It happened slowly, then all at once. When we first revealed the pantry, we barely lived in the house, and I had no idea how much I’d cook or entertain here. Turns out it’s a lot (which is wonderful), and therefore the needs of “the hardest working room” expanded quickly (and messily). It is not only a dumping ground for school stuff (piles of notebooks) or hiding quick mess during parties, but Brian and I have become quite the collectors of counter appliances that we actually use. And while putting them on the stairs down to the basement seemed like a fine idea at first (“we barely use this!” we said), not when you actually use it 1-2 times a week. So slowly, I’ve removed the pretty things to make room for what we need – food, my ever-growing supplement library, and appliances.

Styled – 2023

When I saw this shot recently as the opener to a blog post about staying organized, even I was like, “Whoa, this is not a real person’s pantry”. But at the time (3 years ago), we didn’t have the inventory we have now. First, the tall oils needed a home, then the bags of vitamins, then the larger platters and bowls we pull out for most parties. Every few months, I would reorganize (always so messy) and take pretty but rarely used stuff out to the prop garage, making room for actual life.

Real Life – 2026

TOP SHELF: Let me walk you through the changes. Top left is random stuff (including some Brez, which I order online – a 2.5 mg THC drink that is a great weekend wine replacement and super light), then all my protein, creatine, and Gruns vitamins (spoiler, some kids love these, mine do not, but I like them). My slow cooker (love), and platters we pull for parties.
LOWER SHELF: Peanut butters/honey/syrup, dog treats, panini press (kids love these sandwiches), basket for some treats out of reach of kids. Then the air fryer (weeknight chicken strips), which we can plug in below and not even move it down, and the Instant Pot (weekly hard-boiled eggs).
COUNTER: We try to keep this as clear as possible. It has our house alarm keypad, a couple of cutting boards, our bread box (which indeed has our bagels and bread in it), and our $18 toaster that could probably use an upgrade, but we’ll use it til it breaks.

What We Didn’t Change: Three Years Ago

This wall has remained very similar to how we styled it originally, mostly because it’s a sightline that you see from entering the house and while in the kitchen, so it has to look really pretty, or it would bum me out on a daily basis. I love our decanted jars (and for the most part keep up with them). Naturally, the pretty apron and broom were crowded out by the one billion coats that you need in Oregon. Here’s what it looks like now:

I obviously needed a place for that incredible vintage still life painting of pears and figs (on that red and white tablecloth? SHUT UP). That pitcher full of pretty wood spoons is for my own visual pleasure, which I’m comfortable with admitting in public 🙂 I added more jars of decanted beans and lentils (hot tip: keep the bag folded up inside of it so you know what it is and how to make it), and then there are more bowls and cookbooks as I add to my collection.

This is the exact sight line from the kitchen door where almost everyone enters through our house, so while the walls on the left and right can be totally disgusting, the back wall has to remain clean and pretty (Or I need to put a door on this room, which is not on my five-year plan).

What About The Drawers??

These drawers look far more real than they did. I originally designed them to have that gap so that we could put potatoes and onions in them, or just have them easy to access. But it’s just bags of popcorn and chips. The gap doesn’t bother me, but would I do it again? Dunno. This is the first time I’ve thought about it 🙂

Coffee Bar Side – Styled 3 Years Ago

Now good news is that while I haven’t used one scoop of that fancy ass tea I bought to style out this shoot, this side is pretty much the same. Sure, we have more to-go coffees and the plant is now dead (RIP), but it’s almost exactly the same (sorry, we didn’t re-shoot it).

A quick shout-out to the hidden cheap microwave – if you are designing a kitchen soon, I highly suggest this instead of something more built-in. I’ve heard too many stories about the microwave breaking, and then what? This allows us to have a mediocre microwave that works just fine (mostly to reheat coffee and make popcorn).

While there are some rooms I do like to keep looking pretty, this one just stopped making sense, and once I started the transformation, I let her rip. It’s wildly more functional (especially using the appliances actually in the pantry and not even needing to bring them out). I suppose a door on this pantry would make a massive difference, but I know what would happen – I would use it even more as a dumping ground when people come over, a “don’t even look in here” room of shame. 🙂

*Photos by Kaitlin Green

When it comes to choosing permanent materials, I take my risks carefully. I have to really love the style or visual aesthetics of something to sacrifice function. Our kitchen island is the perfect example – would a big “engineered stone topped newly made cabinet island” function “better” than our all wood vintage store counter turned island? What we did was far more expensive, complicated to design (we added the overhang and had it stained to match), and yeah, the drawers are heavier and kinda stick. But this island brings me joy every day, and I’m honestly never annoyed at the wear and tear or the stickiness – I bought into those years ago, mentally. But not everything needs to be “the moment,” and if I’m not super passionate about something aesthetically, I err on the side of function/durability, easy to clean, cheaper, or simply “the easiest thing to do” (yes, designers make that choice ALL the time, too). Take our painted stairs for instance – not stunning, but totally good enough and saved us thousands from having to patch, stain, and repair the OG wood stairs that were in terrible condition that you can’t even notice through the paint. This brings me to the reclaimed wood walls in the guest cottage…

The wood paneling in the cottage is one of the things that I’m willing to spend more on to keep or even add to. The living/kitchen shared space is such a pretty wood on the walls and ceiling, with a lot of imperfections (as you can see) that will be stripped and sanded to be uniform, then we’ll figure out about staining/sealing it. We aren’t considering painting it. WE LOVE IT. The rooms that are already painted (the old prop room and the stairway/upstairs) will get repaired and painted (not stripped and stained). We are still figuring out flooring, so stay tuned on that.

Today’s discussion is trying to get vintage or reclaimed wood to match the OG bathroom wall.

The Guest Cottage “New Bathroom” Walls

That wall is so dang pretty. It’s 5″ tongue and groove (likely old-growth fir or some other softwood species), and while it has a ton of variation, I think once it gets some TLC, it would look pretty uniform. It’s exactly what I want. But it’s the only finished wall. The other three walls are exposed and need insulation, electrical, etc and then would need to get fresh paneling – vintage or new.

So the question became: Is it possible to match the OG paneling on that wall for the other three walls and the ceiling? Or is this a fool’s errand? Will it cost way more than a new simple tongue and groove? Or should we partner with Stuga and put drift on the walls like we did in my favorite room at the river house? I want to do the more interesting thing (and admittedly, new wood would be far less charming), but I also don’t want to negate common sense in order to do it (and we’ll have a lot of other bigger moments in here anyway – i.e., the much-debated “outhouse” and handmade tile by yours truly).

Let’s Talk Numbers: How Much Do We Really Need?

The existing paneled wall is about 153 ft² (minus the door, it’s about 135). If we’re able to match that wall and panel the remaining three sides, we’ll need about 380 ft² with overage. If we include the ceiling, we’ll need to add another 200 ft² to the order (plus a little overage). If we redo the entire room in inexpensive paneling or if we’re unable to match the existing and want to start over with all matching reclaimed, all in, we need roughly 735 ft² (so let’s call it 750ft²). So to recap, just the three walls and ceiling would be around 600ft², but the entire room and ceiling would be 750ft².

