Main Line Professional Athlete Home Redesign

This exceptional residence in Haverford, PA, is the home to Philadelphia Eagles’ most tenured NFL star and Super Bowl LII champion, Brandon Graham. When he and his family were looking to settle down in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, this 10,000 square foot home was the ideal fit. With Christina Henck’s help via Henck Design (HD), this Main Line home became the one-of-a-kind space that Brandon and his family hoped to settle into.

Henck’s primary goal for the interior design of the sprawling spaces was to ensure each room of the home is both timeless and elegant.

By combining new and traditional aesthetics, Henck and her team of eight, based in the Manayunk neighborhood of Philadelphia, were able to achieve a balanced aesthetic. The interior spaces that suit the young family’s needs to entertain friends, family, and cohorts alike.

Essential to the home’s interior design, HD used organic textures and materials like marble, lightwoods, and antique mirrored finishes to maintain a layered, natural feel. In addition to custom furnishings with contrasting fabrics, floor-to-ceiling velvet draperies and a mixture of curvilinear furnishings transform this newly built home into an elegant retreat with traditional appeal.

The grand foyer at the home’s front features a quality of light, which sets the tone for the entire experience as one moves through the home. Large stones and one of a kind vessels line the family’s white entry table, introducing a welcome contrast to the deep rich hardwood floors.

Henck and her team took the luxury approach with decadent material selections and heavy ornamentation in the family dining room. The wet-look Venetian plaster has a remarkable aesthetic which includes a half dozen hand selected colors, curated and directed by Henck in order to create this unique traditional Italian plaster ceiling. Custom burnt orange velvet draperies flank each window with artisan made hardware, while cream and ivory tones fill the room. Smooth and shiny textures contrast hand-finished stonework, while gold accents finish formal dining room.

The double-island kitchen features two counter materials, detailed embellishments, tile patterns, and luxury appliances. The first counter finish, a Calacatta Marble has a mitered edge for an enhanced depth and the second contrasting butcher block repeats the traditional floor color throughout. A series of decorative lights adds a classical feel alongside applied stonework for this stunning chef’s kitchen.

At the center-right of the stately Haverford home is the living room, while completely neutral in color palette, it remains incredibly rich and soft. Henck and her team skillfully repeated elements from the grand foyer by using exclusively neutral tones like whites and creamy textures. By incorporating a bespoke ottoman in the center of the room, she tied together tones from the textured faux ostrich chair with, the woven performance linen-look chaise lounge and two-toned oversized cream sectional. Serpentine edges of the Italian style fireplace, curved chaise and soft edges of ripple fold drapery keep the space in balance with soft edges.

Henck says, “Layering light neutrals is something I’ve become quite passionate about in recent years. For the past 10 years, I’ve been known for my work with color and contrasting black and white palettes – It’s like a new wave of inspiration I have now. This project along with a few other recent ones in 2020 were all about creating layer after layer for my rooms with soft white tones next to texture on top of texture, but done in an extremely neutral palette”.

The full-floor lower level of the home is Graham’s man cave. Complete with projector, screen, full bar and kitchen, and all his favorite NFL game jerseys (almost all of which #55 for obvious reasons), the four-part room is able to host upwards of 30 – 35 guests at a time. Custom Wall-to-wall builtins with drawers, cabinets, and speaker boxes house the pro-athlete’s favorite playbooks, game balls, trophies and more. Talk about an incredible place to gather and watch the Super Bowl!

This particular interior design introduces darker hues with rustic materials and warm textures, which differ from the rest of the house in order to create a masculine retreat. HD incorporated locally sourced mushroom wood from Kennett Square, PA and employed a local billiards company to build a custom pool table with hand picked colors by the designer. The man cave’s design includes a round game table outfitted with six large leather chairs, perfect for playing card and dice games. This notable defensive lineman is sure to enjoy hosting gatherings and lounge between away games.

Sure to be the envy of all the neighborhood kids, the playroom for the residence is truly one of a kind. Custom dry-erase and chalkboard areas allow for creativity and the floor to ceiling custom millwork featuring the children’s art and toys adds much needed storage and organization, cutting down on messes and spills. Henck incorporated a subtle yet distinctive wallpaper on the ceiling to add interest and the whimsical space provides a lot to take in without overwhelming the senses. In keeping with the majority of the home, the interior design for this Main Line kid’s playroom offers an effortless, light and natural aesthetic.

“It’s definitely the room I was able to be most creative with”, says Henck. “I never get tired of making playrooms, and of course they’re particularly fun to work with when the proportions are a big larger. It’s more fun to deal with large scale spaces – it creates more freedom and less rules that I have to follow”.

Henck’s mission for the young couple and two kids was to create practical spaces with lots of performance fabrics, a justified number of creative solutions to provide storage, enhance existing architectural details, all while providing a unique aesthetic juxtaposing clean and traditional elements. The principal designer and clients are equally pleased with the resulting elegant transitional feel, and these interior design clients are sure to enjoy the stately home with friends and their growing family for years to come.

Love This Design? See More Design Inspiration for Spaces and Decor Like This on Henck Design’s Pinterest Board Inspired by This Design Project!