Design Reveal: Family Home for Life to Happen

Well hello there! It is such a treat to get to share this home with you today - I got to work with the sweetest of friends and realized very quickly how kindred we are. After nearly a decade in their home, they came to the decision to stay put and continue investing in the roots they’ve sewn in their neighborhood and community. It’s a very similar story to what led Matt and I to add on to our home last year after 13 years in our house. Life is beautiful when we open ourselves up to the possibilities God has for us; I can think of no greater adventure!

My first reaction during the initial walk through was how heavy the home felt. The dark neutrals with very little contrast just made their main floor feel weighty. They desired something lighter, airier, and more conducive for their love of gathering friends and family.

Family Room

When all the elements in a home are of similar color and saturation, everything melds together and can look heavy. One of the biggest things we did was paint! Getting the walls a fresh, clean white allowed the colors we used throughout to really stand out!

Not the first fireplace I’ve re-imagined without a total overhaul. The ornate mantle was removed and replaced with gorgeous wood, and the ‘fluted’ sides were covered with a quarter strip of drywall and painted.

These clients gravitated toward a somewhat coastal color palette, specifically teal, coral, blush, mustard. To anchor this palette, the area rug makes for a vibrant element in the room that allows a lot of flexibility in branching off with surrounding textile colors.

I’ve really never gravitated to heavily filled mantles, but do enjoy using interesting pieces and balancing the visual weight!

While this family room really feels light and airy, using a variety of textures, materials and wood tones makes it feel so warm and inviting! Mixing pieces lends to such a casual vibe and I love the contrast among the main players in here.

Ready to see the pink dining room peeking around the corner?

Dining Room

The paint alone completely transformed this space. I mean, I feel that way with the entire home, but in here it’s incredible the difference! I chose the paint color first, fully recognizing what a massive risk it might be to recommend pink. But it totally works! It’s definitely unexpected and fun. We’re not taking ourselves too seriously here, which I just love.

Living Room

In this space I essentially wanted to swap the color on the wall for color in the furnishing! As you see this room right off the front entrance, using a stunning, but neutral wallpaper, with a vibrant teal velvet sofa and rich leather ottoman couldn’t be a better mix to draw you deeper into this home!

That’s a wrap! I always feel sentimental when a project is completely finished, but my motto over the years has become ‘a finished room is a new beginning’. My part is done, and now these rooms are ready for life to happen in all its wild and beautiful forms. Thank you so very much for coming by to check this project out! I’m grateful for you.

Addition Reveal: Master Bathroom

How is it that it feels like we are in the thick of Summer, and at the same time school feels like it’s right around the corner?? Time definitely does not wait for us to spend our seasons how we would like, does it! For this reason I have been much slower to share finished rooms in our home than I had planned. As our kids get older Summertime looks different than how it used to - these young humans are now excitedly making their own big plans, like biking to 7-Eleven for slurpees with friends, or spending an entire day planning and executing a variety of trick-shots throughout the neighborhood. These are good days, they just involve me a little less. It’s an interesting balance as a Mom of older kids/young teens to be present and available to them, but not waiting around and watching your own life pass by.

I am incredibly thankful for the passions God led me to discover when I was a young Mom. It was such a time of revelation for me and one thing that came from it is this business I so enjoy! Helping others truly love the home they are in is a gift to my heart. It’s creative and connective, both which add so much color to this life!

Adding on to our home has been a steep learning experience. The number of decisions felt endless not too long ago! The master bathroom was a space I anticipated having a lot of detailed decisions to make, but in real time ended up not being as stressful as I thought. We had a loose idea of what we wanted the bathroom to feel like, and when it came time to decide on each element, that idea was really useful for basing each decision.

I wanted to use a variety of organic textures in this space so the room as a whole would just feel soft and peaceful. The stone tile floor and the wicker linen/towel cabinet were two elements I was most excited about and wanted to build around.

The vanity was a tough one because I was hoping to find something in natural wood. After a lot of research it was apparent that it just didn’t fit our budget, so I took a gamble and went with this matte black piece instead and absolutely love how it turned out! Keeping the remaining elements simple and understated maintain that soft, organic feel. I even sprayed the original yellow-gold hardware on the vanity black so it would just be visually simple and unfussy.

After spending 12 years not even being able to fit in our bathroom at the same time (literally - Matt and I are used to waiting outside the door for the other to be finished because it was the size of an airplane bathroom), this space is a new experience! Tremendously grateful for the opportunity to add this space to our home and to even enjoy the details that we got to pick together! Matt and I discovered we are both VERY decisive when we are tired of walking tile aisles, and that our capacity to look at tile is about 45 minutes. Hah!

I’m thinking our Rec Room will be the next to share on here! Another very collaborative project with Matt which makes it that much more special. Thank you so much for stopping by today! You make these finished projects that much more fun to celebrate.

Room links

Vanity
Vanity Faucets
Mirrors
Lights
Shower Tile (with gray grout)
Shower Faucet
Bathroom Floor (with white grout)
Wicker Cabinet
Wall paint: Snowbound by Sherwin Williams

Room designed by us, built by Veterans Next Mission

Addition Reveal: Shire's Room

It might be a long time until our Addition Reveal series is done, but I am so stinkin glad we are on this end of the project! To have rooms we can start making our own now that the heavy construction is done is almost overwhelming. We are so proud of all the work that went in to this little house. We spent so many years imagining this, to one year ago actually producing drawings to follow, to now walking through the very hallways and rooms as we laid them on paper. This feels like a once in a lifetime experience and we are just in awe of how incredible everything has turned out!

While we still have work ahead of us, the first rooms of our newly imagined 3-5 year house 12 years later are coming to a finish. The kids’ rooms had the least impact of this reno so they’ve been closing in hot as they’ve been the easiest to work in amidst the rubble elsewhere.

Shire is a gal amongst the boys. She’s incredibly tough yet has such a gentle spirirt. Patient for days, she is a natural and gifted teacher who loves seeing others blossom. She prefers going against the grain of trends and doing her own thing, which makes her a magnet for all kinds of people. She loves easily, forgives quickly and is generous with her service to others.

Shire is different from me in ways that I thoroughly enjoy, (and am grateful for), but we share the same sense of humor. Laughing together can bridge many differences, and she and I can really get rolling with no turning back pretty often. It’s just the best!

So what does Shire’s personality have to do with this room? Absolutely everything! Shire is walking sunshine, but she is not flashy or desiring of attention. Her room strikes that unique balance as well. It’s happy without overwhelming - it draws you in closer and makes you want to stay, just like Shire has the ability to do. It’s a peaceful room with details on which you want to linger because they’re unique and interesting.

We are a family of very diverse personalities and I love when a homes spaces can reflect that. Our three kids rooms are as unique as each kid, and I love pulling out those characteristics that make them who they are and working those in through the elements used in each room! This is precisely what I love so much about design and why I’ve grown a business from it for the past 7 years.

Thank you so much for taking the time to check out this very special first room of our Addition series! Very grateful for this little corner of the web to celebrate these milestones with, and I so appreciate all of your encouragement. And a very special thanks to my sweet friend, Meredith, for coming over on a whim to help get this room together! She has helped me before and I love hear heart for creating spaces that reflect a persons unique personality. And she’s only just graduated high school so huge future ahead for her!