That’s a decent amount of square footage. We needed to do some research, so Brian and I went to McGee Salvage, which has the most in town. And the owner, Tobey, was WONDERFUL.

Tobey Parsons. I love nothing more than meeting people who have been specializing in something for decades and are simply a wealth of experience and knowledge. When we went, we were exploring reclaimed wood flooring for the entire downstairs. We honestly didn’t fine anything that made sense (yet) but still exploring it. We plan on painting the flooring a pattern (since the walls are all wood) so it stopped making sense for us to splurge on reclaimed wood flooring.

His inventory was vast and fairly intimidating, but so exciting. He had a lot, and everything had a story. But we weren’t sure if any would directly match the wall we wanted to keep.

The thing is, I don’t want the “reclaimed wood” wall – you know what I’m talking about (see below). I want it to be uniform and have a pretty smooth grain. I want what is similar to the kitchen/living room in the cottage. I don’t want it to be a mix of different tones and grayed-out woods that look more cobbled together.

What I Don’t Want:

Now, it’s not that I don’t like that look ever, but it’s just not what I’m drawn to for this project. To be honest, I don’t even need reclaimed wood to get what I want (which is just a pretty wood-clad room), but I think it’s a nice way to use what we have, and then yes, use what the earth already made. Reclaimed wood inherently has more character (especially old growth that has such pretty grains and ring patterns). Not to mention the good energy – if you are into that sort of thing (which I am). I want wood that has lived a happy life – either happily in a forest treated with love or a former barn where life was lived (which is why I bought all my wood flooring for our house from Zena Forest Products – which, wait, I just realized I should probably consider for this project!). That’s not to say that I won’t use new wood from Lowe’s where it makes sense (that’s what we did in the Art Barn and the garage), but I love anything that holds a story more, which should surprise no one. I’m not super freaky about it, don’t worry, but I’m telling you it makes a difference in how your home feels to have vintage or storied pieces and finishes. Ok, enough of the woo woo stuff!!! Back to wood!

There was some wood that I totally fell in love with, but not enough square footage to meet our needs (the one on the right was so pretty though!). Other wood we liked would need to be sanded and planed, which is something we are considering, but it adds to the cost. When we first went, we didn’t know that we needed either 600 or 750 square feet, so it was more of an information-gathering session.

We pulled together all of these boards, which we thought maybe we could clad and then stain the same, so they had a bit of uniformity (the grain was really pretty), and it’s still something we are considering.

In general, like everything in life, the stuff that I was more drawn to was the most expensive ($8-$10 per linear foot), which will certainly add up. But listen, drywall isn’t on the table here, so it’s either reclaimed or new wood, and no, I’d much rather this room be all wood than paneled and painted (which would be cheaper). I’m open to also just doing what we did in the garage and art barn (just pine tongue and groove), but that seems like the less interesting choice.

I’ve given Tobey (McGee Salvage) our quantities now and am hoping that he can sort through what he has and give us some options. And then I hope those options make sense financially. I’m open to splurging on the wood if it’s stunning, but not if it’s just “good”. One benefit of doing reclaimed is that I think that Brian and I could potentially clad it ourselves since reclaimed is more forgiving than newer paneling – it tends to already have awkward cuts and lots of nail/screw holes, so mistakes are easily camouflaged (I would imagine that Brian and I would specialize in those).

So as of now, I don’t have the exact options for you, but I am also curious if any of you had experience in this or sources that might have the uniform quantity that we want (that makes sense on the walls – not 2″ reclaimed old gym flooring). I just want to be inspired by the beauty of the wood, not “ok great, yeah we can see if we can make this work”. So while the uniform quantity is important, the richness of the grain and the tone of the wood are really important to me. Any insight or ideas are much appreciated.

Over the holidays, anything “non-urgent” got moved to the back burner (or just put in the freezer, out of sight/mind). So, outside of partnership deadlines and timely end of year admin, I let myself indulge in my family and totally forgot that I had this adorably run-down house that needed my attention. But I’m back and so excited to keep this project moving (but don’t worry, you haven’t missed anything since this post). Today I want to walk you through a few bathroom ideas I’m VERY excited by, that are more fantasy than practical. It’s a big room, 12×16, so it’s going to be perhaps an oddly large bathroom with vaulted ceilings…and a urinal. Just having the basics (toilet, sink, shower) felt dinky and weird. So I’ve got some fun guest cottage bathroom ideas, and I wanted to share them…

Hoping to keep the paneling on one wall and find reclaimed wood to go around the rest of the room. I need 600 square feet (3 walls and ceiling). I have the vision of it clear in my head, but it’s hard to explain. It’s going to be rustic (but cohesive), with a side of “summer camp” due to the amount of wood, but with a cohesive color palette and fun tile and fabric. More to come on the materials.

Ok, so since the room is big and has high ceilings, I want to divide it up and do a “room within the room”. And since I’ve promised Brian a urinal, I want to put that and the toilet in its own room. There are, I’m sure, many ways that I can do this, but I have two main ideas that I love almost equally.

Toilet Room Idea #1: The “Outhouse”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Commune Design (@communedesign)

Ok, so picture this – a small, roofed room inside the paneled bathroom. It would be almost free-standing (grounded against the back wall) with double doors going into it. It could be shaped like an outhouse (but stretched out wide, for double doors and to fit the urinal). I can 100% picture it, and I have zero doubts about this, as odd as the idea sounds. It could be paneled and painted so it fits in the same world but pops off the wood walls (which we hope to match and keep).

I was heavily inspired by this bathroom, below, with the tiled toilet room and shower.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by BUCHANAN STUDIO®️ (@buchanan.studio)

What a totally delightful (and ballsy) design. This designer put two tiled rooms (with glass blocks, no less!) inside what seems to be more of an old-world bathroom.

One room is for the toilet and one for the shower. Now, while a tiled version of my “outhouse” would be incredible, I think the tile budget might be totally out of control if we did this. But I think it’s the best representation of this out-of-the-box, fantastical idea. Well done, Buchanan Studio! When we first saw it a few years ago, our “Watercooler” Slack channel was a-BUZZ. I know it’s controversial, but we all thought it was just a totally fascinating idea, executed so well.

Toilet Room Idea #2 – The “Through A Secret Armoire”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Colours of Arley (@coloursofarley)

I mean, I’ve always wanted to do this (who hasn’t). You walk in, and it’s just an unsuspectingly large armoire (flat roof, not pitched), and then you open it, and it has a toilet and urinal. What a delight! The only caveat with this is that in order for the toilet to fit with the right clearances, it needs to be pretty deep, which, from the side, would give itself away (no armoire is that deep). Most of the ones that I’ve found online steal space from the adjoining room, which we don’t want to do here. So while this idea is a 12 on the fun scale, I fear that the execution of it is more challenging. Not only do I need to either find a massive, beautiful armoire, OR make one, but I need to build it out to be at least 4′ deep, and I think it would stick so far out that it would look dumb.

Our First Renders…

My team is having so much fun using Spoak, so we created some elevations here to show you. Now it’s rough, but it hopefully demonstrates what I’m talking about enough to visualize it and either agree with me or not. Depending on the size of the fixtures we go with (toilet, urinal, sink), we might not be able to bump the structure out from the side wall like this, but I like how it looks with some breathing room if the spacing works out. The sink would likely be vintage (and possibly wall hung), and the water heater location is still TBD (and would have to be small), but we wanted to account for it (it’d likely be hidden within a faux cabinet).

