Design Reveal: Working W/ Previous Owners Choices

Hello, hello! One of my favorite activities, and my husband can attest to this, is heading to Georgetown to walk the neighborhoods above M Street. The architecture, history, hidden gardens, colorful doors, elaborate stone churches and landscaped parks with cobblestone paths make for a completely enchanting experience. Georgetown is charming and I would highly recommend a visit if you’ve never been. When this client and her husband found out they were expecting, they knew they needed some more room, and an unexpected gem popped up in the most magical neighborhood just north of Georgetown.

With little time to spare before their due date, we got right to work! The previous owners of this home had a distinct style and left behind all the bold window treatments and bedroom wall colors. My clients opted to keep these elements more out of convenience than personal preference, so I worked them in with a completely fresh vision.

Living room before (as seen in the listing)

Living room plan (with client feedback)

I offer every client 3 drafts for each room we work on together. I knew this first draft above was pretty bold, so I was surprised they loved it! The only edit was swapping the chairs, which was an easy switch!

In the clients inspiration I noticed they were drawn to warm colors. Absolutely none of the inspiration they shared included a gold and rust color scheme, however. These curtains are indeed a statement, but rather than tone everything else down, I decided to lean in and match their saturation with dark rust toned chairs, and then pepper in some blush and terracotta tones.

This is by far one of my favorite living rooms! I never would have chosen these curtains if we were working with a totally blank slate, so working with them pushed me towards a design that is so outside the box. I love the vibrant energy this room exudes and how it is a well balanced combination of sophisticated and casual.

To pull off a design like this, every detail matters. The amber glass globe on the lamp, for example; it’s a small detail but it benefits the entire room far more than a clear glass option!

Let’s head to the kitchen, where the previous owners also left several choice elements behind!

Dining room before (as seen in the listing)

We’ve got a full teal kitchen as you can see above, and that influenced much of the direction I went with color palette on this floor of their home. They also left behind the dining light fixture, which was great because we loved it. I also really felt like the banquette was genius and decided to do the same in the design of the dining room.

I continued the color palette from the living room here in the dining room as these two spaces are completely open to each other:

Dining room plan

With a homerun at draft 1, the design moved forward!

Again, there is a beautiful balance here of grown-up sophistication with family friendly ease.

Finishing this reveal is the sweetest of nurseries!

The previous owners had painted this room (walls and ceiling - a brave choice!) in this peachy apricot clay tone. They left behind these gorgeous aqua floral curtains with splashes of coral flowers. Expecting a baby boy, my clients opted to ditch the curtains but keep the wall/ceiling color. To be completely honest, I stressed about this wall color and how to make it work for a little boys room - but not for long!

Nursery plan

I decided to keep all surrounding colors saturated - a vintage rug in deep chocolate brown, curtains in a rich forest green, a crib sheet in a dark rust - no more soft baby colors! With a room totally wrapped in a shade like this, I wanted to strike some serious balance by adding depth with the surrounding elements.

That’s a wrap! Thank you so very much for coming by to check this project out today. I hope you enjoyed it!

Design Reveal: Colorful Family Room

Hi friends! My first wrapped project to share with you for 2025 is one that started almost one year ago! When the client contacted me last February and we chatted about her project, I was immediately excited to get started! Aside from the fact that I connected with her amazing style, I really resonated with the context of this one: Her kiddos are officially past young toddler stage, and she was ready for her home to reflect that. I love that so much. I am very familiar with that hope of reclaiming our home a tiny bit after all the baby gates and high chairs were packed and donated away. While the closing of the baby and toddler chapter was a hard one for me, I did feel a sense of excitement about having a bit more freedom in how we could use our home moving forward. This project represented that hope for this family and it was such an honor to come alongside to work towards that together.

Here is where we started:

Some of the feedback I’ve received on Instagram is that it would be helpful to see more of the process behind a design, especially in regards to things I tried, things that didn’t work, etc. So below is the very first iteration of this space that I created along with the feedback I received from this client. I offer every client 3 drafts for each space they hire me to design with them, so their feedback is really important for getting it exactly right. 9.9/10 times we rarely need the third draft because the feedback from the first informs all the right edits for their perfect design!

Once I started on the edits for this design based on her feedback above, things started falling into place really well. Loved the alternative rug, but since it didn’t work with the original sofa so well, I went for a lighter chambray blue. Some of the minor details were further tweaked at the end, but we pretty much stuck to this second design in implementation:

And here is how that final digital design above came to life!

There is a tremendous amount of joy - close to giddiness! - that happens when I see a project in real life. It’s not just the time poured in, but the passion and hope for what could be.

This room feels like a sunset! While it’s a level up in sophistication from where we started, it’s still incredibly casual and family friendly. We chose performance fabrics for both the sofa and chair so food and drink spills aren’t a concern. The coffee table is cement and not only easily wipeable, but I’ve heard it’s climber friendly as well ;)

Reserving open floorspace for play and piling on pillows for movie night was another priority in here - I’ll spare you the boring digital floorplan rendering, but I played around with multiple sizes of sectionals, coffee tables and accent chairs to make sure there was a really comfortable flow about this space.

Well that’s a wrap! Thank you so much for popping over to check out this first design of 2025! I really appreciate having a space and community to share this most fun work with. There are 3 more projects on this ones tail that I’ll be photographing this month, so this is just the beginning! Back soon, friends!

