House Crashing: Cozy & Full Of Character: a house log

Who is in the mood for some snooping? When Lori and her husband Greg (and their sweet son Owen) invited us over to crash their charming Richmond home, we jumped at the chance. Is not that little tin roof over the door excellent? I also enjoy that the front steps are tiered on three sides instead of being closed in on the ends. Bet someone could Hands-on that…

Lori and Greg are in fact veterans of the House Crashing experience. They had us over their first home back in 2010 (when both Lori and I were both prego). We enjoyed that house so much that we could not wait to see where they lived now…

… especially since in the time that we last crashed them they’ve had a son and were simply on the cusp of having a daughter! Ellie in fact came a little while ago, but Lori was still pregnant when we crashed her house. Apparently we only invade her home her while she’s with child.

The small world story is that they had a son named Owen simply a few months after I had Clara and we hadn’t seen them for a few years. But now, by coincidence, Owen and Clara are preschool classmates. Seriously, we walked into school the first day and said “no way! how are you?!”

So while our kids were in school one morning, Lori had us over to check out their new has-room-for-two-children home (we hoped to squeeze the house crash in before she had a newborn to work around). So here is a shot of their fairly formal living room in the front of the house. The tall ceilings with thick detailed molding were excellent. Nearly all of Lori’s furniture is secondhand (hailing from Craigslist and thrift stores alike) which is consistently a truly cool layered look – and of course it is a pleasant budget-friendly method. She also loves to get accessories from places like HomeGoods and flash sale sites (the starburst mirror was scored at a deep discount from One King’s Lane).

My go-to spot in the whole house was the more casual family room in the back of the house right off of the kitchen. See these built-ins? Lori and Greg hired a local handyman to build them to fit between those two windows and provide a ton of kid-friendly storage. So smart. You would not believe all the toys, games, movies and other clutter they’ve wisely hidden in those drawers & cabinets. I especially liked that they chose doors that are flush with the frame (it had a truly clean look). And for anyone looking for a handyman, Lori said she found him through her realtor’s recommendation, so that method can in fact work out.

So even if you are not able to build a giant TV cabinet yourself, it is remarkable how much input you can have by hiring someone local to make it (and it can frequently be cheaper than getting one made by a larger company, like KraftMaid or even buying a giant unit at Pottery Barn and paying a hefty shipping fee). You also get to pick the cubby sizes, the type of doors, the hardware, the paint color, the placement, etc – so it is a strong way to be involved and end up with something especially functional and fitted to your home. Oh and see that coffee table? Lori got it at The Dump (the same local furniture outlet where we got our dining room table). The funny thing is that now stores like West Elm are selling tables like it, but she got it a while ago from a furniture discounter! I enjoy that.

The kitchen is truly open to the casual living room, so picture us taking this shot with our backs to the built-ins from the photo above. We enjoyed that it had wood cabinets since so many of you folks request that we share house crashings beyond white kitchens (we share whatever we get invited to crash! haha!).

They had a pleasant dark granite to work with the cabinets (and dark hardware on the wood cabinets to tie it in) and the giant window over the sink was remarkable. This shot does it no justice, but it is a vivid wooded lot so Lori can in short watch birds and deer and pretend she’s Snow White while she washes dishes.

This little nook in the kitchen, to the left of the white table above, was one of my go-to little “moments” in the whole house. That vivid painting was by a local artist that Lori and Greg picked up a few months ago at the “READ Art Show” (held annually at the New Community School here in Richmond). I enjoy the bright colors with the thin frame around it.

In person it is about 100 times prettier. And those two skinny cork lamps were so cool and unusual on that fairly mid-century cabinet that Lori found on Craigslist and updated with new knobs.

Wanna see the cork lamps a little closer? They are from another local furniture outlet called The Decorating Outlet (which is where we have found a lot of the lights in our house too, like the pendants in our kitchen and the capiz chandelier in Clara’s nursery).

This shot is what you see if you step about five steps to the left of the photo above, and it is the hallway that leads from the front door to the kitchen. We enjoyed the old industrial stool (a craigslist find!) and that large cow painting (from a local shop called The Wild Orchid). And does not that black door frame in the background look excellent?

