Jayne Haugen Olson’s Bryn Mawr Porch

Project: Jayne Haugen Olson’s Bryn Mawr Porch
Designers: Robb Whittlef and Jim Henke
Firm: Historic, Minnetonka, 952-933-9924

Design challenge: We asked Robb Whittlef and Jim Henke to “pimp Jayne’s porch” for a one-day photo shoot for our Best of Summer issue. The twelve-by-twenty-five-foot side porch of the 1910 American foursquare-style home had some issues. Jayne, her husband Curt, and their twin daughters practically live in this space May through September. But it had become a hodgepodge of collected items—a glider sofa purchased for an outdoor space, oversized club chairs—and had insufficient lighting.

The highly personal and budget-friendly collected bohemian look is both out of date and unrepresentative of the Olsons’ current well-edited, eclectic style. The foundation pieces from different eras, bland neutral color palette, and disparate pieces, shapes, and colors have resulted in a space that has lost focus. For Jayne, the porch needs a common thread and more personality, without becoming overly stylized. Like most busy couples, the Olsons lack the time to do a complete overhaul themselves in short order. So she wondered, “What could a designer do in a day to give us a fresh look?” She called in longtime pal and local design guru Robb Whittlef.

Design solution: With the broad goal of tailoring, editing, and modernizing the porch (yet making it unique to the rest of the house), Whittlef and Henke, with twenty-four-hours notice, transformed the space with items pulled from Whittlef’s store, Great Estate Home & Garden. The design team removed many of the items in the porch, but decided to keep the vintage salvaged columns (Jayne actually nabbed them from her neighbor’s curb), placing them along the street side window to anchor the room and give it symmetry.

The circa 1920s Indian sofa ($1,200) is of the same era as the Olsons’ home and was chosen for its great design, as well as how it plays off the shapes of the Urban Outfitters rug Jayne picked up for a previous photo shoot, and just had to have for herself. (If this had been a client installation, the designers would have created a bench cushion and pillows based on Jayne’s fabric preferences.) A high console table ($175) hides perfectly behind the sofa and simultaneously creates a place for a unique still life—a hand-painted blue and white porcelain vase ($379), framed butterflies ($13 and up), and a wooden vintage horse ($189) from Beijing. The rock crystal chandelier ($2,290) was placed over the seating area to further create a little living room that the family could enjoy later in the evenings. Woven grass ottomans, placed in lieu of a coffee table, also function as extra seating and as hidden storage for their daughters’ toys. A root Grand chair ($599) allows for the flow of light and air—Whittlef recommends having a pair. Rounding out the space is an Art Deco–style side table topped with candles, and a silver painted ceramic vase atop a carved wood helix stool.

The resulting look is very bohemian and eclectic, but its single story line and family-friendly attributes make it an outdoors space perfect for napping, reading, and entertaining.