Interior Design Q&A
Creating a home, playroom inspo, kitchen decor, cleaning tips
I grew up in two homes that felt warm and lived-in but beautiful and intentional all the same.
The first we lived in from the time my brother was born until I was in the fifth grade, a one-story blue house with a white picket fence on the side and the most magical brick patio in the backyard to two young children. Our bedrooms were all at the end of the house, three doors to a square hallway, the last being the tiniest bathroom with a pedestal sink. There was a galley kitchen, with the cabinets painted a deep green and a round wooden table in the breakfast room at the end. And our favorite room was through the breakfast room, a den with a huge green club chair and a red floral couch, a black fireplace, the piano in the back. That house was painted greens and khakis and pink in my room, the walls covered in black and white family pictures, cabinets of books and burning candles, blankets draped on the back of every chair.
Right before middle school, my parents finished renovating an old, old two-story stone house just a few blocks down the road. I first stepped foot in that house when my mom dragged us to an estate sale with her, and I left complaining that it smelled of the elderly. It wasn’t air conditioned and hadn’t been cared for in quite a while, but she fell in love with it, taking home green drinking glasses and a dream. The house was gutted and a contractor hired, and a few years later, it was ours. It felt like a mansion coming from our tiny house with the tiny bathroom, rooms sitting empty for a little while until they had curtains made and our family friend and an interior designer in town Kenny came to help. The day he finished decorating was so very surreal, this gift of walking into your once empty home to the smell of new couches with matching pillows, thick rugs never before been stepped on, all of our old pictures hung. It felt like our home, every detail so thoughtfully us and has felt that way ever since.
Given this love I’ve had for the way my home has always made me feel, it never should have been a surprise the joy I found growing up rearranging corners in my room or organizing my desk drawers, choosing pictures to frame, the way my bed looks made, even setting up my doll’s furniture in their pink two-story house. Setting up my home has always been my favorite part of any move, into a dorm or the three moves Price and I have made together. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized the power in interior design, in how to make a space feel like a home, even temporarily. I think of the rental Price and I lived in while we renovating our current home, this cabin by a pond and the interstate, one bedroom with no doors to separate the living room, kitchen, and where we slept. All of our furniture for the most part was in storage, and so I made do with a curtain for privacy, Annie’s crate as a nightstand, little lamps on the corner of every table. Every night, I longed for my house to be done, imagining the morning we finally got to move into this dream of a home. But nearly three years later, I lay in bed and think fondly of that little studio cabin with the concrete floors where just a little inclination for interior design made it feel like home.
I think there is so much more to designing a home than perhaps the widely understood definition of interior design tells you. I asked Chat GPT to describe my home style, and I was first of all stunned by the depth of answer, and second, very much honored to read this of myself:
“…often described as heirloom, comfortable, and meaningful, Addy’s interior design style reflects a cozy, slow-living approach rooted in her historic craftsman cottage. Her home’s mood is cozy, comfortable, and homey, while her décor approach is personal, curated, and heirloom-oriented. Her aesthetic celebrates the beauty of intentional everyday living – emphasizing comfort, heritage, and emotional resonance.”
And that’s where I believe the power of personal interior design comes into play. Not copying a Pinterest board or exclusively shopping at Target, not following strict design rules or making decisions based on home resale one day, but in creating and curating a home that feels like your home, the way my parents did, the way I have in every dorm, every apartment, every place I’ve ever lived in.
I love creating home-centered content on social media more than I could have ever thought I would. I love being creative, I love sharing my home in the morning light, I love capturing my home for me to remember. Lived-in, cherished, curated, incomplete, full. And I love being a help to my readers as they create their homes, too. So I’ve asked you to send in some interior design questions, and I’m going to answer a few of them here (and save the rest for another post!)
Q: What pieces do you think you should invest in in a home?
