At Home with Artist Katherine Bernhardt

And of course, I said, yes, Anne was renovating an art studio for her client, a New York artist with Saint Louis Roots who had recently moved back home to be closer to her parents. We made a plan for me to visit and eventually we wrote about Katherine's art studio for the magazine. Around that time, Katherine started posting pictures of her new house on Instagram, which immediately piqued my curiosity. And later that house was featured in a

story in Tea magazine for the New York Times. She's here today to talk to us about the years long renovation and interior design which highlights the work of the Memphis group. An Italian design collective founded in 1980.

I'm not sure. But what I do know is that I have way too many books at home and not enough shelves to hold them. So, despite what tiktok says about bookshelf wealth over the weekend, I filled two boxes worth of books that I need to either donate or sell. So I decided it was time to renew my library card, which was super easy to do online. I simply emailed a picture of a photo ID with my current mailing address and with than an hour it was activated. There's even curbside pickup. Now.

At least that's the case at the Schlafly branch. It's super convenient. All you do is drive up to the library, you call a specific number that they give you and someone runs out and delivers the book to your car. I can't believe I'd gone this long without using the library. And speaking of how we spend our time, I don't have a lot of time to volunteer between work and after school activities. But I do help support the art exhibits at my children's school. That's how I

recently discovered the work of local artist, Aaron Elliott. Aaron creates beautiful detailed embroidered portraits on men's cotton shirting that he decorates with B needs ribbon, sequins and glitter. He has a background in ceramics from Parsons in L A and a master's degree from Washington University. His work is so cool and unique and I just had to buy one for my office. You can see his collection on Instagram at Michael Aaron mcallister. We'll be right back.

interior design. I'm thrilled to welcome Catherine to the podcast. Hi, Catherine. It's so good to see you. Hi, the last time I saw you was at your birthday party last month. It was so much fun at your house. Um It was wonderful to be there. Thanks so much for the invite. You had a terrific turnout. And what was interesting to me about the party itself was that we were all congregated in the kitchen. Did you notice? Yeah, everyone always does. I think the

kitchen's uh a good place to start. Can you tell me a little bit about the look? Ok. The look of the kitchen. Well, I painted it turquoise blue like my mom's kitchen. So I grew up with a turquoise kitchen and I always thought that was amazing. So I wouldn't mind to be turquoise too. Um The original kitchen did not look like that. It was like pure black and white and postmodern and like totally futuristic and awesome.

And then, so the kitchen now is the last guy's renovation just painted turquoise and then I recreated the round tubular hood that was there originally and we should say that the house was built in 1984 1986 1986. 0, ok. My bad um by and the architect was Gary Glenn. How did you become familiar with the house? And were you looking to buy. Yeah. Well, I always saw that house growing up. So

in 86 I guess I was like 10. So I would always see that house driving up and down Lyndal and just think it was just the most awesome house I ever saw. Couldn't believe it. How cool is that house? Like love it. Always like looking at it. I always thought it was like rectangular but it's not, it's l shape. Um Yeah, I was looking for a house and I had found this other house. Then I found out that the basement was collapsing.

So I didn't get it. And then I googled the Lyndal house kind of as a joke, see if it was available and it was, oh my God. I was like, oh my God, I have to get it. And so we should, we should preface this by saying you grew up in Clayton, right? Yeah. OK. And you were living in New York and you moved back to Saint Louis in late 2019. Yeah, 2020 2020 when COVID hit New York. Ok. Ok. And so how easy was it for you to attain the house? I mean, was it pretty quick sale or

not easy? Went to see the house, saw the house, there'd be one deal this day, then there'd be a different deal the next week. Then he wasn't selling then uh only, it was only the house. Then the other yard was a different price. And you had to buy both? Oh, or do you just want one? Oh, I'm not selling it anymore. Oh. And then I gave up and I was like, whatever I'm done. And then he called back, like, two months later and he's like, do you still want the house?

