An art-loving client with family ties to pop-art superstar Andy Warhol inspired Sarasota interior designer Chelsea Dunbar to fill the woman’s new home with fun ’60s flair.

That’s an oversized copy of Warhol’s portrait of the client’s grandfather, Gardner Cowles Jr., founder of Look magazine, on the living room bookshelf. (The original is in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.) The woman had the portrait, part of a series Warhol painted in the 1970s of men in the media, colorized to match her new home’s décor. Then she had it mounted on her collection of bound copies of every Look magazine that had been published from 1937 to 1971.

Art runs in the family; her mother was a collector of Warhol pieces. An original piece by pop-art star James Rosenquist hangs over her fireplace. (It’s not a real fireplace, but rather one made by EcoSmart Fire, which uses a clean-burning biofuel; Dunbar sells the line at Blu Home.) The butterfly art on either side of the fireplace is from State of the Art Gallery. And in the home office is a piece by art photographer Julie Blackmon. 

Dunbar’s client, a mom with two children who moved here from Connecticut, already owned bold pink and orange breakfast room chairs, “so we took it and went with it,” says the interior designer, who owns Blu Home, a home furnishings studio in Sarasota’s Southside Village that opened last fall.  She chose a neutral gray backdrop to balance all that color. (The sofa is a custom piece from Mitchell Gold Bob Williams; the silver cocktail table, custom rugs and fabrics on the custom pillows are from Blu Home.)

Says Dunbar, “Her personality is bright and fun and energetic; it was fun to reflect her personality in her house.”

If you can’t get enough of that groovy ’60s vibe, check out Sarasota Magazine’s Best of Sarasota 2017 party April 24 at Selby Gardens. This year’s theme is "Warhol: A Pop Society Soiree." Always a sellout; get your tickets here.