A: I think there are a few things that show their quality very quickly. I’m the first to buy throw pillows from HomeGoods, picture frames from Target, quilts on sale, prints off of Etsy. But I do draw the line here: rugs need investment (the thin, cheap ones that don’t even unfurl after a few days look like the belong in a dorm); all wooden furniture (think dining tables, dressers, hutches, nightstands, bed frames) need to be real wood, preferably antique (because they don’t make wood like they used to apparently); and big pieces of furniture, like couches and chairs. Your home will look and feel significantly more timeless if it’s built off of quality. And keep in mind, this doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be expensive!
Q: All things wall art – how to source and style!
A: The sourcing of art is my husband’s forte. Our collection started after our honeymoon to Newport, Rhode Island, where we fell in love with the east coast. Quickly thereafter, our front porch was oftentimes filled with packages from eBay, carefully wrapped paintings of lighthouses and sailboats and the Castle Hill Inn. We visited quite a few art studios while in Newport, bringing home prints that reminded us of moments from our time there and learning names of local artists we liked. Over time, we’ve built our collection solely through sourcing off of eBay, flipping through piles at antique stores, and one single full-price Parks Beach piece I bought for Price’s birthday last year. I think the key here is finding a style you like and immersing yourself in it, becoming familiar with artists and sellers, and slowly building your collection.
As for styling, I am not the biggest fan of gallery walls, but instead little clusters throughout. I always love hanging a smaller piece beneath a large one, on the side of a mantle or above a nightstand, framing it with a lamp or a pot of dried hydrangeas.
Q: Adding color and character into the kitchen décor!
A: To start, paint your cabinets anything but white! Ours are painted a warm cream (the custom formula is saved in my Instagram stories), but our last house was green (SW Grassland), and we loved those, too. I love butter yellow kitchens especially, too. Think Margo Roth’s (@itsmargoroth on Instagram)!
Then be strategic with what you sit on your countertops, opting for collected, beautiful, useful items rather than just décor. Find a set of canisters for flour, sugar, and salt that you love! Ours our copper from William Sonoma and add such warmth and age to our kitchen. Find old cookbooks at estate sales or flea markets and use those stacked throughout. Hang pretty plates on the wall, display your favorite seasonal dishes, collect vases and pitchers and use those as decoration. Frame family recipe cards or the menu from somewhere special (we have our breakfast menu from our honeymoon framed in our china cabinet!). Use a ceramic pitcher to hold wooden spoons (do not display your rubber spatulas).
My biggest piece of advice though is to find a kitchen lamp and nestle it into the corner somewhere, turning it on first thing every morning and right before you go to bed. It truly makes all the difference.
Q: Good curtain sources?
A: I was gifted a set of pinch-pleat black-out curtains from Two Pages Curtains last summer, and we have absolutely loved them in our bedroom. I had never had “investment” curtains until these, and now that I’m thinking about it, I believe curtains should be invested in, too. They add so much depth to our room.
I always love Pepper Home’s products, too. I’ve never ordered curtains from them, but I most definitely would! And Pottery Barn.
Also, I am a firm believer in having a sheer curtain behind the main curtain for those gloomy days or days your neighbors feel a little too close. And those I do not believe need investing in! We have $5 panels from Walmart and love them.
Q: Where do you start with styling a room?
A: When I think about each room in my house, I can pretty much narrow it down to one thing I loved that inspired the rest. Let’s use my library as an example…I vividly remember sitting on the couch one night, talking to Price about what furniture we would use in there. At that point, we really only knew that his leather recliner would find its home in the library, and that we would be building custom bookshelves. Somehow, we landed on the idea of plaid wallpaper, sending us on a search that ended with Ballard Design’s “Bobby Plaid Wallpaper” in linen/gray. From that one sample swatch, I chose the fabric for my chair-and-a-half, the rug (a year later), our sconces, what art we hung. Even with Kit’s room, Price found the Laura Ashley “Elderwood” wallpaper, and we took that swatch everywhere until we had the room designed.
