For the past few years, after the last cue card of the Saturday Night Live season finale has been read, Heidi Gardner returns to her hometown of Kansas City to relish in the summer break with family and friends. Coaxed by the slower pace of the Midwest, the actor and comedian decided it was time to end her extended stays with friends and establish a permanent address of her own. A place that, unlike her compact New York City apartment, would encourage dinner parties, poolside shindigs, and, most importantly, game day get-togethers cheering on her beloved Kansas City Chiefs.
“It’s really grounded me to move slower and more intentionally. The summer feels like summer again,” says Gardner, who spent her early career in LA as a member of The Groundlings, the legendary sketch comedy theater and unofficial SNL incubator. The call from Lorne Michaels came in 2017, prompting her move to New York.
As she envisioned what this next chapter of Kansas City living would look like, memories of her youth stirred to the surface. She used to poke around in her mother’s closet and vanity as they spilled with scintillating dresses and costume jewelry and perused her father’s collections of matchbooks and records that had fueled many a memorable night—the relics of an era before her. “Having a glamorous and gregarious mom and a fashion-forward dad, their whole lives were their prime—but in the ’70s they were especially killing it,” she says.
Perhaps it’s hereditary. Now, those disco-era fantasies are all hers: “My dream was to make the house a sexy-chic time capsule,” says Gardner, whose vision became crystal clear as she entered a midcentury-modern home built by Don Drummond, an early advocate for bringing the design vernacular to Kansas City. With its vaulted ceilings, wood-paneled walls, and double-sided natural-stone fireplace, the home’s interior was reminiscent of the San Fernando Valley abode of salacious star-maker Jack Horner (played by Burt Reynolds) in Boogie Nights—Gardner’s all-time favorite flick.
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.”
But no space seals her nostalgic reverie quite like the primary closet. Shaker cabinets inset with mauve pink grass cloth and outfitted with vintage brass swan pulls stand opposite a spacious marble vanity inspired by her mother’s. A bulb-lined mirror, fringed ottoman, and zebra rug add to the glamour. “I’ve found myself just throwing clothes on the floor because it almost looks more feminine—like a woman just ran in and kicked off her shoes,” Gardner says. “I love having this space to indulge a bit more.” Surely mother would approve.
Originally published in Architectural Digest
Text by Mel Studach
Photography by Nate Sheets
