Artist Ashley Longshore’s design ethos is simple: “When I get into a white room, I break out in a full body rash,” she tells AD. Accordingly, when Longshore purchased a 1920-built New Orleans home four years ago, she designed it to be a vivid rainbow funhouse that would keep any kind of negative physical reaction at bay. A painter and furniture designer herself (she recently released a line of dining chairs featuring iconic women and colorful lamps in collaboration with Ken Fulk), Longshore enlisted Memphis–based designer Gwen Driscoll to help her create a cohesive space that could hold her extensive art collection.
One might think that a house chock-full of valuable art would be precious. Longshore’s art is not all confined to the walls—there are sculptures everywhere, like the Peter Anton cake in the great room or a giant foot in the dining room. Longshore—whose own style (both professional and collecting) was the subject of unsubstantiated cultural appropriation allegations a few years back—envisioned a home that was filled with people and revelry, something she sees as the heart of life in her adopted home city.
“I think the main thing that’s so appealing about New Orleans is how the city really celebrates the arts. But also in New Orleans, nobody really needs a reason to celebrate. Just waking up in the morning is one, and I just love that vein of optimism and creativity,” says the author of Roar! A Collection of Mighty Women.
Of course, Mardi Gras is the most famous reason for New Orleanians to let loose, and with the season currently underway, Longshore tells AD more about how she created a perfect destination for merry-making.
Architectural Digest: What made you first fall in love with your home?
Ashley Longshore: I moved to New Orleans I guess about 15 years ago without two nickels to rub together, and was renting these little carriage houses in the Garden District and working really hard in hopes to have a beautiful home somewhere around the gorgeous St. Charles Avenue. And when I was finally in a place to get the house, what I loved about it was how it was gated and set back, and just the privacy of the home in general. And from the outside, it was very traditional, but then on the inside, I wanted it to feel like a jewel box of my art collection.
What was your vision for the home when you first started decorating?
[Designer Gwen Driscoll said to me,] “Oh, my God, Ashley. We don’t have this many walls. You’ve got to stop buying art.” And I was like, Well, I’m not going to stop. We’re going to have to figure this out. She knew how to arrange the placement, so there were great areas where I could add art and rotate the art collection. It was really about the art. Also functionality, because I knew we were going to be partying our asses off in this house, between Jazz Fest and Mardi Gras and people coming in.
How do you make a house with so much art amenable to guests? Do you ever worry about things getting broken?
I designed it with Gwen for it to be a place where we could party, dance, and swim. I have no rugs in the house at all. It’s literally indestructible. I just wanted it to be a place where people could be—you put on some jazz, dance around, jump in the pool, jump out of the pool. It’s a very inviting home that really makes you want to celebrate. I don’t have Baccarat vases sitting around. The dining room is pretty streamlined, the [Casamania Him and Her] chairs look like booties, a woman’s fanny and a man’s fanny. They’ve been knocked over. I’ve had these amazing dinner parties, and people sit them with their wet bathing suits on. I wanted a house that I could really live in.
Your home is an explosion of color. Are there any rooms where you took a more toned-down approach?
My bedroom is all black and white. It’s very calm, which is good for me as such a vivid colorist to go to sleep and wake up in that area. I have one of Ivan Alifan’s beautiful pieces in there, so yeah, it’s very strategic.
Do you have a favorite piece of art in the home?
How would I choose? The whole thing is just art everywhere. I really love that Peter Anton cake, that giant cake sculpture that he made.