I was like, yeah. Oh, my God. Incredible. Incredible. So, you moved in and you decided I didn't move in for like, a year and a half. But when did you decide to renovate or when did you start that process? Like the minute I bought it, I started renovating and what, what, what was the scope of that renovation?

Uh ripping out all the floors, ripping out all the bars, ripping out all the slate, ripping out all the gray tile, repainting the entire house white uh pouring all terrazzo floors retiling everything so kind of superficial but also like a lot of work, but just painting the house took like five months. Um And why did it take five months? Just the oh, inside and outside? Just the amount of walls because it was dark gray and the entire inside was beige and

dark gray. So painting it white, several layers of white took five months and the Torazo floors. I thought that was pretty fast. Took about five months. Were you working alone or were you work? Did you work with someone like someone to help you with the material selection and that sort of thing? Um no, like I picked everything so like lime painting, painted the house. I told them, you know, I want extra white here and then glossy on the doors or whatever. And then

Missouri Terrazzo is awesome. They're located on the hill. They've been there like 100 years so they know what they're doing. So I just, and they're always like, we can do whatever you want. So you love people like that. So I just gave them the designs and some of the designs in the floor are based off of like Memphis uh designs that I found in like a Memphis Milano book.

So they like made um I gave them a drawing and they made it out of metal basically and then put it on the floor and then it's all hand poured and hand, pour it in there and then it's like uh so ground in three different grinders. Yeah, it's, it's so cool. Yeah, the floors are awesome when you were thinking about the house and the renovation. Where did you come up with your ideas? Oh, so I went to the history museum and I researched the house because I knew it was like a famous house

when Marcia and Herb Smith live there. So it was like famous, I knew it had been in magazines. So I found all the magazines there and found the pictures of what the house used to look like. So I

based all my designs based on that basically. So I tried to go back to that and recreated a lot of things that she had in there, like the bookshelf on the third floor or like the black little shelf in the, in the foyer or the red tube in the kitchen and just like a, the round fireplace and tried to, oh, and then a major one was the cabinet in the living room, like recreating that because it had all been removed and taken out the house was destroyed when I

got it. Right. Right. And so you were trying to restore it essentially. And how um how difficult was that to do? Were you in touch with the original owners? No, so, but I did reach out to Ashley Smith. She was the girl who lived there. She was in my sister's class at Clayton High. So my sister had been over there for a dance party once in the basement.

But um I had never been in that house. But um yeah, I found the pictures and magazines and I just worked from there and like based my designs off of that and then discovered that Marsha Smith also had like Memphis Milano furniture and she had Jerry Wilkerson paintings in there and Jerry Wilkerson Fig Newtons sculptures. So a lot of that stuff I had too and so I just like kind of like maximized her idea.

I mean, Marcia Smith's house was more pure postmodern and like severe and black and white and more like the Columbia Foundation here on the hill, which is awesome. But mine has a little bit more color because, like, for instance, the kitchen is not how it's supposed to look. It should be black and white. Right. And I haven't done the bathrooms yet either but the bathrooms like, I don't know because I don't have any

pictures of what it looked like. But I asked Ashley and she said they were all black and white, four by four tiles and different patterns or stripes or just black or just white. So I guess I'll do something like that and you have a ton of color in the house. You love color, right? Can you tell us a little bit about the Memphis Group Furniture and Decor that you have in the house? Yeah. Well, ok, I'm gonna reverse back to like high school. Um

a spree. Yeah, a spree. Literally a Tori Sosus designed all the spree, the showroom. So like I loved that, but I didn't know it was a Tori sous. So I've loved it since then. And then was that to be? Yeah. And then I figured it out that he was the designer and then I also found it like in New York, my friend Raquel, she did Raquel's dream house in Soho and she took an entire like townhouse and decorated in Memphis Milano. So that's like where I first saw it kind of. And I bought the ultra frag

mirror out of that show. So that was like the first piece I ever got and then I knew I liked it or loved it or whatever. But then when I got that house, like I knew that house had to have Memphis Milano furniture. So Raquel introduced me to this guy Keith Johnson in Brooklyn, who's the wholesale dealer of North America, Memphis Milano. Oh, cool. So I went to his studio in um Red Hook and got everything from him there. Pretty much everything. And was so how readily available are