When I was in the space, I mocked up the depth of the outhouse to be a lot more, but now I’m realizing it could be a lot less deep (toilets are about 30″ and front clearance needs to be 15″). But you have to account for framing, so I think we are at least at 60″ from the wall. There are a lot of things to troubleshoot (and build), and this whole idea might not work. But picture this – you are over in our yard at a big outdoor party, and you are told the bathroom is through “that door over there”. Then, when you walk in, you see this quirky room that says “restroom” or “toilet room” on impossibly cute stained glass doors. Then you open them and inside is your own private toilet and urinal (might need to figure out a privacy situation for the stained glass doors, lol…). Maybe it’s a tiled wall inside (or the OG paneling). Maybe a little sconce, too. How cute does that sound???

And Where Does One Shower?

Ok, we’ve got our toilet/urinal and sink covered, so where should the shower go? And what does it look like? Now this might not be a heavily used shower (at least not for many years), so again we can be more creative with it. I had two ideas bouncing around…

The “Floating” Circular Shower Pan

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by COLLAGERIE (@collagerie)

How fun is this?? I found this as I was researching how to do a shower without having to do all the hot mop shower pan waterproofing stuff (I was trying to avoid hiring out for that). What’s the least amount of “work” to get a shower without using a plastic insert (which I totally considered BTW and might be worth a blog post). So I found these images on Pinterest, which show exposed plumbing with shower curtains all the way around (no tile, no waterproofing walls) and what seems to be just a marble round shower pan on the floor (there are also cast iron claw foot versions). Now, would this possibly pass US bathroom code or inspections? I have no idea, but I’d bet not? But that didn’t stop me from spending no less than 5 hours planning out the bathroom with this in mind. Ultimately, I decided that future-proofing the bathroom by putting in a tub would be smart, which would shift this floating circular shower into the corner, in which case having it be round made less and less sense (I did find some corner quarter-round showers that were really fun, but started to feel a little too complicated).

Corner Shower With Chest Height Pony Wall

Ok then, I pivoted to doing a square or rectangular shower in the corner, but making it look more analog with a chest-height pony wall for privacy (and because I like the idea of a higher wall). And then above the wall, a super cute hanging curtain (almost like a cafe curtain, but that goes from the ceiling to the top of the pony wall), which gives me an opportunity to add a fun pattern/print and texture/softness. Fabric and tile are two of my favorite design elements, so I want to add them in as much as possible. I also love the idea of a column or some sort of decorative (and seemingly load-bearing) post or newel to add some architectural grounding (and for the paneling to butt into).

Here’s the birdseye view, which is not necessarily accurate yet but gives you a better idea of where everything is going to go. We might make the shower a rectangle, and we might do a floor-mounted faucet for the tub, etc (and pretend the sink inside the outhouse is a urinal). But I think it’s super helpful to see where we are headed.

Here’s where we left off. Since then, the framed floor has been started so that we can attach pipes to it for plumbing. But a lot left to consider:

1. Flooring – If all the walls and ceiling are wood paneling, then a tiled floor sure would be nice, but at 12×16, that’s a big floor, and tile is substantially more expensive to install than wood flooring. And we are planning on painting a pattern on the wood floor of the living/kitchen, so I don’t want to do the same in here, or it will be a circus house. We also might need to do under-floor heating in here, as we aren’t putting a Quilt mini split in this room. More to come.
2. Walls – So my goal is to find reclaimed wood that matches the tone of the wall that has beautiful existing paneling on it already (the wall where the outhouse would be). So far, I haven’t found it. It doesn’t need to be exact, and I don’t even mind if the width or profile is slightly different – it can look a bit hodgepodge, but I want the tone of the wood to be similar.
3. Windows – I think we are getting rid of the one on the far wall since it looks out to a fence and is frosted. I think we are going to put skylights in here anyway. We’ll keep the big picture window.
4. Framing – We have to frame the floor to be higher, so I’ll need to troubleshoot raising the door and creating some sort of step-up on the outside.

It’s pretty exciting, and now that my head is fully back on straight (dude, that holiday break killed me this year), I’m extremely excited to keep moving. Just need to get the plumber to respond to me 🙂

*Photos by Kailtin Green

I know that most of you today are scrambling towards the finish line and likely not here to read a long post. Hang in there. We are so close to the most magical week of the year – the days between Christmas and New Year’s, where the world goes quiet, and the high expectations are over. It’s a collective sigh and snuggle. So today is a quick progression of the holidays over the year. Perhaps it can remind you that decorating takes time, that you have to be in the mood to do it (I wasn’t in 2022), and that the internet is a rabbit hole of ideas that I promise you, you don’t need to do unless you want to. A big part of my job is to literally decorate my house and I have a team to help, so if you are any sort of comparison cycle (I get in to those, too) know that this isn’t normal and certainly not “effortless” (we are done with that word!) but maybe it can distract you or inspire you depending on what you need today. So here is the farmhouse throughout the years…

In 2022, we had just moved in (In August), and I just couldn’t get there with the holiday decor, but I did my best to add some bits of joy around. Seeing this post is fun because you can really see the evolution of the layers.

I LOVE this entry so much, and I finally felt like it got its moment in this shoot. We didn’t change a thing for 2024, so we didn’t shoot it, but then this year I added another layer or two.

…And I’m obsessed. I think the punch of the red in the throw and pillow, the glass bauble garland, and the plaid silk dupioni fabric just make it all come alive. I also think that we shot it later in the day, where the light was warmer, and I love it so much more. Kaitlin, you are a dream!

This is certainly more minimal but sweet (if not cold). This was before our house was furnished, so I kinda just put things in places for now.

GAH! I’m just now remembering that I have those awesome Schoolhouse stackable candles (similar) in the prop garage. Going to snag them today. This vignette was also sweet, but not really my favorite (that awesome French antique piece I got at Round Top just looked like a side of the road find over here, and I don’t know why!).

This year, we didn’t shoot that vignette on its own (it was cute, but not really worth the time). But you can see that I added lit greenery and some white villages.

I really loved this vignette and shot (and still do). I think I miss the boro fabric cafe curtain, but I also love how we did it this year:

There is something about the shot above that feels more intimate, but I think it’s just a tighter angle. I LOVE this chaise, rug, and Santa photo collection here. It’s certainly more “stuff” which I originally intended to have NONE of in this house (LOLOLOLOLOL) but turns out I like “stuff”, y’all.

In 2023 (and last year), I had our Santa photos all on this piece, but I love them in the gold frames more (they started in white frames at the mountain house, which worked well there).

Year one Christmas here didn’t feel as “me” as I wanted in the kitchen, and yet I look back here, and it’s still really pretty. It’s on the more minimal side (for the internet, this is ample for normal people).

The next year, I made it a bit more “me” and I really loved that ribbon combo and colors.

We didn’t shoot the kitchen this year, but you can see it in the background. The cafe curtains certainly add warmth. Gosh, I really love this color palette with the sofas! We switched them to our Green Alice’s for the holiday magazine shoot we just did, and it also looks good, but I think I love the lightness and soft colors of these sofas more.