If you step further into the hallway you can see a little entryway table and a casual striped rug (which is another flash sale site find from One King’s Lane). The touches of black in the door, the letter on the wall, and the stripes in the rug were truly fairly and understated I thought. Lori has this way of decorating that sort of screams “oh I simply tossed this together” – especially in person. It truly gives off an excellent not-too-fussy vibe. After all, two kids under two and a half live here, so it has to be functional and work for the family.

Here is a shot of their bedroom upstairs, continuing with the not-too-fussy theme. Does not everything from the small sunburst mirror (another secondhand find) to those cool dark sconces and that orange pillow simply feel warm and inviting without feeling extra frou-frou? The whole house has a quite “we in fact live here” vibe, which is excellent and comfortable. And those sconces also hail from The Decorating Outlet here in Richmond.

This fairly side chair on the other side of their bedroom was a secondhand score (Lori recovered the seat with some new fabric from a local fabric outlet called U-Fab). I enjoy how those ikat-ish stripes in the fabric pick up on the darker elements in the room like the dark frames, the dark sconces above the bed, the dresser, etc. Simply like in her hallway (two shots back) Lori has a way with using hits of dark colors simply so (it never feels dark or brooding, simply crisp and interesting).

Here is their bathroom and although they inherited a tub in the middle of the room set on a diagonal, Lori chose to work with what she had and simply brought in a ton of function. So she had the same handyman who built that excellent media cabinet in her family room build the cabinets under those two windows on the back wall and she brought in that fairly dresser with the mirror above it for even more storage.

This is in fact where she bathes her kids, so it is pleasant to have that dark-drawered dresser (another thifty find from an old antique shop) to fill with kid-bath-stuff, while the white cabinets under the windows are used for seating and even more storage for her and her husband’s stuff. And going back to the dark hits of color thing that Lori does so well, see how she picked a dark-framed mirror and that dark-fronted cabinet to balance the dark vanities on the other side of the room? Enjoy that.

Ellie’s room is excellent. This is how it looked before she was born – all floofed for the camera (of course the pillows and stuffed animals are out of the crib now that she’s here). And see that fairly crib? It is from Pottery Barn – but she got it on Craigslist! Excellent right? She did not even need to paint it, it came that color.

The bunny art above the crib is something Lori found at a local store called Strawberry Fields, but the cool thing is that it is in fact by a local artist that John and I met at the craft fair last year. It is a small world, eh? We enjoy her stuff (Clara has the same bunny in the hall). And how cute is that felt mobile? It was an Etsy find.

Lori also got these cute book shelves on Etsy. I enjoy the hot pink color and the way they play with the side table that Lori painted with a hot pink top. And that plush rocker below them is also a Craigslist find.

Owen’s room is excellent too. We were especially into this giant piece of art over his crib, which was in fact a large piece of fabric that Lori stretched over a canvas and stapled around the back. It totally looks like a giant painting, right? The fabric is Marimekko for anyone wondering (it is out of stock, but hopefully that link and the name might assist you track it down on ebay or from another fabric wholesaler if you are interested?).

There are sets of fairly pocket doors in a few places, like this one that looks into the guest room.

Here is that room a little closer. I enjoy the old metal bed and the placement of it under the window with the peaked ceilings on either side of it. The cool thing about that bed is that it was Lori’s from childhood. Yup, she’s had it for nearly 30 years!

The same goes for the dresser, it is from her room as a child and she did not even paint it (or the bed) – this is them in their original 30-years-old glory. Do not you enjoy the casual cottage-y feeling they add to the room? And of course I am awkwardly obsessed with that glass based lamp (another secondhand find of Lori’s).

Looking through the other side of those pocket doors you can see a chill little office/playroom/sitting room.

I enjoyed these cool blue cube tables that Lori paired together (they are from Home Decorators), along with framing a National Geographic map that she cut into nine parts on the back wall.

So that is Lori, Greg, Owen, and Ellie’s excellent home. We are so grateful they invited us over to shoot some pics to share with you – and we hope you folks got a kick out of touring their home from the comforts of your chair/sofa. Want to play the go-to part game? I enjoyed the pocket doors, the colorful art in the kitchen, and the excellent family room built-ins. Meanwhile John dug that clever fabric-made-into-art over Owen’s crib, the fact that most furnishings were secondhand finds, and also called those living room built-ins right along with me. Ok, your turn.

Psst- Let us keep snooping! Click here to virtually walk around over 45 homes that we have crashed.