Today, AD is welcomed by SNL star Heidi Gardner to tour her midcentury home in Kansas City. When she’s not making us laugh on ‘Saturday Night Live’, Gardner leaves NYC behind, heading back to the Midwest for a slower pace of life. The actor and comedian moved into a midcentury-modern home that soon became a disco-era fantasy with the help of Tara Davis of Cicada Company and Brooklyn-based interior designer Madelynn Hudson. From terrazzo floors to a disco ball stove hood, Gardner’s home is full of fun finishes inspired by memories of her youth and her all-time favorite movie Boogie Nights. “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. “My dream was to make the house a sexy-chic time capsule.”
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hi, A.D. I'm Heidi Gardner and welcome to Kansas City. Please come in.
00:21Most important to me when people enter is for them to see my favorite photograph in the world.
00:27This was my dad in 1980 at the Embassy Suites Hotel on New Year's Eve.
00:32And I knew that it was like what I wanted to set the tone with.
00:36And this was a Kansas City favorite restaurant of mine, the Peppercorn Duck Club,
00:40which is the nicest restaurant in Kansas City.
00:42And we really had no business going to, but my mom would kind of sneak us in.
00:58This house is both a Kansas City labor of love and a New York labor of love,
01:03which is kind of like me, my two favorite places in the world.
01:06For the design build of the house, I worked with Cicada, which is a Kansas City firm.
01:12And then for the interior design, I worked with Madeline Hudson Interiors, who are in New York.
01:17It was really important to me to keep the vibes that I originally saw when I walked in this house.
01:24With the wood walls and the stone, I was like, I'm in the Boogie Nights house.
01:28The previous owners, Don and John, are artists, philanthropists, just like overall bon vivants,
01:34like good livers of life.
01:36And I wanted to keep that in the house, even with all the renovations I ended up doing.
01:41I got really lucky.
01:42And one thing that Don and John did leave with the house was the custom lion door knocker.
01:48I love that it's just a big handle to get into my house with.
01:53So I think this room is a perfect encapsulation of a curated 70s moment.
01:59Madeline honing me in.
02:01She gave me the chrome coffee tables, which gives me that little bit of disco.
02:05But I also have these elevated Italian sconces.
02:09This Caterpillar couch number is the perfect kind of girl, cozy, curl up on.
02:15I'm not going to put my shoes on the couch because it is too nice.
02:19This is my record playing cabinet.
02:21I've got a record player in here.
02:22And one thing that's super special to me is about 10 years ago on my birthday,
02:26my dad gave me the first 20 records he'd ever owned.
02:30And I kind of didn't believe him.
02:32I was like, how would you know that?
02:34But it's true.
02:35On the back of each of these, he has it numbered.
02:38So this is like the third album he ever bought.
02:40This is a Jimmy Buffett one, which I was never a Parrothead, but he's actually pretty good.
02:46And this was his first album ever, Bebop Deluxe, which I adore.
02:50And it's pretty cool.
02:51Most of my albums are just my dad's.
02:52I think he has over 10,000 of which he's told me I can have,
02:56but that would require another one of these.
03:09This little moment here is the sitting area, lounge.
03:13It's like my interpretation of my own little bar or club.
03:17It's right by the fireplace.
03:19It's one of the original things that we kept with the home,
03:23which is so cool because you can see through to the living room.
03:26Oh my gosh.
03:27And these are, I probably shouldn't say this, but the best cat furniture.
03:32I mean, they're vintage chairs, but they just love it.
03:35So I grew up in Kansas City.
03:37I love it here.
03:38It's green.
03:39I'm just looking at nature all the time.
03:41And what was really cool about Cicada was when they got in here,
03:44this right here was a wall and they're like, no, we got to open it up.
03:48Like you need access indoor, outdoor, seamlessly.
03:52I can go from the dining room to my bedroom, to the pool, to this room.
03:57And that's been one of the best parts about living here.
04:00So I was one of those people over the pandemic that learned a new skill
04:04and my new skill was cocktails.
04:06So it only made sense that in my house, I got a new bar.
