The Next Chapter

The Next Chapter came to us already tired. The home had been remodeled several times over the years, not all of them well, and previous quotes had priced a real fix out of reach. Our job was harder than starting fresh: reimagine the space within budget, and stay inside the rules of the historic district. The family had moved south from their previous home, and they brought us with them.

The move was to lighten the weight the house had accumulated. A through-line color carries from room to room beginning at the curb, opening interiors that had been heavy and closed. The outdoors comes in. A small underused office became a full first-floor bath that doubles as a dog wash — the kind of working detail a household actually uses every week. Upstairs, two bedrooms were combined into a new primary suite anchored by a fully gutted primary bath, giving the second floor a private retreat scaled to how the family actually lives. Moving the laundry from the garage to the second floor was a small change on paper and a difficult one in practice, but the daily payoff for the family is significant.

Much of what fills the rooms came south with the family from Farmhouse Revival, the home we designed for them before this one. Familiar pieces, new context. The brief was coastal-appropriate without leaning cliché: no shells in jars, no rope mirrors. The furniture that traveled earned its place by working with the new palette of pastels grounded by deeper tones and historical pattern.

The exterior set the tone. A poorly kept front yard and a decaying concrete drive came out, replaced with a new drive and landscaping appropriate to the district, set against a crisp exterior color scheme that honored the home's history and fit the neighborhood. This is the second home we've designed for this family, and that continuity — knowing how they live and what they keep — shaped every decision inside and out.