Serenity now
April 1, 2022
Southern sensibility meets California cool at Maison, a new home boutique in SouthPark.
by Cathy Martin • photographs by Kelsie Elizabeth Photography
Interior designer Kim Mauney describes her new retail store, Maison, as a “living portfolio,” where customers can actually walk through her work instead of just looking at pictures of it.
“When you interview for clients, they ask to see pictures of things you’ve done,” Mauney says. But every client is different, and what might be appropriate for one might not be the right fit for another. “I felt like with a store, we could show them possibilities of mixing traditional furniture with modern artwork and modern furniture, mixing in antiques — just mixing it all,” the designer says. “I feel like it gave me a platform.”
The California native — Mauney grew up in the Bay Area — discovered her passion for interior design shortly after graduating from Duke University and moving back home. Armed with a public policy degree and unsure what to do next, her mom suggested she intern with a local interior designer.
“It was the first job I’d had in my life where I never looked at my watch,” Mauney says. She went to graduate school to study interior design, then worked in the San Francisco area until 2010, when she and her husband, a native Southerner, moved to Charlotte.
Over the last decade, Mauney continued running her design business from her home office, but she missed the synergistic atmosphere of a studio. “I went from having a big office and a bunch of designers working for me in California, and I moved here and thought, I want something quieter and less stressful. I tried that for a while, and then I missed it — I missed working in collaboration with a team.”
She opened Maison in December at Morrison Shopping Center, where customers can browse custom pillows, table linens, books, coffee and accent tables, and North Carolina-made upholstered furniture, along with a few antiques. Mauney’s design studio is behind the store.
As a designer, Mauney often grew frustrated when she wasn’t able to find just the right pillows, vases or lamps when accessorizing her clients’ homes. At Maison, those accessories are right at her fingertips. Being located in close proximity to other design-oriented boutiques — Circa Interiors & Antiques, B.D. Jeffries and Anne Neilson Gallery are in the same retail center — has been advantageous, Mauney says. “I feel like we’re a little retail design community over here.” Some of the art on display at Maison is from Anne Neilson.
Mauney’s clean-lined, California aesthetic (with a little Southern mixed in) creates a soothing vibe that envelops you as soon as you walk in the store, where a palette of blues and whites is punctuated with warm natural wood elements.
“I read an article the other day that said that ‘restorative home’ is the new trend, after the stress of Covid and everything,” Mauney says. “And I thought, ‘Oh, that’s perfect, we’re on trend.’” SP
Maison is located at 3920 Sharon Rd., Ste. B140. kimmauneyinteriors.com
