Designer Jayme Kennerknecht’s Rustic-Chic Foyer Is Practical and Polished

Hair and makeup by Paula Voisembert/team / Photo by Joyelle West

Jayme Kennerknecht was developing plans for her new house in Wenham when an item in a furniture catalog caught her eye: a marble-and-wood side table, from Roost. “It wasn’t too precious, but it had some character,” the interior designer says. “I thought, ‘I have to find a home for that.’” So she did: After Kennerknecht and her husband, Daniel Simonelli, wrapped construction on their house in 2012, she placed the table in the new double-height foyer. “The foyer is the first chance to make an impression,” Kennerknecht says. “[And the table represented] the tone I wanted to set for our home.”

With that piece selected, the rest of the décor began to fall into place. Sourced from LintonArt, two rubbings of tree trunks—nods to Kennerknecht’s childhood home in the Adirondacks—flank the front door. Other design elements serve practical functions: The sound-absorbing Landry & Arcari stair runner provides extra comfort for the couple’s newly walking one-year-old daughter, while the Argentine hide on the floor makes a durable perch for Cooper, the family’s springer spaniel. “The hide adds great color and texture,” the designer says. “People walk on it with their shoes on, and it still looks brand new.”