The approach to designing the interior was straight forward. Integrate the charming elements of the house while keeping the decor elementary in style.
photograph by Antonieta Esis (Medina, Ohio)
The suburban farmhouse; charming yet sophisticated.
The farmhouse style is a popular design trend in the housing and design industry as of late and I can understand why. It’s approachable, charming, and functional, and what’s not to love about that as a home owner? This reason is exactly why we decided to take the leap and invest in the Suburban farmhouse when relocating to Bay Village, Ohio. One of the biggest challenges as a designer is taking an element that your client adores and making it flow with the space, so that they will have something more timeless, and functional, rather than trendy and awkward.
With that said, I made some refinements to the interior and in keeping the decor elementary I was able to turn this farmhouse into a modern-ish home.
The first floor
There are a few things that influenced my layout, color selection and choice in furniture throughout the house.
- Being an owner of a large, active dog, I needed to maximize floor space.
- Room for my daughter to play and store toys.
- Needed to incorporate a dog kennel in the living room. This was custom built by my husband to match the decor. You’ll find more details on the design idea in an upcoming blog post.
- I didn’t want a large corner sofa and be tied to its limitations in any living space.
- Wall color in a majority of the rooms wasn’t going to be changed. This was a newly painted house and therefore couldn’t justify the work. Just another design challenge!
The dining room was small but lovely and influencing this space are the black and cream upholstered chairs I fell absolutely in love with (Anthropologie) and fit perfectly at the ends of the dining room table. From there I changed out the light fixture, a traditional crystal chandelier (which you will see re-purposed in the nursery), to a modern Mobil Chandelier from West Elm-pictured above. I finished the space off by complementing the gold in the light fixture with the bar cart, picture frames and record player. A necessary part of our common area space since both my husband and myself enjoy vinyl.
A view from the kitchen
Onto the second floor. Once you reach the staircase landing on the 2nd floor you step into an open loft space. 
This was the perfect place for the home office and studio. Here I used natural wood tones, fur and a cow hide printed rug to establish spacial boundaries. The desk is simply composed of 2 file cabinets and a wood counter butcher block from the local hardware store. I then created a frame wall that displayed artwork I admire as well as my own art and photography.
To finish off the space I added additional light fixtures, plug-in pendant lighting, suspended from the ceiling. This gave extra lighting onto the work space.
A view from stairs
The master bedroom; white walls, black velvet bed, copper accents. It’s simply heavenly.
Additionally I designed a space in this room where I could nurse my little one because at the time she was sleeping in our room. This made the late night feedings much easier for everyone. By placing a bed for out dog in this area helped him feel apart of the family.
photograph by Antonieta Esis (Medina, Ohio)
Finally the nursery – this is where I reused the crystal chandelier from our dining room. For the accent wall I applied constellation wallpaper from Ralph Lauren, which my husband really liked, and matched the wall paint to the star color. I’ll admit the wallpaper wasn’t my favorite of the choices I gave him, but I’d say that I made it work!
Considering that we lived states away from family and friends I decided to keep the queen bed for more sleeping space when they visited. And finally, for a bit of fun and much needed pop of color, added green shams and textured throw. The green helped to tie in the safari photos with a softer more celestial feel of the wall paper and chandelier. Tip: Small color additions are a great way to tie in and transition space.
My hope is that these spaces inspire your creative side!
Cheers!