Q: What do you do when you’re stuck on what to do in a space?
A: Give it time. Take a step back and spend time on Pinterest. Stop obsessively searching for items or solutions, and just consume inspiration for a while. I’ve found it’s better to let a room sit unfinished for as long as necessary than to rush it and risk it feeling overly designed or not designed well.
Q: Dining table and chairs!
A: I am always, always drawn to an English farmhouse table. Some gorgeous ones I found are here, here, and here. As for chairs, I would search for two statement end chairs, like these and these. And then supplement the inside chairs with an eclectic mix of wicker or cane seated beauties like these or these. I have found all of my dining table chairs either on Facebook Marketplace or antique shops, so don’t rush and spend too much money on new ones!
Q: How long would you say it’s taken you for your home to feel mostly complete?
A: I think that as my life evolves, my home’s level of completion evolves, too. After a year of living here, I might would have said it was pretty well complete. But then Kit was born, and the requirements of my home changed, my library bookshelves needed to be reorganized to fit baskets of toys, my kitchen cabinets to fit bottles and cans of formula, my front porch became a place we wanted to spend time on and not just decorate in the fall. And now again, even this afternoon while Kit slept for her afternoon nap, I had Price in our bedroom, rearranging to make room for baby boy’s bassinet and the old rocker my grandpa is giving us. We needed a new lamp for the new dresser for the new baby, and so on and so on. Home is an ever changing gift, and it’s comforting to me that I will never feel it is near completion!
I also think this mindset, as a lover of old things, is freeing, because you never know when you’ll stumble upon a piece you love, but didn’t necessarily need, but fits it in your house all the same. Such as my old pie cabinet in the library we bought on a whim for $100 and filled with quilts and puzzles. I can’t imagine my library without it, but I didn’t know we needed it until I saw it.
Q: Sunroom turned playroom inspo!
A: This would be a dream of a room to have in our home one day! I would lean into making this space both for your family and for your babies…comfy patterned armchairs, a thick, soft rug, bookshelves, family photos, baskets and pretty trunks for storage. I’ve linked some finds here! And a cozy addition my family will definitely be using: an old VHS television off of eBay!
Q: Cleaning routine, please!
A: While this isn’t necessarily interior design, I strongly believe a home is not at its full potential unless it is clean. Everything is so much prettier and cozier when it’s stewarded well!
Every night, I thoroughly clean the kitchen: scrub the sink, load and run the dishwasher, wipe down the countertops and the high chair, put odds and ends away. And every night, Kit’s room and the library where her toys live are picked up. This way, we start our mornings in a house that feels ready for the day!
Every other day or so, I’ll run the vacuum, do a couple loads of laundry (that get folded when they get folded!), and sweep the front porch.
And every Friday morning, I deep clean the bathroom, vacuum the house and mop the kitchen, wash the sheets and towels, dust, and return to all the baskets of laundry that need to be folded and get it all put away. Weekends are my most cherished times at home, when Price is with us and the mornings stretch out with nothing to do but go on walks and watch golf. So I love to do my full reset in preparation for these days!
Cleaning tips I have picked up over the years: use old washcloths instead of paper towels to wipe down your counters and throw them in the washer when you’re done – you can wash them with lights or darks, Dawn dish soap is the answer to cleaning almost anything – I use it to clean my kitchen sink every night and use it to clean our bathtub every week and even sometimes add it to especially dirty laundry loads (it also, when combined with the Messy Mouth spray, has gotten out nearly every stain on Kit’s clothes), Barkeeper’s Friend will take out any steel scratch or clean up any greasy mess or pan I’ve ever tried it on, taking out the trash every night does wonders for the smell of your house (and I recommend using scent-free trash bags), use a lint roller to dust your lampshades and the Swiffer dust pads to dust everything else.
//
I loved answering just a few of your questions…I could’ve gone on all day! See you next week xx