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When lifestyle influencer Anna Mae Groves and her husband, Rob, moved into their 1853 Cincinnati home, they inherited towering ceilings, original hardwood floors, and a marble fireplace. The one thing Groves couldn’t figure out was the seating for the long, narrow parlor—particularly when all four of the couple’s adult sons were home. Her first solution was to order the largest sofa she could find in what appeared online to be a deep burgundy. When it arrived, the color was closer to movie-theater red. Even worse: The custom fabric selection meant it couldn’t be returned.
Groves immediately texted her longtime friend, Urbanology Designs founder Ginger Curtis. Eventually, the sofa found a new home and Curtis took on the project, transforming the awkward pass-through into a moody, speakeasy-inspired gathering hub. Nearly every major piece was made specifically for the space, including a 13-foot couch and a corner banquette. Sage plaster walls, patterned marble, and deeply personal artwork completed the transformation. Now, Groves says, “We don’t want to leave it.”
Treat an Awkward Footprint as an Opportunity
A fireplace, two doorways, and a wall of windows made arranging the extra-long room feel like advanced geometry. Curtis saw the strange proportions differently. “I love weird, hard spaces,” she says. Rather than center everything around one seating group, she divided the parlor by activity: a 13-foot sofa for TV watching and entertaining a crowd; a curved corner banquette that “hugs the corner” for intimate meals and work sessions; and a chaise near the windows where Groves can read or take in the view.
The real test came when all four of Groves’s sons were home at once. “When they came home for Father’s Day, these grown men were just hanging out—sitting up in the banquette, having food and drinks,” she says. “Then the next day, they’re laying their big bodies all over the couch, on the floor, and the banquette.”
Design the Sofa the Room Actually Needs
Groves’s husband wanted something large enough for serious lounging. Groves wanted a piece that wouldn’t overwhelm the architecture. Curtis delivered both with a curved, 13-foot custom sofa whose serpentine silhouette softens its considerable scale. “We have this custom furniture that’s really, really beautiful and unique,” says Groves. “But when I sat down on it, I did not expect it to be so comfortable that I didn’t want to get off.”
Know When the Floor Is the Main Event
The entryway had never found its balance. Furnished, it felt crowded; emptied out, it felt unfinished. So Curtis gave it one commanding feature: patterned green marble in place of the existing faux-checkerboard linoleum. She briefly tried a runner, then pulled it during installation. “It doesn’t need it,” she decided. An antique table and brass-fringe pendant round out the space without stealing focus.
Let the Original Details Set the Ground Rules
Curtis preserved the marble fireplace, crown molding, tall doors, vintage hardware, and original wood floors, refinishing the latter in a dark matte stain to eliminate their orange tint. From there, she layered in “a little modern, a little traditional, a little edgy, a little eclectic, a little French—and things that felt like Anna.” The goal wasn’t to make the house feel frozen in 1853, but to let the new additions feel personal without competing with the details that, as Curtis puts it, “you can’t buy” or recreate.
Curate an Art Collection with Meaning
The gallery wall’s centerpiece is a print by Danielle Mckinney, whose depictions of Black women at rest echoed the sense of respite Groves wanted the room to provide. “I wanted this room to feel like a deep breath,” she says. Other pieces reference her husband’s equestrian roots and the family dog, creating a mix with a story behind every frame.