A Christmas Home Tour

There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.

-Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Dear friends, whatever kind of day you’re having as you stumble across this little blog, I hope you have yourself a good laugh at some point! It’s become common for my family to hear me declare around the house that “laughing’s my favorite!” (stolen from Elf, “I just like to smile, smiling’s my favorite”). 2024 has been a multifaceted year, like every year always is. There were rough parts and splendid parts, often simultaneously! It’s been my experience for a long time now that laughter is simply therapeutic, and I often consider it one of God’s sweetest gifts to us.

Laughter, and sunsets!

Look how those kids have grown! We indeed have three full fledged teenagers under our roof now. This season of our life has taken off, ready or not. I remember when my kids were really young and I’d see parents out with teenagers, and the parents always looked so sad/grumpy. Now I get it. It’s an unbelievable undertaking and honestly, very little return. Or rather, the return is TBD. A very gracious friend recently told me the words I just needed someone to say out loud: “You are indeed in one of the most intense seasons of parenting times 3!”

Is it making more sense why laughter is so near to my heart? It’s kept me afloat! We laugh a lot as a family. Seeing my teenagers, who by the very nature of being a teenager are more prone to taking themselves seriously, seeing them laugh? It’s all I need. And it’s such a tender reminder to me of how the Lord provides.

Which leads me to this tour I’ve been looking forward to sharing with you today! This house…it’s hard to express the depth of gratitude and thanks we feel for this place we’ve rooted for the past 14 years. Knowing nothing of the neighborhood, schools, or town, we settled in 14 years ago because it was what was available in our budget. Figuring we’d move after 3 years, we didn’t even drive up or down the street to check out the neighborhood, as most sensible new parents would do. All these years later, our neighbors feel like part of our family, and this town an extension of our home. This house is where I began my unintentional career in design, playing with paint colors, moving furniture around, folding in different styles. It was a blank canvas and one I constantly worked on out of curiosity. But now, it’s the calming backdrop to a whole lot of life happening! We are constantly in and out, and any extended time here feels like a true gift of rest.

So come on in and let me show you around! And while I do, I’m just going to pepper in some light-hearted ‘tips’ I’ve picked up in this season of life raising teenagers.

Parenting Teenagers Hack 1: You’re worth your effort, too. Put on an outfit you feel good in, get the tube of lipstick in ‘your color’, paint your nails. This season of parenthood can beat you down. Whatever helps you keep your chin up is worth it.

Link to my new favorite pants (I got in black and noir red)

When we decorated our home for the holidays this year, it was most satisfying to use only what we have. I’ve really enjoyed collecting festive touches throughout our marriage, and feel like we have about as much as our home can hold now. I want our home to feel like our home, just a little ‘extra’. What I don’t want is to feel overwhelmed by clutter that has to get packed up in a few weeks. For some people, that doesn’t stress them out and I really admire that! Sometimes envy it. But what is really fun for me is using what we have in new ways!

Parenting Teenagers Hack 2: Use interactive games as decor! Our coffee table always has something to do together. Previously, it was a gorgeous marble checkerboard with carved wood game pieces. Now it’s this ring toss game. You wouldn’t believe the amount of impromptu pick-up challenges that happen! Planned family games are a little harder to come by these days, so activities like this out in the open are really fun. They’ll get used!

Ring toss game

When Matt was pulling our Christmas decor boxes out of the attic, he pulled down a big black hefty bag full of pillow covers I forgot I had. He asked if we could get rid of them and I said no. So then I felt like I had to use them, which is how we ended up with pillows in our dining room. Ha! But I love, love, love the cozy, velvety layer they add and the pop of rusty copper orange.

I don’t usually do centerpieces. I find them in the way when we sit down as a family. But I was intrigued this year to make our table feel a little more special from the normal. We’ve always been a family dinner around the table household, but this year has been more challenging to do that with our various schedules. It’s been a real treat to sit down around this table as a family and light the candles around this centerpiece. It’s not in the way, and it’s made family dinners last a little longer I think. And I used some wreaths I’d made a few years ago in this centerpiece rather than on the walls, and I much prefer them used this way!

Parenting Teenagers Hack 3: Even if it's infrequent, making your family dining table feel like a special treat to sit around goes a long way. I’ve noticed our sit-down meals feel like a richer, fuller experience together when we are able to sit around this table. And I have no idea if this is has anything to do with it, but I light the candles every time we sit down to eat.

Pretty tapered candles (I love the colors of these!)

Parenting Teenagers Hack 4: Similar to the interactive table games like the ring toss, don’t stop using the whimsical pieces your kids loved when they were little. Let them experience the nostalgia of seeing those things out; they may not say anything or engage with them as they once did, but it still honors sweet memories they may have.

Wooden JOY train

Parenting Teenagers Hack 5: Claim your bedroom and make it what you need to find rest. Parents of teens get precious little time together. Similar to the idea behind the dining table centerpiece, make your room a special retreat so the time you do get feels like a gift. It doesn’t take much; small touches can be such a joyful addition to a room.

Dried floral bouquet

That’s a wrap! I’ve so missed sitting here and writing to you and hope to make more time for it in 2025! Design has never been a topic I’ve wanted to detach from family life and motherhood, and I love pulling the two together and sharing from that unique perspective.

I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and hope your holiday season is truly filled with joy and laughter.