Design Inspiration for Our New Home

If you missed the news, we are moving and remodeling our new home! In a crazy twist and unforeseen turn of 2020, we have decided to sell our house! We aren’t going too far, but we are moving closer to family — a priority that has been made clear during this pandemic. I did a “before” tour of the new house on Instagram and it is my highest viewed IGTV ever! If you want to check out what we’re dealing with in this remodel, click here to watch the house walk thru.

I am cataloging all our inspiration, design decisions, specifications, and measurements in the Home Design Guidebook. I printed the digital download using our printer home and added it to a cute binder. Now I take the binder with me to every design meeting or check-in with my contractors!

We are taking a big chunk of our inspiration from the Spanish colonial influences that are original to the house. The original light fixtures were 1970’s interpretations of Spanish designs, so while we are replacing all of them, we’ll be looking for similar lines. The tile in the guest bathroom is from Mexico, the original owner told us, and we are leaving that for the time being, too. There are cedar beams and paneling throughout, as well as a ceiling in the study. We’ll actually be playing off these elements and going a bit deeper with that theme, to create a warm, bright contemporary home with a Mediterranean vibe.

One thing I love about the house is that it’s OLD. I love the scratches and chinks out of the woodwork. While we are focusing first on lightening and brightening the house, we hope to draw out its personality and enhance what was originally there.

I want to try plastering the walls with Western Blended Diamond One Note. I’d like to lay some wood in a chevron pattern. I know we’re all sick of chevron, but it’s all over Paris, and if it’s good enough for Paris, it’s good enough for me. I just love how timeless it looks, even though it was a recent trend.

The original shutters, cabinet doors, and some of the doors downstairs were louvered. We will keep theses and I’ll be conscious about adding Louvre details throughout as we go.

We’re not going to redo the kitchen right now. It was last remodeled in the ’90s, and the appliances are in great shape, and there’s just no need to take the time or expense to do this before we move in. I have big plans and dreams for it, of course. I’m thinking Lacanache stove, a free-standing table-island, some marble, some butcher block, lots of texture and bright and family-friendly.

I love the vertical cedar paneling throughout the house. Right now it’s dark, and while I refused to paint it, I’m not beyond stripping it to light it a bit. Here’s a painted version I like, and I admit I love the grandeur of this look from a home in Spain. Or maybe I can strip the wood and get the paneling to look like this beauty?

Now let’s move on to the exterior of the house! The house was entirely brown, and brown is one of my least favorite colors. Our plan is to paint it a warm white. We’ll either restore or add new shutters back in a muted gray or blue-green color. The gutter is getting painted right now, but when it comes time to replace the roof, I’d love to put up copper gutter, although a galvanized metal would look nice too. And speaking of the roof, we’ll eventually replace the composite shingles with something more like tile or slate.

While it’s a bit exhausting to make so many design decisions, I am loving this process! We’ll be remodeling this home and making it our own for years to come. I am so excited to create something beautiful for our family.

Are you building or remodeling a home? Check out my post on How to Avoid Expensive Home Remodel Mistakes. And be sure to follow along on Instagram where I’m sharing a ton of behind the scenes insight on the journey of remodeling our home!