In 2022, we had more placeholder furniture, and it looked sweet for sure. Also, the popcorn garland took hours and hours (and we had to cheat most of it for this shot). Paper chains for the win 🙂

I still can’t decide between this more bare, Scandinavian-style tree or the fuller one that we used in 2022 and this year (same tree). Brian prefers the fuller one, but the lights are a little cooler. I think I prefer the more Scandi one, but I can see that it might be more bare? Both are pretty great, though. It’s just a style preference.

Admittedly, 2025 looks warmer, a bit happier, which might be that it’s just more layered, a warmer glow with warmer colors. There is a lot more color variation and texture, which I love.

2022 looks a bit sad here, but it was also fine! 2023 looks more filled out, for sure, and yet…

There we go!! I mean, I thought it would look too “extra” because we just kept layering and layering, but nope. Just looks happy, playful, and warm.

2023 (and 2024) was really layered, too, but with way less warm tones and warm light, so it indeed felt colder. Especially when you compare it to…

We shot this later in the day, so we had to turn the lights on, and while this is typically a photo faux pas, I’m so into it (and I believe the trend is changing). Maybe it’s the fire and the pup 🙂

I hope you enjoyed a quick little memory lane tour. For me, it’s clear how I was feeling mentally every year:) It’s also clear that more layering is the way to go, with warmer colors. So we’ll see how this holiday magazine shoot turns out (I’m writing this the day before we are shooting, on the 16th). So which one do you like the most??

Opening Image Credits: Photo by Kailtin Green | From: Christmas In Our Home 2025 – Whimsy, Color, And Non-Traditional In A Really Cozy Way

Y’all. I don’t know how to describe it, but the design of this house is FLOWING out of me. My ideas are coming fast, and they are so fun, and I can barely contain my excitement. The other weekend, our kids were gone all day, and Brian was watching college football, so I tucked myself into my bed, threw on Sullivan’s Crossing (you don’t really need to pay attention, but it feels warm), poured myself a glass of white wine, and designed the hell out of the kitchen and bathroom. By 10 pm, I was almost done with the general look and feel and materials. I was almost sad that I was done because it was so unbelievably fun, and yet I loved my ideas so much that I really don’t need/want to rethink them. Everything clicked so fast, and I was in such a flow state. I always love the beginnings of a big project – the dreaming stage is full of possibilities and novelty. But the most fun ideas are usually nixed due to cost and practicality. So what makes this one different???

1. No one has to live here full-time. Therefore, I don’t need to think about where my kids will put their shoes, how well lit the kitchen needs to be during the winter, where we’ll watch TV, or how annoying it might be to not have big closets or a pantry. THIS HOUSE DOES NOT NEED TO BE PRACTICAL. 

My goodness, how much fun is that? I’m not saying I’m going to intentionally make it impractical, but I feel like I “practicalled” my way into having some less exciting rooms in my house (which I love and living in our house is a dream, honestly). Let me be clear – I BELIEVE strongly in practicality, especially for families and even more when you are spending your life savings on a renovation. I designed our home to function well for our family and dogs for decades (because if it doesn’t, the collective frustration is on me). I still tried to do a lot of special things (an impractical kitchen island, a repurposed dresser as a vanity, vintage doors with antique doorknobs that fall out constantly), real marble everywhere, but I really did think about practicality for our family ad nauseam. WELL NOT HERE!!! 

2. I can make more exciting choices. One of the reasons I often stay safe isn’t just because I don’t want to have to rip things out when they get dated (which I don’t), it’s that I can tire of looking at something bold (it’s an occupational hazard), and I’m fearful of acting on trends that I’ll regret. So in my own home or my brother’s, I didn’t want to do anything WILD that I would eventually wish was more timeless (for the hard finishes). I also avoid chaos at all times, including visual chaos, so keeping the color palette safe and quiet really helps. My approach has always been to play it timeless and more practical on hard finishes, go nuts with furniture/decor. Not saying that this should be yours, and certainly some of my favorite designers go nuts with tile in a way that I think is so inspiring, but hold back for whatever reason. 

For this house, I’m treating this more like a restaurant or hotel – it’s a place that we’ll experience, but not live 100% of our time inside. More novelty, surprise, boldness, excitement, because we won’t be in here all day, every day. 

Since we are DIY-ing a lot of the easier-to-do projects (painting, tiling, cabinet-making), I am giving myself permission to do the weirder, more custom thing (if I can actually do it, lol). For instance, typically an intricate tile configuration gets you in trouble with your tiler and a much higher quote/cost. This time I’m going to do it, which feels really freeing – I’ll be the one annoyed that I chose something hard, but that’s on me. It oddly feels less stressful than trying to convey to a contractor and then to a subcontractor that I want to do this weird thing. Maybe I’ll fail at it, but again, that’s all on me. 

3. There are no time constraints. No deadlines. No rush. Ironically, I think it’s going to go faster than I originally thought, but that’s because I’m excited, not because I’m being externally pressured to do things quickly. 

4. There is no general contractor that will understandably charge a lot, and likely tell me my idea is odd and expensive to execute (it might very well be, and I might be my own worst enemy). No invoices that make me nauseous and make me wonder if this was the right life choice. I’m forcing my brother to be my personal consultant, but that’s different than hiring a full-time contractor. Of course, I’ll be paying subs and buying materials, but it’s more on my terms, there is no markup, and it’s spread out over time. I can find the least expensive roofer in Portland if I want to (I won’t), and if they don’t do a great job, it’s on me.

5. There is no disruption to our family – it’s simply added value to our lives. My risks and mistakes will annoy or affect no one but me. If the kids don’t love their band room? They’ll live and have more grit (LOL). If Brian doesn’t love the tile behind his urinal? Pretty sure our marriage will survive.

6. We aren’t opening up or moving walls, which means I don’t have to decide the perfect electrical plan or miss an opportunity to plumb for a pebble ice maker or pot filler. The constraints of the remodel mean I don’t have as many annoying decisions to make. 

7. Brian has given me full creative control. I did have to promise that I wasn’t going to do totally weird things that I know he wouldn’t like (and remember, he is getting his precious urinal). I promised him he could help choose anything for the kids’ band/game room (pretty sure he just wants to pick out a pinball machine). And listen, designing your own home with your partner when you are a designer, and he is, well, a man, is never not challenging. We’ve tried different levels of involvement in different homes, and they’ve all led to a healthy amount of frustrations and celebrations on both sides. I love collaborating with him on life (25 years in and we’ve never been better), but no, not on design projects. So I begged for creative freedom on this one, and he hesitatingly granted it. He’s nervous. When I had the epiphany that things don’t need to be practical, I came out of my room screaming with excitement, which I think understandably scared the crap out of him that I might do some highly wack things…I promised him that yes, some will be unconventional, but they’ll be cool. And don’t come at me with the “you give him too much power, shouldn’t you have the right to do what you want as the designer?” No! I mean, I get that some of you might want me to be all-powerful but we are a 50/50 partnership, and I don’t tell him what to do or how things are going to go, and neither does he. It’s far more fun to communicate, compromise, and, plus, it avoids all the pitfalls of a power imbalance, even though, yes, I am the financial supporter. Just because I make the money does not mean I get to make more decisions – imagine if that were the opposite. When it comes to our home, we have mostly done them together, and I’m also really excited to have some creative freedom in this space. Watch out, Brian! This might end up being your favorite yet!!!

