Let's build a house

So all of you already know, but I've been working on a big interior design project to design a home for a client. I picked Sarah & Jordan because their design aesthetic is wildly different from mine. I'm a little more modern & can't get enough color in my space. I mean we have a bright coral headboard for pete's sake! But anyways, I digress. So I picked Sarah & Jordan to interview & design for because it would be more of a challenge and they definitely did not disappoint. We also only had about a month to get everything together including finding a site and documenting said location & creating a whole building shell and creating a furniture plan for the house. Luckily the only contact documents we had to produce were furniture plans and elevations so we didn't have to do dimensioning for which I will forever be immensely grateful.

I tried to work on it while watching Shelby but she is a handful so I had to sneak in time while she napped and after I put her down for bed so I didn't get as much done as I was hoping to. I ended up pulling an all-nighter the day before it was due & finally crawled into bed at 7:30 to get an hour's rest in before heading to class. So it definitely wasn't perfect and had this been a real project I would have had much much more time & would have been in constant communication with my clients but despite all that I'm pretty pleased with what I was able to come up with.

So because this project consumed most of my waking thoughts for a month [I literally spent 5 hours one day trying to find the perfect location & let me tell you, trying to find a viable lot in a state you've never even visited with zero experience is no walk in the park people!], I'm going to overload you with pictures & the process. So sit back & strap yourselves in, this could take a while.


First I had to interview my clients to discover what home meant to them. It was a very abstract interview in that I was only trying to find out how they wanted their home to feel and how they would use their home. At first I didn't think it would really work because the information we were assigned to find was so abstract but it was actually so much more informative than simply talking to someone and having them tell you what they want in their home or how many rooms or what kind of cabinets they want.

My clients Sarah & Jordan

The first step after doing the interview was to identify the primary and secondary issues we had to accommodate and design for. Then we had to find an abstract concept image that embodied the feel of what we wanted our design to have. I had an image in my head that just felt so right and I couldn't find it for a few days until I finally checked Minted & I swear I must have seen this picture before because it was exactly what was going on in my mind. It's so nice when things work out like that.

It perfectly represented the inviting and interesting element we wanted while still being very soft and tranquil. We wanted this home to feel airy and spacious and be both invigorating and soothing. Also Sarah & Jordan kept saying they didn't want very many colors, especially not bold colors, and that they liked white; but when I found this image the colors were so soft and muted I just knew it would work and look beautiful with the Southern Traditional French Country vibe they wanted. Plus when Sarah saw this image her first words were, "The colors are perfect!" which was a total win! 

Then the hard part came of trying to give them everything they'd asked for and said they wanted in a semi-reasonable space [it's definitely not a starter home, but it's not incredibly extravagant] and still keep good design in that the spaces flowed smoothly, there was enough clearance, the work triangle stayed within it's bounds and be mindful of sight lines. I messed around with a dozen different layouts and you should see the pile of rough drafts I ended up with. I made probably 25 different adjacency matrix, diagrams, bubble and block diagrams and fully drew four different floor plans to scale before settling on this final one. I also fully intended for it to have a partial if not full basement for storage, a game room, storm shelter, and more spare rooms but didn't have enough time to design for it and didn't love where the stairs would have gone down from so I scraped it for time's sake and for my own sanity. But just keep in mind that was the original plan. 

Just a quick run down before I show you the plans, but Sarah really wanted a large porch where she could sit and watch the kids and entertain. They both also hated the idea of seeing a big garage door when you pulled up to the front of the house so I put the garage off to the side which provides them with more privacy as well. Jordan wanted his own "man cave" space with a large tv so I gave him an extra large study to accommodate extra lounge seating and a large wall mounted tv so he can have friends over and lounge out in his own space to watch games but also not so deep into the house that it encroaches on private family space. I also provided them with formal dining and living rooms to entertain guests and a large main family room where they could also entertain but still maintain some privacy. Sarah really wanted a large kitchen so I designed for that with a separate walk in pantry for some everyday food storage. & I made sure to include a pocket door to the kitchen so they can close it off for privacy when guests are over. Sight lines people. 

We also discussed how Sarah wanted her own personal space that she could run off to so I designed a craft and laundry room where she could sew or craft and have easy access to the laundry, which with sewing is muy important & was right off the family room, kitchen, and backyard so she can keep an eye on things. I also put in a special family staircase because any home that has a staircase right off the foyer must have a private staircase for the family. We had also talked about how guest bedrooms need to be in their own area because guests need their own privacy so I positioned their main guest room off to the far side of the house on the first floor. 

Here's a quick rendering of the first floor. Ignore the poor shading of the foyer, I fixed it before I turned it in & the quickly drawn concrete tiling in the mudroom. Free handing hexagons are hard. Also I basically just forgot to render in the kitchen counters so ignore those too. Also there were really limited colors to work with so don't judge too harshly. 

On the second level I left the family room and foyer open so they would feel airier and more open. Oh, also arches are a reoccurring theme in the house to give it a sense of connectedness and openness though the rooms are generally more closed off and partitioned. 

On the second floor I spent a lot of time reworking the master bath till I really liked it and thought it was perfect. I created a bath alcove for a little more privacy and intimacy and designed a small vanity in between the double sink where the lady of the house could get ready. Then branching off is the shower and toilet room. I didn't have the colors I needed or the stamina to show the tiling I wanted for the bath, but it would be a pretty mosaic tile in the center bordered off by black with simple white tiles surrounding it for the rest of the space. I added in a little sofa at the foot of the master bed so Sarah & Jordan could lounge there instead of downstairs in the evening to watch movies and relax so they would have a little more privacy and would be closer to the kids room in the evening. 

The far west room [to the left] would serve as a playroom until the kids got older and could be transitioned into a school room or media room whenever they wanted. 

We also had to do some elevations so here are some close up with some of my inspirations. 

I thought this showed the feel I was going for. 

I actually found this photo after I'd already drawn this & it was absolutely perfect!
I think I like those shelves and cabinets more too & the color is EXACTLY
what I was going for. & I like the tiled backsplash.

I actually ended up loving this room so much I modeled Jordan's study off of it.
The trim and woodwork is just so perfect and it's so masculine and lovely. 

I really just loved how bright & open this little tub alcove was
& it's shelving so I tweaked it a bit & added the reoccurring arch
& changed up the trim on the bottom. 

My mom came down from Salt Lake on Wednesday to say hey and I drug her around town with me picking up material and fabric samples to complete my materials board for my presentation on Thursday & she stayed till 11 to help me upholster and arrange samples on my board. It isn't a complete materials board but gives a feel of the house as a whole. 

The colors are a little off because I took it inside really late at night, so the flooring isn't really that orange, but poor photo quality or not I'm still obsessed with that Lotus wallpaper from Farrow & Ball! I can't get enough of it. It's probably definitely more my taste than Sarah's but I think it's the perfect balance of traditional and a little more modern. It's just absolute timeless perfection to me. 

& this was our inspiration for the exterior of the house. Sarah found this photo and pinned it to our group board saying it was the closest she's found to what she was envisioning. So I designed the house to look like this on the exterior with the shape of the house and the window placement. All in all I'm really proud of it & so glad it's done.