the pieces? I mean, easy to acquire. So lots of the stuff that I got from him is still in production. So you just order it, I mean, it did take a few months and then uh some of the other pieces that are more rare. I traded a painting of Leo Konig in New York because he has a huge Memphis Milano collection too. So I traded a painting and I got like five more rarer pieces that like, aren't in production anymore. And how did you decide where to put the pieces in the house? Well,

how was that process? Like, just like ordered everything? I kind of like think about it. Kind of like a painting like I know kind of like how much paint to mix like for that painting. So I kind of picked out just enough furniture for the house like it all fit. I mean, I measured but like I measured but I also like figured it out in my brain. Oh, I made tons of drawings too. I have like tons of drawings of like where certain

pieces would go in what room and everything. So I like made drawings of everything constantly. It was like super exciting. Like I couldn't wait for the furniture to come. And then Keith Johnson's crew came out and like built everything and put everything in place and everything. It was easy and it fit and tell us about the um the boxing ring, the boxing rings in the front living room, it fits there

and it's pretty awesome. It's like, uh it's basically for like to have a tea ceremony in which I never have done that because I'm scared of spilling stuff on it. But I do, I do more like yoga in it and I do stretching in it and it's fun to do it in there because they're on bamboo. It's made of bamboo, there's to Tommy mats in it. So you're on like bamboo tatami mats. So it's fun to do yoga in there. Super cool. Um And how long did the renovation take?

Renovation is, took about a year and a half. Ok. And during that time you were, were you living in the house or? No? No? Ok. So how easy was it to hire Saint Louis based contractors or painters? The people to do the work? Did you have to go outside of Saint Louis at all for one thing I did. But yeah, it was fairly easier to get workers here. I mean, I like interviewed a couple of the painters before I chose lime. Painting Zoi Torazo I knew was good. Full

circle made the cabinet that was like a recommendation. He was amazing. The cabinet turned out awesome. Uh The tile guys I had already worked with before like in my studio in downtown, in my storage unit and studio bathroom. So I knew they were good. So, yeah, everything was made here except the fireplace which was made in Brooklynn by friendly metals. Ok. And what is that fireplace? What's,

what's unique or special about that? Fireplace is, um, based on the bacterium floor design in the Terrazzo in the living room. So the fireplace is like a cut out bacterium. And what is bacterium? It's kind of like a lima bean shaped pattern from like the Memphis area. Oh, cool, cool. What was your biggest renovation challenge? Nothing really? Really? And it was all fairly, fairly easy. I mean, it took a long time, right? Like, just like being patient, like, waiting for everything. Did you go

to the house every day? Every week? Were you? So you go like every morning show up, meet the workers, let them in. Sometimes I'd stay there and watch them other times I'd leave and come back. But yeah, every day I'd go over there. Um, and so let's talk now about the pink colors on the exterior of the house. Originally it was white. Well, it was gray when you bought it, but now you've um added some color. Yeah. So I had primary colors

to the front of the house. Red, yellow, purple, blue, uh inspired by Corbusier because Gary Glenn loved Corbusier too and he basically built the house thinking of Corbusier and then the back of the house I painted pink because I love Baron and I love Mexico and I love like how he would just like paint a wall pink or paint a wall orange or whatever color. But I just think that pink is awesome. And I love Baron. And how did you select those colors? Um I went to the paint store and like chose

different colors. Oh, I tried out like a couple samples like on the walls outside of the house to see what they look like. So it's actually two different pinks back there. And what is the exterior of the house? Like exterior material stove? It's called like stow surface stow stow basically did the painters have to prepare the walls in any special way for the paint or? Well, no, they just did like prime it and then paint it. But the stove membrane is like not used anymore.