What Does This All Add Up To?????

LOW PRESSURE. 

It’s incredibly freeing. Of course, I still have the whole internet watching, but I don’t know – I’ve gotten so used to that part and have released the expectations from people that don’t know me. Of course, I want you guys to like it (I don’t consider you the “internet” – that’s Instagram). And I know that having a well-designed space is simply best for business (good design = more partnerships + more traffic), so I can’t just do weird things that look bad on camera or fail in a few months. I’m really hoping I can bring you into it in a way where you’ll feel invested. This just feels like a creative laboratory and is worthy of some mother-loving fun. 

I’m also fearful that my optimism right now might change, either due to internal or external forces. I’ve learned that anything can happen in this game, and we can’t predict anything. So I’m moving forward with the designs and feeling really, really excited.

I’m Using A New Design Program!

Oh, and I’m using this new design program that I can’t wait to show you, but it’s making this all sooooo much easier. As you know, I don’t have the rendering skills that most designers do (SketchUp, AutoCAD, even Photoshop), but I signed up for Spoak, and I’m having a BLAST. More to come, but it’s so freeing to be able to play with layout, materials, and even plumbing and electrical placement on my own, without having to rely on my team (or an outside contractor) to make tweaks. Highly recommend it if you have a design project, especially if you want things to be accurate and, like me, don’t have fancy rendering skills. It’s also very fun.

So What’s Next?

Well, I want to dial in the design some more, using the Spoak AI programs to flesh things out. But meanwhile, I’m finding local artists to teach me how to do their craft – not so that I can actually do it, but just because I think it will be so fun to learn and show you the process. So I’ll be making our tile (working with a local ceramicist), making the stained glass doors to a special room (with a stained glass expert), and get this, constructing some really basic kitchen cabinetry (I need a carpenter to help me on that for sure). I’m basically doing things the most complicated way possible, in the name of learning. So no more “simple but special”. This house is going to be “complicated and exciting” (but not like a circus house, I promise).

Opening Image Credit: Photo by Kailtin Green

Last year, we skipped shooting our house decked out for Christmas because it looked exactly like the year before (so why spend the time or money?). But this year, with the advent of two new pieces of furniture (our awesome Barb sofas), I felt excited to decorate, show, and tell. But November is pretty much March Madness for content creators, so I didn’t have time to really plan; instead just winged it with what I had in the garage and a trip to the Mill End Fabric store. So despite thinking I could just pull it together, the day of the shoot was rough (at first). The first big pulled back shot took no less than 2 hours to finalize. Like one shot, styled 80 different tiny changes (if I didn’t love this so much, it would be truly maddening). I tried every combination of pillows, throws, coffee table accessories, and it wasn’t until we hit this version above, with pops of pinks and ochres, that it came together. It wasn’t what I had predicted (I thought I was going to lean into the Ralph Lauren trend, but it just wasn’t working!!). So here we have a playful, whimsical, Scandi version of our living room with a family tree dripping with DIYs and sentimental ornaments. It’s extremely cozy and fun to be in.

Pre-Lit Faux Trees | Tree Skirts (unavailable) | Garland (Clear Glass or Colorful) | Twinkle Light Curtain | Burgundy Pillow | Blue Pillow | Throw Blanket

The entry is a dream to shoot, and Kaitlin always nails it. This year, I bought yardage of plaid taffeta (fashion fabric) and ripped it into wide and long ribbons. I love how they pop in the light, and it ties that incredible Anthropologie blanket and Schoolhouse pillow (Target pillow behind it!).

Blue Velvet Lumbar Pillow | Sweater | Skirt | Tights | Shoes (vintage)

Everything twinkles in here during the day or night. You can’t really see the curtain lights in the photos, but y’all, they are 100% worth the splurge if you have the right window – so delicate and shimmery. When we shot the sweater fashion shoot the week before, I had different pillows, but once I got that red plaid blanket, I wanted to amp it up a bit and love it in here so much. Shout out to those pre-lit Alpine trees that again, add the best glow and a lot of impact for almost zero effort.

Pre-Lit Garland | Round Bells | Larger Bells | Blue Square Pillow | Green Plaid Blanket | Woven Basket | Blue Round Pillow | Burgundy Blanket

I LOVE this vignette. No one ever sits here, but every time I walk down the stairs, I see it and get that burst of dopamine that only style junkies have. I added more books and frames to give it a cozy library feel (all the gold frames are filled with Santa photos from over the years – a FANTASTIC hack and tradition that is not too late to do). I also really love the juxtaposition of the floral trad chaise and the more modern lamp, with the hits of cobalt from the Schoolhouse pillow and throw.

Pre-Lit Garland | Round Bells | Larger Bells

The plug-in lit garland is excellent, and I offset the asymmetry with no less than like 10 strips of fabric or ribbons on the left, adding bells from World Market. (TBH, I threw up what we had from last year and then just added the patterns and bells on top of it).

Round Burgundy Pillow | Burgundy Blanket | Ochre Striped Bolster | Paper Trees | Snowflake Mug | Candle | Custom Mushroom Stool

This was the shot that I couldn’t nail for 2 hours, and it’s definitely not as cohesive as other designs of mine, but I actually really love the vibe. Once we added the quilted mushroom from the art barn and the accordion trees on the coffee table (from AllModern), I was like “ok, let’s go pattern, color, and fun”. And yes, my family made the paper chain from leftover wallpaper patterned samples (but you can barely see the pattern, even in person).

Blue Barb Sofa | Round Pillow | Blanket | Velvet Lumbar Pillow | Mini Faux Pre-Lit Alpine | White Ceramic House

I LOVE this shot. The blue Barb is Barbing, and it feels inviting and fun, like these people want you to have a good time (very accurate). We’ve never had an adults-only party; we are a frat house for families with young kids, so going more whimsical feels right. And while I love a curated tree, I love our family tree more, with each ornament telling a story. “Henderson Ornament night” is where I’m shamelessly at “peak nerd,” and my kids LOVE it too, despite likely wanting to say it’s cringe:)

Elliot got home in time to jump into a shot with me – listen, I try not to involve them in my job/photos, but it’s really hard when she wants to snuggle on a pillow with me. I went a little extra this year on the mantel, which at times I was like “too much??” but most of the time I LOVE it.

Wood Bead Garland | Gingham Bow | Faux Wreath (similar) | Stocking Garland | Flocked Reindeer (similar) | Green Wood Trees (unavaliable) | Faux Garland | Wood Nutcracker | Flameless Taper Candles | Stockings (unavailable)

Most of the styling we already had, but we added the advent stocking (full of candy and kindness prompts), and we painted the black mirror a darker rose, which really softened the entire vignette in the best of ways. The faux tapers are still going strong, and the stockings from Schoolhouse are so playful and fun, while popping off the white so well. The big gingham bow is new (from Anthro), and the nutcrackers are old, from Michaels. It’s a lot, but it makes me pretty dang happy.

