Living ... Rooms

Some homes are meant to be lived in. Some are meant to be admired, looked at and not touched. Bridging those two styles is Andrew Hudson, whose East Market Street boutique, Hudson Home, furnishes the habitats of environment-minded Louisvillians who don’t mind a fingerprint smudge here and there.

 

“Design studio is an old-fashioned term,” says Hudson, an interior designer by trade who opened his store in the spring of 2010. “What I have is a little boutique or atelier designed to show a designer’s talent and taste, and also allow people to take home everything in it. It’s like a 3D calling card.” 

 

While Hudson provides (and occasionally designs) the furnishings and accessories he sells, there’s a kind of green that accents every piece. “Sustainability is a sound track running in the background of everything we do, and so we make conscious choices about everything that goes into the room,” he says. For each element or finished piece he brings in, Hudson asks about its origins: Is it a responsibly sourced product? What sort of carbon footprint is involved in getting it here? Did the fiber require dangerous or toxic chemicals to produce it? Is this paint finish high in inorganic compounds, and is it safe for children to breathe and be around? “It’s my job as a designer to be thinking of this,” he says.

 

Hudson worked as an interior designer in New York state – in Hudson Valley, appropriately – before coming home to Louisville and opening Hudson Home. The majority of the inventory is new, although the occasional antique acquired specifically for the store pops up. “There are some things on display that have been part of my collection, but it was more of an evolution,” says Hudson, who started his professional vision in the mid-1990s. “I’ve been moving toward a greater consciousness of my choices as a designer and their impact. I wanted to do something I could get behind and feel good about.”

 

As a sole proprietor, Hudson says his furniture design efforts tend to be limited to private clients, but adds that it’s only when he can’t find something he needs or something that’s affordable in the marketplace. “I make the choices with the fabrics and coverings, but most of the furniture is designed by other people,” he says. Still, his discerning taste isn’t something reserved for those who don’t do much living in their living rooms. “I don’t design rooms you feel you can’t sit in,” Hudson says. His typical clients are young couples and families in their early 40s, he says, and they don’t want their mother or mother-in-law’s living room. “They want everything to look good and look chic, but the last thing they want is for it to be off-putting or worry about what the kids are doing to it.” 

 

And it’s not just locals who are tuned into Hudson’s vision; because of the substantial ink spilled on NuLu’s rise, tourists seeking out new restaurants to explore (“gastrotourists,” Hudson calls them) find their way into his showroom and fall in love with what they see. It’s a win-win situation: “I’ve also referred people to local restaurants, so, strangely, it’s become a mutually beneficial relationship,” he says. 

 

Hudson’s evolution continues in his home away from the boutique. He is in the process of remodeling and redecorating his Highlands home, and for the first time is working with a blank canvas: white. “I like crisp, and I’m doing some white upholstery,” he says. “The great thing about white upholstery is that it allows you to change your color scheme with the color of your accessories. And I haven’t worked with blue, so it’s going to be classic and fresh and, I hope, modern at the same time.” Kind of like that other Hudson Home on East Market.

 

Hudson Home, 806 E. Market St., is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and is closed Sunday and Monday. Their phone number is (502) 384-4977. Visit online at www.hudsonhomeliving.com.