To bring her plans to fruition, she assembled her own top-notch ensemble. Tara Davis, of Kansas City–based design-build firm Cicada Company, came on to peel back the layers left from piecemeal renovations and return it to a cohesive and architecturally purist version of itself. Brooklyn-based interior designer Madelynn Hudson was also brought on board to render a retro-glam feel within the modern structure. “This was our opportunity to bring it back to what its true, original glory was meant to be,” Davis says.
They stripped the home’s numerous wall treatments and flooring materials and clad the entire interior in custom-colored red oak wall paneling and a creamy white terrazzo floor, eliminating the stiff transitions between spaces. To better suit Gardner’s desire to entertain, Davis’s team opened up the kitchen and replaced the exterior back wall with floor-to-ceiling windows and doors, flooding the home with natural light and establishing multiple access points for effortless indoor-outdoor living.
Then came the character building. After eight years at SNL, “One thing I’ve learned from watching a set come together is the amount of layering that goes into making a space feel cozy,” says Gardner. In her ode to the ’70s, glass block walls, sumptuous marble slabs, and a shimmering mirror-tiled range hood play supporting roles—or, as Hudson puts it, are “pockets of funky personality added in.”
