Heidi Gardner shows off stunning mid-century modern KC home to Architectural Digest
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Who on this planet is cool enough to have a hood over their stove inspired by a disco ball?
That would be Heidi Gardner, Kansas City native and “Saturday Night Live” star who has renovated a mid-century modern home here that she describes as a “sexy, chic time capsule.”
She opened the doors to Architectural Digest, which showcases the suburban Kansas City home in its latest “Open Door” house tour, released Tuesday. The series features celebrity homes.
The design and decor of this stunning mid-century home lean heavily into Gardner’s love of the ‘70s.
“This house is both a Kansas City labor of love and New York labor of love, which is kinda like me, my two favorite places in the world,” she said in the tour.
She hired Cicada Company of Kansas City for the design-build and worked with Madelynn Hudson of New York for the interior design.
“It was really important to me to keep the vibes that I originally saw when I walked in this house, with the wood walls and the stone,” she said. “I was like, I’m in the ‘Boogie Nights’ house.
“The previous owners, Don and John, are artists, philanthropists, just like overall bon vivants, good livers of life.
“And I wanted to keep that in the house, even with all the renovations I ended up doing. I got really lucky and one thing Don and John did leave at the house was the custom lion door knocker. I love that it’s just a big handle to get into my house with.”
It is a home designed for guests. Personal touches abound, like her favorite photo displayed on a table right inside the front door. It’s of her dad, from New Year’s Eve, 1980, taken at the Embassy Suites in Kansas City. He’s got a lamp shade on his head.
“I knew it was what I wanted to set the tone with,” she said.
Next to it she displayed what appears to be a framed matchbox from the old Peppercorn Duck Club, “the nicest restaurant in Kansas City and we really had no business going to, but my mom would kind of sneak us in,” she said.
The living room, with chrome coffee tables and a long, curvy, sexy sofa “is a perfect encapsulation of a curated ‘70s moment,” she said.
The nearby lounge-like sitting area — with plush vintage chairs that ended up being “the best cat furniture” — is her “interpretation of my own little bar, or club.”
Gardner’s cat, John Ross, makes a couple of cameos during the tour. (The expansive marble counters in the kitchen apparently make a great catwalk.)
During the pandemic Gardner learned how to make cocktails, so it made sense to include a bar, she said, which is set up inside a credenza fronted with handmade tiles from Kansas City artist Emily Reinhardt of The Object Enthusiast in the Crossroads district.
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“The kitchen before was very ‘70s, in a way a lot of people did not like,” Gardner said.
She admitted the Cicada team encouraged her to redo it, promising to keep the vintage vibe. The showstopper is the glittery hood over the stove that shines like a disco ball.
“At night, it really is like Studio 54 in here,” Gardner said. “Sometimes I call the house a dream theater because I think it is a dream but yeah, I didn’t expect to just like disco with my friends in my kitchen.”
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The guest powder room also has a strong “Boogie Nights” aesthetic with amber-colored vanity lights and a massive glass block wall, one of her favorite details in the house.
Hudson created a “girl dream suite” in the main bedroom, with a sexy upholstered bed. Gardner opened the doors of her “big indulgent closet” to show all the Chiefs and Royals gear hanging there.
Her dad gave her one of his robes when she was working on the house and it hangs there, too. She tells guests to bring their robes, for chilling out by the pool and lounging.
“I want everybody slinky and sexy and feeling themselves,” she said.
The room where she and friends watch Chiefs games and tailgate is decorated with “not reasonably priced” Gucci wallpaper, but she’s “happy with the splurge,” she said.
And even though the room is the official Chiefs tailgate party room, there’s a desk too where she can write.
The pool area “is definitely the biggest reminder to me that I am away from New York and away from work and truly getting to relax. Like jumping in the water every day is so healing,” she said.
Custom tiles line the pool’s ledge. A boulder fire pit “feels Midwestern and cozy,” she said.
Cicada tore down a wall at the back of the house and replaced them with windows and doors leading to the backyard entertaining space, inviting her guests to move from indoors to outdoors, cocktails in hand, in business suits or robes.
“I just want people feeling themselves,” said Gardner.
This story was originally published October 29, 2024 at 4:18 PM.
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