismet.”
With that meant-to-be magic in the air, Kate set out to make the place her own while honoring its history. She hired Paul Sedaris himself to refinish and extend the original white oak flooring, then painted the walls Pure White by Sherwin-Williams. The crisp hue has the slightest of yellow undertones to complement her warm neutral palette, which is peppered with vibrant accents. “I generally start with a foundation of neutrals, so if I get sick of [a color], then it’s easy enough for me to swap out pillows or lamp shades or even the rug,” she insists.
Surely, Kate will never tire of the kitchen, which is completely white from the slab-front cabinetry to the quartz counters and the veiny marble backsplash. Raffia pendants from Morocco hang over the peninsula for a hint of playfulness. “It’s more minimal than I usually am,” she admits. “I’m more of a maximalist, but at that moment, I needed something that felt so clean. I was living in sawdust and chaos. And I actually love it now because it feels like a breather from the pattern and color.”
The adjacent dining area is dedicated to family heirlooms like a set of Allan Gould compass chairs from Kate’s interior designer grandmother and a red vintage rug from her great-grandparents. On the wall, there’s a three-dimensional quilted canvas portrait that her mother painted, while a walnut plant pedestal that her father carved stands in the corner. “There are a lot of sentimental pieces here,” Kate says. “It was really just adding light fixtures after that and I was obsessed with the Hay sconces that are sort of postmodern.”
In the designated sitting area, Kate combined her grandmother’s Eames lounge chair, a pair of Parsons chairs in a nubby sand-toned fabric, and a hand-me-down sofa from her friends that she recovered in coral velvet. But it wasn’t until she found the geometric cream-and-terracotta jute rug that the space came together. “I had all these disparate furniture pieces,” she recalls. “The missing piece was really the rug.”
Kate then adorned the seating with lots of striped throw pillows and filled the shelving unit her husband built with beloved items. Artworks by her sister and brother mingle with those by Peggi Kroll Roberts, Nan Jones, and Steven Harrington; design books are stacked both vertically and horizontally; objects from the Rose Bowl Flea Market are interspersed throughout. “It’s just a collection of all our treasures from travels and from different loved ones,” she says.
To achieve a sense of coziness in the primary bedroom, Kate opted for rift-sawn white oak wall paneling (that her husband handcrafted) and a vintage Turkish rug. She sourced a simple bed from Facebook Marketplace, then lacquered it in black and topped it with cobalt throw pillows, a black-and-white striped blanket, and an Aloka patchwork quilt. It’s flanked by wiggly Mitzi sconces and rectilinear Knoll nightstands from a consignment shop in the Southern California desert. “One of my promises to myself was that I would try to buy as little new as possible,” Kate notes.
The bedroom’s lounge is furnished with a Rush House woven seagrass rug, an Urban Outfitters Roma Sofa, and two slipper chairs from Union Camp Collective that Kate recovered in a Kit Kemp for Christopher Farr Cloth fabric called Lost and Found. “We love sitting in that area because it overlooks the woods,” Kate shares. “There’s a creek that runs through. And so, even though you’re in the middle of the city, it feels like you’re in the mountains. We have a lot of deer, a lot of crazy birds. Until I lived here, I had never heard an owl at night.”
In the en suite, Kate tiled the shower in ivory and mocha porcelain rectangles, creating a contemporary riff on the classic checkerboard pattern. Her husband juxtaposed the sharp shapes with spherical feet and round pulls on his handmade ash-wood vanity. By the time the couple got to renovating the hallway bathroom, he’d worked hard enough and requested that Kate keep the original putty pink tiles, so she paired them with an olive green Forbes Masters for Mitchell Black wallpaper and bubble-like pendant lights.
The boldest space is the mudroom-office hybrid, which Kate covered in a moiré-like burgundy-and-blush Joss & Main wallpaper and outfitted with a white desk her husband fashioned from two IKEA cabinets. It’s both an exciting entry point and an inspiring spot to work that completes the energetic home.
Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
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