04:10There's an amazing artist here,
04:12Emily Reinhart, who has a business called the Object Enthusiast.
04:17And she handcrafted every single one of these tiles.
04:23I mean, you think it's just a tile and then it's totally functional.
04:26It's a knob.
04:27And it feels really cool to have just a completely custom piece in my house.
04:48The kitchen before was very 70s in a way that a lot of people did not like.
04:55But luckily I had the amazing team at Cicada,
04:59Tara and Kyle tell me that like, we get that you love it,
05:03but we do think it should be redone.
05:06And we promise you that we will keep the same vibes that you like,
05:10which were these like warm colors, these woods.
05:15They opened up this whole wall so that I could see into my sitting area
05:19and my dining room.
05:21They made a huge window over here by the sink.
05:24It was their idea to do this beautiful Italian marble.
05:28And it's just seamless.
05:30Like it's the countertops.
05:32And then they were like, do you want a marble sink?
05:35And yeah, I do.
05:36It just like goes through here.
05:38And then you like continue marble, marble, marble.
05:41And then you just like dip down and dive into more marble.
05:48And since I love the 70s,
05:50it was also their idea to make this amazing disco hood for me,
05:55which in the daytime is totally beautiful.
05:58But at night, it really is like Studio 54 in here.
06:02Sometimes I call the house a dream theater because I think it is a dream.
06:06But I'm like, yeah, I didn't expect to just like disco with my friends
06:11in my kitchen.
06:12Really cool.
06:13I can't believe I have a kitchen like this.
06:15Oh, look.
06:16John Ross has joined us.
06:18I remember as this was being built, I was like, okay,
06:21but where are like the appliances?
06:23I didn't even know it was possible, but Cicada just provided for me.
06:27It was like, this is a fridge.
06:29My fridge is hidden and so is my freezer.
06:33So that's been a really neat element.
06:35Also, just cool design moment.
06:39A hidden HVAC.
06:41I have like two of my favorite pictures of my mom.
06:44One when she's a little girl doing ballet and one in high school where she's a cheerleader.
06:49I think it's really funny because my mom was this like self-proclaimed,
06:53I don't cook.
06:54And now I've got her in my kitchen.
06:57So you do cook, mom.
07:06This is my beautiful powder room.
07:09And again, the designers really challenged me with this one
07:13because it was a totally different layout.
07:16Everything bathroom-wise was happening on this wall.
07:19And that's all my imagination could conjure.
07:22But Cicada was like, let's split it up.
07:26Let's give you and your guests a whole vanity area over here.
07:30And then this, as they call it, is your wet zone.
07:33And then this is your beauty moment where you have the nice skylight.
07:37This bathroom also gives you the Boogie Nights feeling.
07:41This custom mirror, the amber vanity lights.
07:45One of my other favorite elements in this house is this glass block mid-century wall.
07:51Making the house like a sexy, chic time capsule,
07:55which is my dream.
07:56And I am living in my dream.
08:03So welcome to my girl dream suite, or as Madeline would say, my sexy boudoir.
08:17She gave me this like sexy, chic bed.
08:20I didn't even know you could get a bed upholstered like this.
08:24Feels transportive.
08:26It feels like I'm in the best version of the coolest, sexiest hotel.
08:32One of my favorite rituals in here, which was really unexpected to me,
08:37is just that these are my lights and I get to do this.
08:42It's just really sweet.
08:43And it's actually a really nice way to end the day.
08:47I love this little moment here too.
08:49This couch moment.
08:50It's vintage.
08:51They had it reupholstered in a perfect pink.
08:54And it's another thing that I've seen something like this in a movie before.
08:59You can have a bed and a couch in the same room and you can be drinking coffee, looking outside.
09:05This photograph right here is sourced from one of my favorite vintage stores in Kansas City, Urban Mining.
09:11I don't know her, but I do think she adds to this whole paint me like one of your French girls moment.
09:17One cool thing about having a big indulgent closet is that you get to indulge every part of you.
09:32And I get to have this whole row of all my Chiefs and Kansas City Royals.
09:40This custom jacket that my friend made for the Super Bowl last year.
