After an endless search, Mekea Duffy was thrilled when she found a dreamy wallpaper pattern by Julia Rothman at the Hygge & West website.
The cheery birds soaring among the clouds came in three different color schemes — one for each of her young daughters.
But instead of hanging the paper on the walls, Mekea had it hung on the ceiling, adding a whimsical storybook touch to the girls' bedrooms. "They can wake up and look at the sky," she said.
The bird motif is just part of the fun in Duffy's colorful, kid-friendly home. Skittles hues and wild patterns cover the floors, bedding and artwork decorating the girls' rooms.
Starting with a fresh, snow-white backdrop, Mekea has repeated the palette of playful energizing color in the rest of the home. She calls her style "eclectic with clean and simple Scandinavian influences and Marimekko-like pops of color." Her eye-catching interiors garnered a spread in the current issue of HGTV magazine. (See it at http://bit.ly/1xfzntm).
In 2012, Mekea and her husband, Tim, were lucky enough to find a new house being built in Linden Hills, an older Minneapolis neighborhood. The updated farmhouse style had enough space for four bedrooms and a home office for Tim, as well as all the features buyers want today: an open floor plan, a mudroom, big closets, a master bath and main-floor powder room. But best of all, when the Duffys closed on the home, it was still in the framing phase. The couple could choose architectural details and finishes, with the goal of marrying old-house character with the modern elements of a new home.
Mekea's mother, Mary Kaplan, was a strong design influence who continues to offer decorating advice. Mekea remembers her mother experimenting continuously on their Victorian house in St. Paul. "When I would come home from college, the house would be different — the design was always changing," Mekea said.
Like her mother, Mekea often rearranges the furniture and changes up accessories in her ever-evolving spaces. But she keeps the walls and woodwork painted white, Benjamin Moore's "Super White," to help the family weather Minnesota's long cold winters in a setting that's bright and cheery, not dark and gloomy.