So it's kind of rare. So you can't really like put holes in it or fix it really. Um And what has been the reaction from your neighbors to the to the colors, anything? Um I would say they like it. Do you get a lot of people like driving by slowing down to take a look at the time? Everyone looks at it, everyone loves to look at the house or like if you sit in the bench across the street of Forest park, you can hear all the comments. One comment was like, is that a house for a human?

Do humans live there? Dang. Ok. Um What should people think about when they are working with color? Like if they're trying to think about a room um that they want to paint at home? How do, how should people go about thinking about the color choices? I think they should like research first and like look at magazines and like look for pictures that they like or what they're what, what it should or what they want

it to look like and then work from there. But I don't think a lot of people know what to do. And so where do you get your ideas? Magazines also? Yeah, I guess magazines and just like looking at Instagram and like following Decor Architectural Digest or whatever. Like I've always looked at that. We should say that you have an Instagram specifically for the house and do you want more followers? Ok. So let's why don't we tell people what the Instagram is?

5725 Lyndal, by the way, that's how I found out about found it on Instagram. And what's the most used room in your home? Probably the kitchen and bedroom, your bedroom is like, has like a, a, it's a suite with a second floor, like a loft space. Yeah, like a library kind and tell us a little bit about, about that space. Well, yeah, it's kind of like its own suite. Um It has huge windows that look at Forest Park. The light is awesome.

Um And then there's a really good bathroom that has like a jacuzzi in it and there's a steam room. So I like love both of those things. So like all I do is like sit in the jacuzzi and then the steam room and they also have a great pool outside. Yeah. And did you have to do major work to that pool? It was there, right? Yeah, the pool was there but it had also been changed. So I didn't really mess with it. I changed the tiles on it because it was grace late when I got it. So I changed

it to black and white tiles. What kind of tiles are they? Oh, black and white. Uh six by six inch tiles. Matte. And do you spend a lot of time in the pool in the summer? Yeah. Love it. I love swimming. I love the hot tub. I never had a pool before. So it's like awesome. Do you entertain a lot? Yeah. How do you like to entertain casually more? Formally. What kind of people do you like to invite to the house? Well, the first party I had there was like a eighties birthday party.

So there's a DJ only playing eighties music. So, I guess, yeah, kind of informal dance party, pizza party. And then the last party was based on David Hockney's a bigger splash painting. So it was a pool party in winter. So it was a pool party and the cake was like a David Hockney design. Like he painted the pool in L A. So, I guess, kind of informal fun. Maybe. Like, I invite, like, art, art world people from Saint Louis or, and it seems like you are, you know, really happy in Saint Louis

and established here now. Um, I know you travel quite a bit. But what do you like about being back in Saint Louis? Just way easier? I mean, I have a car, I never had a car before. I just, like, drive around. My studio is huge because there's so much space here. It's like a huge warehouse in midtown. Yeah, there's just like lots of space. It's easy. It's beautiful. Like forest Park is awesome. Uh, the food's good. Cool. Yeah. What are some of

your favorite places to go in Saint Louis? To hang out? To eat? To hang out? Yeah. To eat. Maybe like the Vine Cafe on South Grand is awesome or Mes Karim. Really good Ethiopian food or? Oh, yeah, I was just there last week. Actually, after the orchid show, we went there for lunch and then maybe like Olympia, the Greek place. Those are my top three. Let's get to our rapid fire questions. So let's get started. What would readers be most surprised to learn about your house?

Um Maybe that there is a room in the basement built in case of a nuclear war. What artwork or piece of furniture do you currently have your eye on? Uh There's this Mandeni table at Retro Inferno in Kansas City. That's totally awesome. I'd like to get that. And then I saw this Gaetano Pesce glove coat rack when I was in Miami, I wanna get that done. And actually that makes me think of a a question. I, I definitely wanna ask, how do you know where this furniture is? Like, do you s do you

see things when you're traveling? Do you read about it online or do you have people telling you like, how does that happen? Oh, so I went to Kansas City to visit the Norman Museum and Jeremy Scott told us to go to Retro Inferno. So we went there and it's a really awesome store with like a vintage furniture and he has tons of Memphis and he had this Medini table that was amazing. So I saw that there.

