Finishing touches prove to be worth the wait for modern farmhouse in Magnolia
Lydia and BradWalker were building a 5,600-square-foot home in Magnolia and contemplated hiring an interior designer to help with selections, but Lydia convinced her husband that she could handle it herself. She appreciated beautiful home design and had good taste. What could go wrong?
The first problem came in paint selections, with a white that ended up looking bluer than they thought it would and a trim color that looked yellower than expected. They thought they might have to repaint the entire interior, but they ended up repainting the trim Benjamin Moore’s “Simply White.”
Lydia chose a kitchen backsplash, but it looked terrible with the interior brick, so they took it down and replaced it with new tile. A track was installed outside the family room, but the barn-style doors it was to hold were never chosen.
A year and a half after the couple moved in, the house still wasn’t even halfway furnished.
“I saw ways it could have given us more time with our family and would have saved so much money,” said Brad, 38, who owns a turf company, Walker Grass Farms. “We got rid of all of our furniture and we were getting new everything. But a year or so into living here, we were 40 percent complete. We had a bed but no nightstands, no rugs, no décor anywhere. No curtains. Lydia kept telling me she was looking, but she has a full schedule. I just realized she was burned out and she was done making decisions.”
Brad called Ashley Moore of Moore House Interiors, the design firm that he and his wife contemplated hiring before construction started, asking for their help getting it finished and making it more livable.
Larson Folkerts was the lead designer on their project, and she focused on making the home cozy and functional. That meant window treatments everywhere, then adding various pieces of furniture and décor to finish out rooms.
“This is definitely a farmhouse-style home, but what they really wanted was a home that’s tailored and polished, but also relaxed and curated. They wanted rooms that were finished,” she said.
Inside the front door, the formal living room greets visitors as a bright, cheerful setting. A pair of tufted sofas beckon you to sit and chat, and swivel chairs allow you to pivot to different conversations in the room.
Folkerts chose a blue patterned rug to add some color and emphasized that size really does matter.
Most homeowners choose rugs that are too small, while designers opt for a size large enough for at least the front feet of sofas and chairs to be on the rug. Preferably, all of the furniture — front and back legs — should be on the rug.
“Always go bigger than you think you need to go. In a room with high ceilings like this one, you need a big rug to anchor the space,” Folkerts said. “If you have a rug size in mind, tape it off and see if you can get a feel for it.”
Each side of the living room fireplace has built-in shelving units, and Larson and her team brought in vases, plants and other items to fill them.
TheWalkers’ primary bedroom had just a bed and a rug, and Brad found himself setting his cellphone on the floor every night because he didn’t have a nightstand.
Folkerts finished the room with a sofa and decorative pillows in front of a picture window, a spindle chair for another corner, a pair of nightstands with sconces and a curved cabinet to hold photos and objets d’art for a wall space next to the fireplace.
Bedrooms have gotten larger, and Folkerts and other designers focus on turning them into retreats for their clients.
“Most masters have room for furniture, whether it’s a sofa or two accent chairs. We want to create a cozy seating area for our clients to read, lounge or put their feet up,” Folkerts said. “I imagine a couple sits there and has a chat at the end of the day. We want to create that retreat for them.”
Some rooms in theWalkers’ home simply needed accessories and window treatments. Other rooms needed more furniture.
“So many people ask, ‘What do I need to finish this room?’ It’s number one, get the correct size rug, and number two, get window treatments. They make such a difference in any space,” Folkerts said. “We gravitate to woven blinds. We love how they add texture and warmth to a space. Then we might add sheer or linen curtains on top — that’s our go-to style.”
Window treatments in the primary bedroom set the tone for the rest of the home. Here, Folkerts replaced plantationstyle shutters with woven seagrass blinds and lined blackout linen draperies. The seagrass blinds are found throughout the home, a warm, cozy choice that fits the modern farmhouse vibe of theWalkers’ spacious, fivebedroom home.
Two fun rooms are for the couple’s daughters, 10-year-old Brooklyn and 8-year-old Brynlee, who are home schooled. One is a playroom — a large pass-through space off of the living room that leads to the girls’ bedrooms — and the other
is the girls’ schoolroom.
The playroom has a faux home facade on one wall, to give the space the feel of an indoor playhouse. A tidy window seat now has a soft cushion and matching pillows, and built-in shelving is now full of storage bins, along with pictures, art and books.
“We do a lot of entertaining, so it’s a favorite place for little kids,” said Lydia, 39. “They love being on the window seat. I’ll find them reading there, or they’ll pull out games to play with.”
The girls’ schoolroom was fairly functional, but Larson found a cute light for the center of the room and added window blinds to control light.
The family room needed some help, too. Folkerts found a pair of Rustica modern barnstyle doors that are glass with a black steel frame, blending perfectly with the home’s architecture, including a black iron railing on the staircase across from the family room’s entrance.
French doors and a pair of windows let a lot of light into this room, making it hard to watch TV from the roomy sectional that spans the room. Seagrass blackout shades took care of the glare, and Folkerts added decorative pillows and a tufted ottoman/coffee table to make the room more comfortable.
Moore House Interiors started their work at theWalkers home in February and finished in late summer.
“I don’t look around the house thinking that a whole lot is missing anymore,” Brad said happily.
Lydia, who is as busy as ever teaching her kids from home, sees her home as having a base that she can play with, changing out pillows, flowers or other items with the season. She’s already thinking about Thanksgiving and where she’ll put their Christmas tree.
“I’m excited for when Christmas rolls around. We didn’t have a tree in our living room last year, so I’m excited to do that this year,” Lydia said. “I will probably have one in each room.”