Rechargeable Table Lamp | Multi-Colored Lumbar | Burgundy Pillow | Striped Velvet Lumbar | Floral Tapestery Pillow | Blue Round Pillow | Pre-Lit Garland | Round Bells | Larger Bells

The little nook got an upgrade with the cutest pleated rechargeable lamp, and we switched up the pillows to pop a bit more. I’m clearly really into mushroom stools (not a typical obsession, but here we are).

Plaid Dog Beds | Pink Barb Sofa

Around 3 pm, it got so glowy and cozy (hours later, it’s even better – but so hard to shoot!). It’s busy and layered, for sure (which is why we kept the kitchen styling so simple), but when you are in the room, it feels so cozy, warm, casual, and inviting. Oscar is modeling our new Pendleton dog beds from Chewy (which are admittedly too big – I bought two “larges,” which I’m now using in our family room as floor pillows for Survivor nights in front of the fire/TV, and then I ordered mediums instead to go in here, which hadn’t arrived in time). I love the color palette of the plaid in this room, though.

I really, really love how it came together. It’s not the” Ralph Lauren” vibe I planned, but as you know, I have to shoot it again this week for a magazine (for 2026), and I’m going to use the green Alice sofas and see how hard I can lean into red/green/kitch. You don’t have to ask me twice to go all out…twice:) I’ll show you a sneak peek here, I promise (and def on stories).

*Photos by Kaitlin Green

What a totally abnormal experiment – to be able to try out a few different configurations in your living room in the name of “photographing your sofa line”. Not exactly typical, but my goodness, I wish this on everyone. I suppose that could be the future of AI (so far, it’s doing a terrible job when prompted – No offense, future leader robots!!). Last week, you saw our living room with our double “Barb” set up (which I LOVE), and on that same day, we brought in the sectional sofa (shout out to my team led by Gretch for a lot of literal heavy lifting). It’s hard not to like – it just works visually (but less so functionally). I’ll prove it:

The colors work. The scale of the sectional sofa is great. And it’s so cozy. I love our sectional – it’s chunky and low and so comfortable, with the sink-in-able bench seat and the cushion-y back. It’s a 7 on the firm scale at first, then will wear into a 5 (which is where you want it to be – you don’t want it to look sloppy and mushy).

If there were a TV above the fireplace, it might make sense for the configuration to be mainly facing the fireplace, with few other places to sit. But this just isn’t enough seating for this room, which is mostly for hanging out, screen-free, with friends or our kids.

But for fun, let’s look at a slider of both green sofas first:

Now, onto the two recent setups:

I love how open it looks, how it fills the space, but with enough negative space to allow your eye to rest. But once you’ve had two sofas where everyone gets to spread out while talking, it’s hard to go back (and y’all, this room is big and can handle two sofas, so the single chaise sectional facing a non-TV fireplace doesn’t make sense to be our living room).

Again, the greens:

And the other two:

The chaise on the Milo is big, though, in such a good way. A total double cuddle corner. And if the cream linen blend scares you (it’s a performance fabric and has a lot of thread variety), know that it comes in a velvet Charcoal and Chocolate as well. I love the chunky arms and how solid it feels.

A little more green, anyone?

And finally, the view fully facing the sunroom:)

I also want to mention that with the cost of furniture these days, this sectional is so well priced at $2,999 and is cheaper during Black Friday sales. I have zero control over what it’s listed at, but boy am I begging for it to be at least 15% off (and Wayfair mostly free shipping, so hopefully that is an extra incentive). It’s all made in Texas and ships out quickly, so you can get it by Christmas (hopefully!).

So which one is your favorite?? As the person who lives here with husband, kids, and pups, I have a clear preference, but I honestly love all three. You all have more distance from it (I’m literally too close to it), so curious what you think. Are you Double Alice? Double Barb (blue and pink)? or Big Milo???

*Photos by Kaitlin Green

Today is a great example of why I love this blog so much – you have really good ideas, from experiences and locations I just don’t have. Today’s example is all about how to deal with the vintage sliding door on the guest cottage – a feature that we love in theory, but wouldn’t be a great way to get in and out on a daily basis (it’s super heavy and not sealed up at all). When I casually mentioned not knowing how to deal with it, back in a post in August, some of you had the clear answer that I hadn’t thought about:

From T: “When I was in Britain, there were a lot of barn conversions where you couldn’t change the exterior of the building because they wanted to keep the historic features, so what a lot of people did was put a pass-through window behind the barn door. That sealed up the space, but if you slid the barn door open, you could access the new door that was within a wall of windows”.

Then DJ responded, “Yes, yes! I love this! The barn door would basically serve as a huge, hulking, aging (unnecessary but awesome) shutter, kinda!”

Then another reader, Hilary, sent through photos of her mom’s place in New England, with what they did there – THANK YOU!

It makes so much sense to me now (took me a second to get it). I should design a window/door situation that is inside/behind the big sliding door so that the sliding door is just a huge shutter. It can stay closed when we aren’t going in and out frequently, then can be left open should we go in and out more frequently. Got it!

But trying to find inspiration was hard. I didn’t really know what to Google or search for on Pinterest.

So then the questions start rolling in…

1. Wood framing or black metal? Do I want to lean traditional so edge it up with something that looks more contemporary and design forward? Could this hyper-modern look be super rad? I mean, sure, but that means other elements would maybe need to feel that way, too. I do think that I want to do some contemporary light fixtures that could combine this historic vibe with some elements that are more unexpected (think Paris apartments that have super ornate molding with 1960s metal lighting – the juxtaposition is so exciting). This is likely the more expensive route, but any custom door/window situation will be expensive…
2. If I lean into a traditional wood-framed window/door, do I customize the panes/lites to merge the diamond pattern AND the square grid like I did on our house in the sunroom? Or just keep it simpler with squares?
3. Is it two side panels and a single door? French doors?
4. If we are customizing the door, then should we frame the opening a bit smaller so that the kitchen can be a couple of feet bigger?

Here’s a photo of the interior showing how big the opening is:

By making this opening smaller, we’d need to get more interior paneling or come up with a different solution for that. But that kitchen is tiny, shoved in that corner, so having another even 18″ would be huge.

Anyway, I know that there is a company in town, Versatile (co-owned by the owners of ARCIFORM), that makes custom doors/windows and can execute any design. It will be a pretty penny, so I need to make sure that the design is right and worth it. I could also look into something readymade (French doors with side lights) and then just frame it in, but that sounds less fun to me (but would save dough). There are definitely going to be some design elements that I’m ok splurging on, and I know that a beautiful custom door/window situation could be one of them. But I want to do more research to make sure that’s the right choice for this project. Also, Sierra Pacific, who did all our first-floor windows, including our gorgeous sunroom diamond-shaped windows (above), could absolutely do it (well, I think…), so that could be an option as well. I’m looking into vintage, of course, but I don’t feel confident that it would be easy to find nearby (and function well).

