Building our Dream Home/Part Three-Designing the Interior
I’m not going to lie. The last two parts of building our dream home were a LOT of fun and I enjoyed every second. But THIS part? Designing the interior? Well, it was this girl’s absolute DREAM come true.
I’ve been waiting for this moment my entire adult life.
With that said, if you’ve been following along since the beginning of this blog you’ll know my design styles have changed over the years.
That’s me. I embrace change. What I don’t embrace are trends. And when you’re planning your dream home the last thing you want to do is base the design on a trend.
Trends don’t last. They may have a comeback in 5, 10, or even 20 years, but they aren’t forever. And since this is our “Forever” home, I wanted the design to reflect a style that would last the test of time.
But If I were to put a name to the style of our home it would lean towards Modern Organic.
Michael and I agree this style best suits us with its earthy neutral tones, modern flair, and plenty of textures and greenery.
When I began designing our home, I had five important elements in the style.
The first one was the color palette.
One thing that has never changed in my design style is color. I’m a neutral gal all the way. Sure, I love a good pop of color here and there, but when it was time to design the ‘bones’ of this interior the main colors came down to three choices for me.
White, Beige, and Black.
I know to some that sounds BORING, but the final result was anything but.
CHOOSING THE PERFECT WHITE
White is classic and timeless, and most importantly, it makes every room light and airy. White walls also provide a clean slate for every room as well. From there the possibilities for designing the space are endless.
But coming up with the PERFECT white was not easy. It took months of hanging paint chips up on our rental walls and even then I wasn’t 100% sure. The lighting in that house would be different from ours so I didn’t decide completely until the walls started going up in our new home. Then I knew.
Chantilly Lace had very little undertone and was the truest white out of all the options I had chosen.
Seeing the white walls against the black windows for the first time made my heart so happy!
The trim also had to be white but with a different tone than the wall color.
I found it in SW High Reflective White
You can never go wrong with the classic color scheme of black and white so I chose SW Tricorn Black for our island. I also wanted to add my favorite beige so Accessible Beige was the tone chosen for our range hood. (On a side that was a total DIY by hubby and me which I will share in another post).
We also had the cabinets in our pantry and laundry room, and the fireplace painted Accessible Beige.
Next up was the flooring. And I would have to say that was the absolute HARDEST (color) decision we ever had to make for our home.
THE FLOORS
After many months of research, we finally decided the best option for us would be Luxury Vinyl Plank tile for the main part of the home. The main reason we chose it was for durability. Although we currently don’t have a pet we may someday, and our kids and grandkids do so we wanted something that would hold up for years to come. I also wanted something easy to clean and budget-friendly.
Deciding on the type of flooring for the other rooms was easy. But the main flooring was a bit difficult. We knew we wanted a luxury vinyl plank but finding the right product and color was another story.
Michael and I went to floor store after floor store, and when we thought we’d found the perfect one, we would bring a sample home and the color would be way different than in the showroom.
We did not want a dark floor because I know from experience they show every speck of dust, which annoys me. I also didn’t want anything with gray tones or worse reddish or golden tones. I wanted a neutral white oak and after months and months of searching, I ordered a sample of one I liked and sent up a prayer it would be the perfect color.
Thankfully, my prayer was answered and after a few small hiccups with delivery, we had our perfect floor.
Installation was another issue but I’ll discuss that later in the series.
COUNTERTOPS
When it came to the countertops in our kitchen the decision was easy. Quartz. After a three-hour visit at a local fabrication shop looking at gorgeous slab after slab, we were certain we’d made the right choice. The amazing owners took the time to answer our many questions and gave us much-needed information that we hadn’t thought to ask about countertops. In the end, we chose two different styles for our kitchen. Again, I’ll be going more in-depth on this in another post.
Since we had used laminate in our old house remodel and LOVED it, we chose it for our pantry and laundry to save on the budget. Laminate has come a long way and there are so many choices of color and pattern but keeping to our simple organic style we chose a plain white for both spaces.
LIGHTING
Lighting for us was more than just light fixtures. We wanted it to be functional, warm, and purposeful.
Thankfully our home is filled with LOTS of natural light. But of course, we still need to add ambient and task lighting in each room. Most of the lighting fixtures were purchased before our house was even built. Of course, we made some changes along the way, including undercabinet and shelving lighting in the kitchen and living room. Most of the lighting we chose had clean lines and a modern aesthetic but Michael did choose one light that was all for the bling! I’ll share that when we go more in-depth with each room in a future post.
TEXTURE
One of the most important elements in our cozy-organic modern style is texture and we have LOTS of it in the design. Everything from the rugs to the decor and even the tile.
This beautiful tile was a bit of a splurge but we both agreed it was SO worth it. The colors are neutral but add so much warmth to the space and yes, so much texture goodness too!
So there it is. Five basic elements in creating our Dream Home’s design.
Next up, I delve into the process of building along with many tips and tricks we learned along the way.
Thanks for stopping by!
