For the past few weeks we’ve eaten, slept, and breathed everything showhouse-related. We knew it would be a lot of work, but I’ll admit we seriously underestimated how much time, effort, and shopping it would take to turn a 3,500-square-foot blank canvas into a lived-in-looking home—especially in just two weeks. So yes, we’ve basically been camping out there or driving back and forth with the car piled high, unloading, arranging, and repeating.
We assumed most major decisions were done after choosing fixtures and finishes over the last few months, but we hadn’t counted on how many surfaces actually need styling. Since January we’d been gathering furniture, narrowing art choices, ordering curtains and bedding, and collecting accessories. After our big furniture-unloading day two weeks ago, we naively expected the house to feel finished. Instead, most rooms looked sparse and unfinished. Cue a minor freak-out.
We fell short on tabletops, vanities, counters, porches, beds, desks—you name it. Fortunately our builder and the Homearama team reassured us: we just needed to shop. Thank goodness for a bigger car, because we’ve been filling it almost constantly. We estimate nearly 20 full-car runs to small boutiques, thrift shops, and larger retailers for pillows, rugs, planters, tabletop accessories, bedding, books, and more.
Picture us pushing multiple carts through HomeGoods, Target, and World Market on several occasions, loading up on frames, pillows, dishware, and towels. Each trip to checkout felt a little embarrassing—especially as cashiers watched our growing piles—but everyone was extremely understanding.
We even made grocery runs to style the kitchen; the cashier might have assumed the unusual haul was pregnancy cravings—nine bags of powdered donuts, anyone? Pro tip: don’t put the donuts out too early or the team will happily eat them while finishing floors, touch-ups, electrical tweaks, and carpentry. Still, it felt good to reward everyone—sometimes motivation comes in donut form.
As of yesterday the house felt about 85% complete, including the breakfast nook shelves. Sherry still has a handful of final tweaks that make her twitchy when shown, but things are much further along than a few weeks ago. A crew was through on Friday to shoot promotional photos and video (our first deadline), and the builder is hosting an event there today (our second deadline). All of that, plus a baby arriving in nine days, has made this feel like a sprint.
One last-minute tweak: we painted the backs of the breakfast nook shelves gray to tie them to the kitchen cabinets. It came together once we started placing items and realized the space needed that subtle connection—Timber Wolf Gray by Ben Moore ended up being the match.
That paint job was done yesterday afternoon by Parker, who also installed the laundry room wallpaper. We made a last-minute decision to add a chunky white floating shelf in the laundry room after a quick consult with the builder and the event organizer. The carpenter built and painted it within 24 hours, and it’s a small but functional addition we all love. Hooray for last-hour wins.
The foyer now features a big white driftwood mirror snagged at HomeGoods. We’d hung art there two days earlier, so the decorating process has been anything but linear. Trial and error is the name of the game: sometimes you have to live with items a moment before deciding whether they’re a keeper or not, and then scramble to replace the “mehs” with “heck yeahs.”
In the living room we displayed a large, cheeky painting of Burger by a talented friend. The real homeowner might replace it with a TV (there’s a hookup behind it), but for the show we liked the playful touch among more serious furnishings and accessories.
Many readers have asked what happens to the furniture and accessories after the show. The homeowner can choose to buy select pieces, but most items will be returned to vendors, donated to a local ReStore, or repurposed for future model homes if they came from the builder’s decorating budget. The goal is that the house ultimately works for the actual family who buys it, not the fictional family we imagined for staging.
One of the trickiest rooms to style was the upstairs playroom/reading room. We planned for big bookshelves with a built-in bench so it could serve as either a quiet reading nook or a kids’ play space. We decorated for both—games and books—to help future owners picture multiple uses. We’re still waiting on a bench cushion and a few finishing touches, but it’s shaping up nicely.
Filling the shelves with books turned into an unexpected task. A local bookshop saved us: they had advance paperback samples that couldn’t be sold and were destined for recycling, so they donated boxes that helped fill the space beautifully.
We also added a spun glass chandelier in that room that plays nicely against the Dragonfly-colored walls, though photographing it against the window proved a challenge—still learning our angles in this house.
Bedding and pillows filled many of our car runs: shams, duvets, quilts, sheets, bedskirts, and other staples for four beds. We were fortunate to receive a patterned set donated for the master that pairs nicely with another artwork loaned for the show.
With most of the big items in place, we’re eager to check off the remaining details so we can squeeze in a few normal-ish days before baby Barnacle arrives. Our parents have been a huge help with Clara, who’s been “breaking in” rooms—coloring at the desk in the girls’ room, playing make-believe in the playroom, and building Legos at the boys’ desk.
This week is showhouse-heavy as we finish up, but being so close to complete is energizing. We plan to shoot each room and share detailed posts with sources, alternate angles, and explanations for our choices. Please hold your “where’s that from?” questions until those posts—we’ll source every last item for you as we roll them out this week.
One final favorite: a local artist is finishing a chalk-pen mural on the butler’s pantry chalkboard wall, turning it into a coffee-and-wine station for our imaginary family. The mural isn’t dusty or smudgeable by hand but can be removed with a magic eraser if a future homeowner prefers. Once she adds the final touches we’ll capture wide shots to show how that little hallway between the kitchen and dining room has evolved.
We know many of our design choices aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, and that’s okay. These showhomes are meant to be bold and specific—the seven Homearama teams are encouraged to create unique houses to keep the event varied and interesting. Oddly enough, those special features often help showhomes sell quickly, even if they’re not universally neutral.
While builders create many mass-appeal homes each year, showhomes are a different animal. We toured a few others in this year’s event and can’t wait to share wide shots when everyone finishes decorating. For now, please bear with us as we power through this intense final week and then share all of the after photos and sources. In the meantime, I’m logging serious steps on my FitBit and Sherry’s feet definitely need some TLC—so I should probably go give her a foot rub before I sign off.