Meanwhile, here is a glimpse into where my head is at. All these are vintage doors/windows (or custom, I suppose). I put the pink one on there to show the configuration that could work – two side panels and a large door with lights above them. The rest just show a version of the diamond pattern that our main house has. Designing the windows in the sunroom was extremely fun (and a super long process on my end), so part of me knows that the pattern works well – we could do two panels and a large Dutch door in the middle. Although now that I think about it, when you are inside, you’d need to be able to open the door where the barn door handle is in order to get out, which would be far to the right…Or do you just leave the huge slider open while you are inside and only slide it shut when no one is in the house? Lots of fun problem-solving, but if you guys have any insight or suggestions, I’d love to hear. And thanks again for your input – it’s seriously so appreciated. One of my favorite expressions is “we don’t know what we don’t know,” which keeps me endlessly curious. So while many designers might admit to not knowing stuff, I actually love knowing that I don’t know something – it’s a real fuel for getting to do research and then learning, which is honestly such a gift and keeps me so delighted in this industry.

Catch Up With The Guest Cottage!!

• The First Tour Inside Our 1850s Carriage House – Let The Restoration Begin!!!!!
• DIYing The OG “Homestead” – The Carriage House Exterior “Before” Tour
• Our Guest Cottage Inspection Report – WHAT IS WRONG WITH HER???
• What Are We Really Doing With Our Guest Cottage? Is There A Budget? And Other Burning Questions Answered
• How Big Is The Guest Cottage? All The Dimensions And Floor Plans For Us To Geek Out Over
• How Much Will It Cost To Remove Asbestos And Lead Paint From Our Guest Cottage (+ What I’m Willing To Do Myself To Save Money)
• Our Guest Cottage Update: How Much Will The Foundation Repair Cost???
• Guest Cottage Update – How Do You Design A House If You Don’t Know How You’ll Use It????
• We Demo’d The Guest Cottage Ourselves – Here’s How It Went

*Pretty Photos by Kailtin Green

Well, that was fun. The DIY demo of the guest cottage was set for a random morning recently, and Brian and I had enlisted the help of my brother, Ken, who was “born to demolish” (my parents will agree). I had never done anything like this before and frankly thought I would take to it easily (I’m strong! I like getting my hands dirty!), which perhaps isn’t as true as I thought. So here’s how it went, how much it cost, how long it took, and what we actually demo’d out.

The “Kitchen”

The kitchen was teeny tiny and in very vintage condition. It all had to go, and only the floating shelving was usable.

The island was actually unattached and super easy to just throw in the dumpster, but the cabinets were STRONG, hard wood, and a lot harder. If they weren’t covered in lead, they would make fantastic firewood. I have no idea why there were two sinks, both of them super heavy and in bad condition.

During DIY Demo:

Turns out I’m much more of a homemaker than a home breaker. I just didn’t trust myself swinging the sledgehammer with the amount of force needed to do the job. I was hesitant, likely because I’m kinda clumsy. I’m also the type of person who picks up a piece of furniture without clearing the way or making sure that it will fit where I intend for it to go. In other words, I can be kinda reckless and not very careful, so I was scared that if I really went for it, it would bounce back and hurt me or worse, Brian or Ken.

Under The Stairs

The area under the stairs had the vintage wood-burning cooking stove, cabinetry, and old hot water heater. Thank god for Ken and Brian – these things were heavy and we needed some serious muscle.

During DIY Demo:

Now that it’s empty, I can lay out the kitchen with more proper measurements. I’m playing around on Spoak (a design program that is meant to be really intuitive yet powerful for people like me who don’t know AutoCAD or SketchUp). I’ll show you what I’m working on soon – it’s incredibly fun.

The “Canning Room”

BEFORE:

This room had all the aluminum cabinetry from the 40s or 50s, not in the best shape. They were actually super easy to remove and really lightweight. It’s a really big room with high ceilings and walls/ceilings that need to be repaired (and done properly).

During DIY Demo:

We were able to pull out the cabinets, and Ken or Brian could carry them on their own – VERY strong men, these two. These were a lot easier to remove than the wood cabinets in the other room, which were solid.

The “Gardening Room”

This room mostly just needed its old floor to come out so we can start fresh – either with a framed floor or poured slab (leaning towards framing it for plumbing reasons). More on that later. Now this part was really tedious for Brian (it was too dangerous for both of us to be doing it – he had to full force rip it out with crowbars, and no one could be within 10 feet of this man. This took him the longest, probably 2 hours just in here.

Here’s How It All Broke Down:

We rented a 30-yard dumpster – my brother thought that 20 would be enough, but we’d have to be more strategic on how we put things in because it can’t stick above the edges. He was right – 30 was perfect. It cost $950 + pickup/delivery, which I think totalled around $1,200. They dropped it off on a Thursday and picked it up on the following Tuesday.

We were done with most of the demo in 3 hours. Ken was gone after lunch, and then Brian stayed to finish the floor, which took longer.

I was not nearly as helpful as I thought I would be. I mostly schlepped things to the dumpster because I just didn’t love swinging that sledgehammer as much as I thought I would. I just didn’t trust myself not to hit something that would fling across the room and hurt someone. I’m naturally way more inclined to take care of something than use my brute force to destroy it. I was very, very, very grateful that Ken and Brian really thrive at using their strength to demo out this house – really takes all kinds 🙂

Now, this demo job was pretty easy because we didn’t need to open up the walls – no old drywall to remove or gross insulation. The walls are either paneled and so pretty (not removing) or are already open. We had already removed the asbestos (except the knob and tube wiring), so it was really just some cabinets.

Wait, So You Aren’t Opening Up The Walls At All???

If you are already wondering how we are going to put plumbing and electrical in without opening up the walls, that’s a fantastic question. My hope is that unless an electrician is willing to pop off some panels and thread through that, we’ll likely explore feeding electrical through exposed conduits. The UK has a lot of great brass conduit system options that go on the outside of the wall (they have a lot more stone/plaster/brick buildings, which they don’t want to demo out). So I’m looking into what is legal to use here (I’ve found Jim Lawrence and The Workshop Below). We can hide plumbing more easily since we are keeping it only in that kitchen corner of the house, OR feeding it under the house to the new bathroom. But the lighting and outlets will be more of a thing, which is an exciting challenge to solve. I’ve looked into copper conduit or painting conduit, but would love any and all suggestions. Is there an American company that does pretty conduit systems? I know I can buy the parts from the UK companies, but their plugs and light switches are obviously not compliant with our systems, so unsure what I would do for those.

What About Heating And AC?

For heat/cooling, we aren’t doing a ducting system. We are doing Quilt mini splits (have one in our gym and LOVE IT and excited that I can panel it to match each room. I might be convinced to put heated floors in the bathroom and not put a mini split there. GreenSavers is coming soon to quote and map it out, so I’ll know what we are in for soon.

Next Steps?

Well, I have the foundation repair scheduled for early December, likely 5-7 days of work (shout out to Foundations First, they have been super on it thus far). You can do simple repairs without a permit or engineering, so that’s what they are doing. I’m still figuring out what permits we need (or if the individual subs will pull them). It’s not my strength, but I do have so many design elements to show you that I’m really, really excited about. I’m pretty intimidated by the permitting process – I jumped on a free 15 minute consultation with the city where I felt like I was in trouble the whole time but I think it’s their job to have you try to get every permit possible (I don’t think anyone believes that we aren’t going to use this as a rentable ADU but we really aren’t!). I’m enjoying it firsthand and since this is such a public project, we aren’t doing anything that might not be considered 100% above board. I’m also not stressed about it at all, which is lovely (again, since there is no rush getting it done).

