Homes and Gardens

If you know Garry Mertins, you know he brandishes a magnetic, never-met-a-stranger attitude. As the owner and principal designer of Little Rock-based Garry Mertins Design, he brings the same attitude to each project he tackles. So, it’s not hard to see why Hot Springs homeowners Steve and Kathy Storey valued his counsel and enjoyed his enthusiasm when it came to the design of their home.

“Color is everything,” says designer Jennifer Huett, who worked with a busy family of five to update their Hot Springs home. “They are a very high-energy group,” she says of the Hannon family. “They like to live life to the fullest and didn’t need a serene space to come home to. They wanted a home that makes them happy.”

Working alongside a list of high-profile designers, including color connoisseur Jamie Drake, gave Arkansas native Laura Bartell plenty of inspiration for interiors that were anything but neutrally monochromatic. After returning to her beloved home state to start her own Hot Springs-based firm in 2010, Bartell was eager to apply her learnings–especially when it came to colorful homes. Luckily, just the project presented itself—a complete renovation of a 1970s-style home.