In 2021, Mason McCulley, an actor, felt stuck in Los Angeles as he watched his mother’s health decline in Birmingham, Ala., from afar.
“Life was dark,” said Mr. McCulley, 42, noting that his mother was suffering from frontotemporal dementia. “I was avoiding my mother’s illness and her impending death, and I was drinking way too much.”
After spending 20 years in Los Angeles, Mr. McCulley, whose recent acting credits include an appearance on the HBO Max streaming series “The Pitt,” decided to at least take a look at Birmingham real estate.
He scheduled a tour of a condominium apartment that was rumored to be a former ballroom in a building from 1924, and as soon as he walked in, he was smitten. The unit had a ceiling that soared to 15 feet and grand, divided-lite windows offering plentiful sunshine and leafy views. It immediately seemed like a place he could picture himself living.
“It was such a magical place that it forced me, in that moment, to go home,” Mr. McCulley said. “I hoped it would give me a sense of place and help me find myself again.”
He closed on the 1,615-square-foot unit that November for $775,000. The interior had already been renovated by Andrew Brown, a designer in Birmingham, and Mr. McCulley liked what he saw, including floors painted with a geometric blue-and-black pattern, living room walls covered in antiqued mirror and floor-to-ceiling drapery. He decided to keep the bones of the apartment as they were, along with the existing chandeliers, kitchen and primary bathroom.
But to furnish the apartment and add his own whimsical sense of style, he called on Danielle Balanis, an interior designer based in Birmingham, who had decorated a friend’s apartment.
“Her perspective and vision was so unique, bold and unapologetic,” Mr. McCulley said, and he hoped she could help make his new home look absolutely original. “I was excited to see what we could create in the space together,” he said.
Ms. Balanis was up for the challenge. “He really wanted to bring the magic in,” she said, noting that using family heirlooms and quirky finds was part of the brief from the beginning. “It was all about layering.”
Ms. Balanis split the generous living room into three sections. At the center of the room is an antique dining table with a circular top, which has three leaves that allow it to expand into an expansive dining surface for dinner parties.
At the ends of the room, she created two separate seating areas. One is wrapped by tall, leafy tropical plans, antique bird cages, cement statuary and an urn Mr. McCulley acquired from The Garage, a restaurant in a space that used to serve as a garage for his building.
The other seating area has a sofa flanked by a pair of taxidermy peacocks on pedestals, which they found at Creel and Gow. On an adjacent mirrored wall, Mr. McCulley installed a salon-style arrangement of artworks using Command strips, including numerous pieces depicting the actress Carole Cook, who died in January 2023. Ms. Cook was Mr. McCulley’s friend, creative collaborator and muse.
Each sitting area also has a large-scale painted portrait. “They show my grandfather and my great-grandfather,” Mr. McCulley said. “Those actually hung in St. Vincent’s hospital, which is not too far from my condo, because they were both chief of surgery.” But when the hospital was undergoing renovation, the portraits were taken down and offered to the family.
To highlight an arched opening to the entrance hall, Mr. McCulley asked his artist friend Krista Machovina to create a custom mural, which she painted in Los Angeles and shipped to Birmingham for installation.
“She created my story,” Mr. McCulley said, by painting a heron that represents his mother, who died in May 2023, along with a green canoe she used to paddle in the Muskoka region of Ontario, Canada. A peacock represents Ms. Cook.
In Mr. McCulley’s bedroom, they painted the walls and ceiling glossy peacock blue before adding more eclectic art. The walls were previously white, “but I’m a big fan of a dark, moody bedroom,” Ms. Balanis said. Above the headboard, they hung a pair of artworks Mr. McCulley painted. At the foot of the bed, they added a chinoiserie table that formerly belonged to Ms. Cook.
Now, Mr. McCulley and Ms. Balanis exchange text messages almost daily, as they continue to hunt for more pieces to populate the apartment, such as an early 20th century circus banner Mr. McCulley recently bought in Toronto. So far, he estimated, he has spent about $75,000 on the decoration.
The expense has been worth it, Mr. McCulley said, because the interior is now so personal that it also inspired the stage design for his autobiographical play, “Carole Cook Died For My Sins,” which opened in Los Angeles last fall and will appear at Birmingham’s Virginia Samford Theatre this September.
“The set of the play is based on my condo,” Mr. McCulley said, “because it looks like the world inside my head.”
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