And then for instance, the Gaetano Pesce glove sculpture I saw in Miami during Basel, he had like a pop up show in the design district in Miami during Art Basel. Ok. I saw that there. Where do you like to shop for furniture in Saint Louis? Got to say cool stuff, cool stuff. Love Ronnie. Yeah. Cool stuff. Or Mo modern. Yeah. Yeah. Also a great one. And what city do you feel most inspired? I would

say Morocco, but I had another choice too. But I would just say Morocco just because of all the patterns and textiles and rugs and hand painted signs and just color everywhere. And the fashion is just amazing. And then my other idea was Iceland because it's so minimal, natural and beautiful and like Scandinavian design, minimalism. And do you have um are you heading somewhere this summer? Yeah, but we don't know where yet. What's your next

house project? Next house project? Well, it's been in the works like 10 years, but we're finally about to build a house in San Juan Puerto Rico. Oh, cool. So, yeah, I think I've actually seen the, the drawings at your studio. So we finally have the permits and the excavations done and we found the cisterns in the basement and all the reports are in almost. So now we're rebidding how much it will cost to build it and we'll probably start to Oh Wow, great project.

If you could go back and rethink one of your uh one of the renovations that you made to the Lyndal house, what would that be? The front foyer Terrazzo. Ok. Tell us right now. Right now it's like circles and half moons and pink and gray, which is fine. Like the circle, there's circles all over the house, like the circle fireplace, the circle door, doorknob, the circle tube

in the kitchen. So I was like circles. But the more I think about it, I think it should have just been like a Memphis design like squiggles or just like rectangles in white with a red background or more of like a Memphis design. What question do you hear the most often about the house? People wanna know if it's an apartment building or is that an office building or they rent a room in the apartment? Oh, interesting. And they're just walking by the house and they, they

ask usually like the doordash guys. Uh what makes for a good house party? Uh music and who, who are some of your favorite right now? I'm like really into burner boy, Central C Dave. Oh, that's like all I was. Wow. OK. Way too cool for me. I've not heard of them. Um Finish this sentence. I love living in Saint Louis because uh there's amazing architecture here. I love looking at all the houses and all the different neighborhood and I love my house.

I'm curious to know is there another house in Saint Louis that you, you know, you tend to drive by and my air? Oh, yeah, there's a couple, there's one further towards uh the central west end on Lyndal. That's like a stone house that has like a gallery attached to it. I love that one. And then there's one actually on King's Highway in one of those private neighborhoods that's like Austrian art deco, kind of looks like Ancient Egypt meets art deco. Right. Right. Right. I love that on Hor Tens.

That's amazing. Yeah, that's a great house. I've been in there. Very cool. All right. Well, thanks Catherine. Thank you. And now for these views, we're recording this episode in February, but it feels like spring is right around the corner and this is a great time to get out of the house and see some new things. The biannual Saint Louis Antique Festival at Belle Clare Fairgrounds and Expo Center is coming to Belleville on April 27th

and 28th. More than 100 antique dealers from across the country will be there selling everything from fine China to vintage quilts and French cameo glass among many other wears Colombian artist Delcie Morelos is showing her work at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation. The exhibit is called Interwoven and it includes an immersive sculpture made from local soil for one of the museum's galleries. It'll be here until August 4th studies in architecture at

the Sheldon opens on May 11th. The exhibit showcases paintings of the late Wallace Erin Smith with contemporary works by sculptor Paul Young. Thanks for listening to the House of Lou podcast. Our episodes drop on the first Wednesday of every month. Be sure to follow us and share the episodes with your friends. Be in touch, subscribe to our design and home newsletter at STL mag.com/newsletters and follow along on Instagram at Saint Louis mag. You can follow me at VT

look book. If you love what you heard, show us some love by rating and reviewing us on Apple podcasts, Spotify and wherever you choose to listen, we'll see you next time and just remember there's so much to see in Saint Louis if you know where to look.