*Pretty Photos by Kaitlin Green

You guys. I’m having so much fun with the design of this house (our guest cottage). We don’t even know what it will be used for, but I do have some ideas on future function, which are informing our decisions. So if you want inside my brain (not sure I’d recommend it), here is what is knocking around up there: 

• My home office (and a place to hold meetings outside of my house). I’m still not interested in having an “office” where everyone has to mandatorily attend daily (there is a reason none of us chose typical office careers), nor do I want the expense (our office in LA was $5k a month). But none of the Portland team loves “working” in my personal family home (this is unspoken, and no one complains, but the novelty has worn off). Of course, we have to be inside for photo shoots, but as far as meetings, writing, editing, etc, having a non-kid mess/dog barking area would be GREAT (right now everyone works from home unless prepping and shooting). I scramble most mornings to clean up breakfast and the makings of school lunch before everyone gets here to varying degrees of success. So upstairs would be an office, downstairs could be our “break room,” and then the “canning room” could be a potential podcast space (just throwing it out there and slowly manifesting it).

• Band/game room. Charlie plays the drums and Elliot plays the guitar, so this would be the perfect place for them to rock out together. We do like being “that house” where all the kids come over, and I don’t take that hosting responsibility lightly. So creating a room that they can hang as teenagers (ideally in an analog way) sounds nice and safe to this mama. Do the neighborhood tweens and teens need this space? Obviously not. But it’s a “if we build it, they will stay… safe” situation while not helicoptering. (We are big Jonathan Haidt enthusiasts over here – free rein with safe boundaries). 

• Potential aging parents (or us) to live. This could play out in a few different ways. If we ever needed to take care of either of our parents, we want to make sure there is a bedroom and shower on the first floor with minimal steps. This means not a bath/shower combo but a walk-in shower. 

• Furthermore (and my actual lifetime fantasy that I’m already manifesting), should either or both of our kids want to, say, raise their family (our grandkids) here, Brian and I could move out to the Guest Cottage and we’d have our intergenerational family compound of my dreams!!!! Brian laughs when I talk about this, but I’m DEAD SERIOUS. While I want our kids to go fly, live in a huge city, build a meaningful independent life, etc, and eventually I’d love nothing more than being this close to them and their kids. I’d be so helpful, I promise! (Trying to be low-key about my enthusiasm as to not scare them off or be painfully try-hard or uncool, but as of now, they both want to do this, LOL). 

• A place to stay during photo or film shoot rentals. We recently rented out our entire house (every room was used) for a massive commercial shoot, and frankly, it’s an awesome way to make money (with almost no actual costs or overhead). I’m really proud of this house and property, and I like sharing it more than most people would with other people (strangers, even). So I’d love to keep renting it out for photo/film/commercial shoots without totally displacing our family (we stayed in a hotel with our dogs mid-week, which wasn’t easy on anybody, but totally doable). This is our third time renting it out to others (I’m not involved at all), and it’s 100% worth it.

• Selective fun events. While we will never likely turn this into anything too commercial, if a friend’s kid wanted to get married here or if someone wanted to rent it out for a 50th birthday party, we would totally consider it (unsure of the permitting or legal liabilities of this, BTW, we aren’t in a hurry, so we haven’t done the research). So having more places to sleep (and a bathroom that you can enter from the outside) is something to consider. I’ve also considered ADA designs just in case. 

So, can I design this guest cottage to work for all of the above scenarios, not knowing if any of them are actually going to be a thing? YEP. But doing this exercise has informed our decision. Here is what has been the biggest change… 

The New Downstairs Bathroom Location

We originally were going to do the easiest and cheapest bathroom under the stairs – teeny, teeny tiny, but I’d make it cute. The sewer and water connect in the corner of the kitchen, so bringing it over to the stairs underneath the house, like 10-12 feet, is pretty easy (our foundation repair team was going to excavate to make room for plumbing). But man, it would be small. The shower would be 30″ max, which is doable and legal, but VERY, VERY SMALL. Fine… But then… Additionally, the kitchen would remain extra EXTRA tiny, using the same existing kitchen footprint (before fridges and dishwashers were invented). To try to shove a small fridge, sink, range or cooktop/stove, and dishwasher into that corner was impossible. In order to make it work, I nixed the range and dishwasher, and we were going to do a 2-burner cooktop and a countertop toaster oven as the “oven”. Again, all fine and still better than most of our apartments in New York, but then… We realized we didn’t know what we were going to do with the “garden shed” or the blue former prop room. So basically, we were trying to shove two of the most functional and important rooms into the tiniest space, compromising both of them drastically. Meanwhile, we have two empty rooms with no real use? If we put the bathroom elsewhere, I could use the area under the stairs to put the fridge and pantry space!

I threw this idea out there a few weeks before demo, and Brian nixed it, citing that it went against our original mission for this house, which was low renovation cost and just “making it work”. BTW, I will likely be doing some splurgy design stuff, so this isn’t to say this is a budget or cheap project – we just really want to work with what we have versus opening up all the walls, rearranging the house, and spending the money where we are excited to spend it. But as we were demo’ing (more on that soon), I resurfaced the idea and with the help of my brother, Ken, (who is a contractor) we were able to convince Brian that bringing the plumbing an additional 10 – 15 feet through the newly repaired foundation into the former gardening shed is actually not that expensive (getting quotes now) and will make the house SO MUCH BETTER. 

Brian was concerned that the bathroom would be too far away from the main area, but I’m not at all. People will figure it out. And I love that it’s going to have a door to the outside because we have SO MANY massive family/neighborhood/school events here, and having a dedicated party bathroom so that people don’t have to come inside the house is HUGE. 

But you want to know what really sold him? I promised him a urinal in this bathroom. You guys, men are so simple. Next time, I should just tell him it’s our sex bathroom, and he would have thumbed up on it so fast. He’s so excited about the urinal, and I’m legit really excited to make it work (post coming soon on how I can possibly make a urinal look not disgusting).

Lastly… We Are Keeping The Toilet Upstairs

Going through this exercise of potential future uses also helped us make the decision to keep the toilet and sink upstairs. Originally, we thought we’d keep it simple with the bathroom downstairs and nix the one upstairs, which wouldn’t require the same amount of permitting because we’d just be swapping “one for one” (not adding). There are often sewer consequences when you add more water/toilets. But we already had to upgrade our sewer to be basically the largest one possible when we redid our house, so while this does require additional permitting, we think having a powder room upstairs is important, should anyone ever want to sleep up there. We have the space and it’s directly above the kitchen, so plumbing it isn’t an issue (the line is already there, though unsure if it will be used). And hell, upgrading the sewer all the way to the street was so expensive that I at least want to get the use out of it 🙂

Over the weekend, with kids both at friends’ houses overnight, I started designing the kitchen and bathroom, and y’all, I am having SO MUCH FUN. I’m working on my theory as to why this one feels different to me, which I can’t tell if you are going to hate or love (not the design, but the reason behind it). So stay tuned on that, too. I’m finally in the flow and want to write about it and think about it every day, which I think is a fantastic sign of real alignment. More to come soon!!

*Photos by Kaitlin Green