When my client reached out, she was stretched in about three directions at once. She'd just purchased a home in Asheville as a second home to be near family, but she had a newborn and a full life back in South Florida. The idea of furnishing a home from a distance — without the time or bandwidth to be hands-on — was overwhelming. She knew what she wanted the home to feel like: serene and modern, something that worked with the clean lines of the 1970s architecture. But pulling it all together on her own wasn't realistic. That's where I came in.
She wanted the home to feel like an exhale. Restful, serene, and comfortable enough to actually relax in — especially important for a second home that needed to deliver on the promise of getting away. The house had great 1970s bones and she wanted to honor that, not erase it. The goal was to bring it into its best current self: keeping the character of the architecture while shedding anything that felt dated or heavy.
The bones of this house told a story, and I didn't want to talk over them. The design problem that excited me most was figuring out how to honor the soul of a 1970s home while making it feel completely of the moment. That balance — respectful but not precious — is one of my favorite puzzles to solve.
Second Home · Full Furnishing
The Mill House
The Work
The project touched the main living spaces and several bedrooms, with the goal of creating a home that felt complete and considered from the moment you walked in. The living room became the heart of it — a cozy gathering space oriented around the fireplace where family could actually settle in together. The bedrooms were designed to feel stylish and restful without being overdone. One happy surprise was a mid-century bed and a pair of nightstands left behind by the previous owners. Rather than replacing them, we leaned in and let them serve as a nod to the home's original character.
One of the upstairs bedrooms had an awkward nook with a low sloped ceiling — the kind of space that's easy to write off. Instead of ignoring it, we leaned into the constraints and tucked a low sleeper sofa right in. What had been dead space became one of the coziest spots in the house: a perfect reading nook or an extra place for a guest to sleep. Sometimes the quirks of an older home are its best features. They just need a little coaxing.