09:45I mean, yeah, it's a whole lot of Chiefs stuff, but I love you too, Royals.
09:49I have this great vintage perfume sign from Glenwood Antiques.
09:53And that was a super special find.
09:55It lights up.
09:56This was my dad's robe.
09:58And he gave it to me right when I bought this house because he was like, this is the vibes of your house.
10:04This is the life that you should be living.
10:06And I kind of say to guests, bring a robe.
10:09Like we're all chilling out in the pool in silks, things that look like this.
10:13This is I want everybody slinky and sexy and feeling themselves.
10:17This coat was really special to me.
10:19I actually got to go to the Olympics in Paris this summer with my good friend, Ego, that I work with.
10:25And she rocked this jacket and I don't even rock it.
10:30I just hang it.
10:31So thank you, Ego.
10:32So basically this whole closet, this moment was to honor my mom, Ernie, who I think just had the most fun closet ever when I was growing up.
10:41Her and her friends, instead of doing Tupperware parties, they would do lingerie parties.
10:45So in her closet, which was half the size of this or a quarter of the size, it would be all her and her friends trying on nighties and negligees and little slippers like that and just having the best time in the world.
10:58So I want my friends' kids to be able to come here, play in the vanity like I did when I was a little girl, try everything on, like everything's easy access.
11:07And I'm just living my best life in this closet.
11:11We're in the primary bathroom and I've got this beautiful pink marble in here, a floating vanity mirror.
11:26And also this isn't just a mirror this way.
11:29Outside, you can check yourself out out there too.
11:32Okay, so once you come around here to this really cool shower moment, then you have this beautiful bathtub.
11:38And I remember early on, like one of my friends talking to me about like, well, do you really want a sliding glass door from the outside into your bedroom where like your guests could go into your bathroom?
11:52And I was like, yeah, if I have a shower and a bathtub like this, I want my guests to enjoy it too.
11:58Like, do whatever you want in here.
12:00It's cool.
12:03This room has had a lot of different names that went from an office to a media room to now what I like to call it a snug.
12:23Because I do feel like this room is totally transportive from the rest of the house.
12:30One room where we just got to get real flamboyant and fun with it.
12:34But that came with a cost.
12:36This is Gucci wallpaper and it's not reasonably priced, but I'm really happy with the splurge.
12:42I also splurged and put a cat tree in here.
12:45It's kind of got like Dr. Seuss vibes, which I think works with the wallpaper.
12:49I come in here, watch some television.
12:52It's the only room right now with the television.
12:55I think it's very funny to tailgate and watch a Chiefs game in this space.
13:00There's also the glass doors on this side and this side.
13:05So you can be inside, outside, you can be barbecuing.
13:08There can be a smoker.
13:09We can be tailgating.
13:11So even though this room is official Chiefs tailgate party room, it also has its little office moment where I do writing.
13:20And I got to put some of my keepsakes on the shelf.
13:25This panther was given to me by my dad.
13:28And then this vintage sketch that he had.
13:30He's just one of those people that just has cool stuff.
13:33And then I have this wonderful photograph of my Bampo.
13:37I call my grandpa my Bampo.
13:39He's no longer with us, but you know, just rock of the family.
13:44And also like, who looks like that?
13:46I feel like the only other guy that looked that steely and cool was Elvis.
13:50I feel like I have an Elvis for a grandpa.
14:03This space is definitely the biggest reminder to me that I am away from New York and away from work and truly getting to relax.
14:14Jumping in the water every day is so healing.
14:16I completely took it for granted when I was a little kid.
14:19Totally redid the pool.
14:20It's got a really cool custom tile job around the ledge.
14:26Also, I have this amazing boulder fire pit, which feels just like Midwestern and cozy.
14:33This whole outdoorscape is another Boogie Nights homage.
14:38I love that you can just like have your cocktail and travel from the indoors and the outdoors in your suit, in your robe.
14:46Feel free.
14:47Like I said, I want people just feeling themselves.
15:01Thank you, A.D., for coming by.
15:03You're welcome to come back to Kansas City anytime you want and stay with me and John Ross.
15:07I have to feed him. Bye!