home HABITAT
MAKING ROOM FOR A HOME Nick Collison’s Nichols Hills nest BY CHRISTINE EDDINGTON PHOTOS BY DON RISI
N ICK COL L ISON, the longest-tenured member of the OKC Thunder, freely admits he watches perhaps a little more than his fair share of HGTV. “I like ‘Fixer Upper,’ ‘Flip or Flop,’ ‘Property Brothers’ … I also watch ‘Grand Designs’ on Netflix,” he says. The latter is British, often features unique or really challenging design projects and has
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Functional and elegant an extremely loyal audience around design in the kitchen the world. and dining room includes Over the past two years, Collison plenty of natural materials: Warm woods, has collaborated with designer dining chairs covered Valerie Helgeson on creating a comin a subtly patterned walnut-colored fabric and fortable, beautiful home that suits his a simple arrangement masculine, minimal aesthetic. “In the of succulents co-exist past, I would view the homes I would beautifully in the glow of Edison-style industrial rent during the basketball season light bulbs encased in as temporary,” he says, “but I spend blown-glass cloches. most of the year here, and it became important to me to have a place that is mine. It also gave me a project, and it was something I really got into.” The home, with its light-filled great room and backyard oasis, is a perfect refuge for Collison, his 11-year-old daughter Emma and their 12-year-old Boston Terrier Morty. It’s also roomy enough for the extended Collison clan to enjoy during their frequent visits to Oklahoma City, and for the holiday gatherings they all enjoy. Collison also keeps a home on Lake Washington in Seattle, where he and Emma spend their summers. During the intensity of basketball season, Collison is lucky if he gets two or three full days a month to himself, and his home – with its tree-filled lot, sparkling pool, spacious pool house