Elle Clymer’s love of flowers comes naturally. Her mother was an avid and award-winning rose gardener, and her childhood home was always abloom with the season’s best and brightest. Although she strives to carry on that legacy, Elle, wife and mother of three, admits that she doesn’t get her hands in the dirt quite as much as she would like. Instead, a variety of botanical motifs are planted inside her Kansas City, Missouri, home to keep her perennially connected to the outdoors.
In addition to these lush layers, Elle’s abode displays a culmination of all the things—and people—that she cherishes most. Heirloom antiques passed down from her grandmother hold memories, as well as places of prominence, in rooms otherwise adorned with art, furniture, and décor that she and husband Greyson have collected over the years. But the greatest influence on her home’s casually chic aesthetic is her close friendship with interior designer Stephanie Woodmansee.
Elle and Stephanie met fresh out of design school while working in the New York office of Ashley Whittaker Design. They bonded instantly over a shared passion for classic styles, bright colors, and bold prints—namely florals. In 2013, the duo branched out and established their own firm, Henry & Co. Design, headquartered in Elle’s 900-square-foot starter apartment in Chelsea. “You get to know someone really well when you work that closely together,” says Stephanie. “We became like that ‘old married couple’ who could finish the other’s sentences. We made a great team not only because we complimented one another, but also because we pushed each other creatively. To this day, we still do!”
Elle has since stepped back from design and the firm, but she and Stephanie continue to enjoy an incredibly strong synergy. So when the Clymers returned to their roots in Kansas City and purchased a 1916 Georgian-style home in the older enclave of Sunset Hills, they knew just who to call—literally. For eight months, Elle and Stephanie collaborated via phone, text, and FaceTime, taking the concept of “working remotely” to a whole new level. They stayed up many late nights swapping links to one-of-a-kind finds on sites like Chairish, Etsy, and eBay and, whenever they could, they would meet up to shop the New York City galleries and the antiques fairs in Round Top and Brimfield.
Given her background, Elle didn’t necessarily need an interior designer, but she knew that she didn’t want to be her own client. “After years in the field, I had adopted a ‘been-there-done-that’ attitude,” she says. “Nothing felt original, and it was hard for me to get wowed, so I told Stephanie to just go for it! No one knows what I like—and dislike—better than she does. She has a way of turning my somewhat crazy ideas into something brilliant, and she is the ultimate mix master.” Together, the talented duo incorporated all the random pieces that spoke to Elle and her family in a way that made sense. Elle sums up their work best: “We share the sentiment that life is too short to limit yourself when it comes to living among the things you love.”
By Margaret Zainey Roux
Photography by Read McKendree
See more from Stephanie Woodmansee of Henry & Co. on their website and on Instagram.
See more of Read McKendree’s photography at readmckendree.com and on Instagram.