The path that led Romeo Okwara to his new home outside of Detroit is as long and sinuous as the many rivers, lagoons, and estuaries that feed into his native Lagos. Born in Nigeria, Okwara moved to North Carolina when he was 10 years old. It was there, in his newly adopted country, that the young Okwara leaned into his two unmistakable talents: football and fine art. The former allowed him to earn a full athletic scholarship to the University of Notre Dame and, later, a successful career as a defensive end in the NFL for the New York Giants and Detroit Lions. Yet it was the latter pursuit that forged his true passion in life, eventually landing his photographic artwork in exhibitions in New York, Boston, and Los Angeles. And it’s Okwara’s creative eye that now, after so many years, has been successfully applied throughout his new abode in a town on Lake St. Clair, not far from downtown Detroit.
“When I first moved [to Detroit], I was invited to a dinner at a home on Lake St. Clair,” says Okwara, who arrived in 2018 to play for the Lions. “I remember it was such a short drive from the city to arrive in this oasis with beautiful homes and quiet yards. My love for the area was immediate.” After a home in the neighborhood was rumored to be for sale, Okwara leapt at the opportunity. “The owner bought it from the original owners who built the house,” he says of the home, which was completed in 1904. “And because of that fact, it wasn’t on the market per se. The owner wanted to personally interview a small group of would-be buyers.” Okwara, who retired from the NFL this year after eight seasons in the league, had the inside lane. “One of the owner’s sons went to Notre Dame, so we bonded over that connection. But we also shared a real love for the authenticity of the home. Neither one of us wanted to destroy that, only enhance it.”
While it was unknown at the time, Okwara was competing for the home against interior designer Holly Jonsson and her husband, architect Matthew Rossetti (the couple eventually bought a home down the street). Later, once Okwara purchased the property in the spring of 2021, it was Jonsson that he brought in to collaborate on the interior design. While the locus of their introduction was through a mutual friend, Okwara and Jonsson not only formed a unified design vision, but a strong camaraderie as well. “The first time I met Romeo was in my office,” the designer says. “And he arrived with a stack of earmarked books that he’d already poured through for inspiration. That was my first inkling I’d met someone special.”
The duo decided to remove two interior walls: one that separated the kitchen from the dining room and another to form a larger primary bedroom. “The house has these big beautiful windows overlooking the property,” says Okwara. “By physically opening certain spaces in the home, we enhanced the experience of seeing the surrounding landscape.” And, for Okwara, the surrounding landscape was vital in creating a reminder of home. “Growing up in a town just outside of Lagos, we were situated right on the coast of Africa. To now live on a body of water will always remind me of childhood.”