Hello! If you celebrated Thanksgiving, I hope it was fabulous! Today, we’re peeking inside a home full of flava! I met Suzy, a talented artist on Instagram and immediately fell in love with her style. It’s one of a kind and she most certainly has an eye for unique things as you can tell from the decorative items in her home. Suzy and her husband bought their colonial-style house in coastal Virginia about 8 months ago after relocating from the Southwest. Her husband is a pilot so they led a nomadic lifestyle and were renters prior, so you can imagine how excited they were to finally settle and become homeowners! In Suzy’s own words, ” It feels extra special, too, to call this house our home after uprooting our two young kiddos, ages 2 and 5, so much. We very much look forward to settling in for a longer haul and making a lot of memories within these walls.”
Suzy, also known as Winkwinkstudio is an artist and her home definitely reflects that! Check out her shop here! Ok, no more long narrative from me, here is Suzy telling you a bit about her home and her design style.
I would describe my style as eclectic maximalist. I love a mix of everything–patterns, textures, styles, and especially color. What would be considered a little too much for some people is juuust enough for me, and I think that one of the perks of getting older (there’s only a handful, I’m learning–argh wrinkles and cellulite, why oh why) is that I care way less about what other people will think. There are many things in my house that are quirky and maybe a little kitschy, and while it may even be considered tacky to traditionalists, I’ll just quote one of the greats and say: “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.” And boy, is that freeing. Because it gives you license to surround yourself with things that truly reflect your style and personality and things that only can you smile. I pay the bank too much money every month to live in a house that’s decorated for other people!
Before moving in, my husband and I rolled up our sleeves in a major way and undertook a pretty extensive DIY face lift. There were 10 different kinds of flooring, ‘interesting’ paint choices (really, sometimes I just don’t understand people), and outdated bad-brass 90’s fixtures. He spent many a long day and night laying the engineered floors by himself, while I painted and updated things like doorknobs and outlet covers and overhead light fixtures. Wow, did that relatively small investment cost go a long way! There were also super ugly, poorly constructed corner built-ins in the living room that we promptly took a sledgehammer to. It enabled us to have a doorway between this room (which I think was initially meant to be a Family Room) with our adjoining TV room (which would have been the Formal Living Space in a traditional Colonial floor plan). When we toured the house while house hunting, we noticed the previous owners had the TV in this room with the fireplace–which is open to the kitchen–and the first living space nearest the front entry had an assortment of never-sat-on formal furniture. It was evident that literally no one ever went into the “Formal” living room, and everyone tended to gather in the family room with the TV and close proximity to snacks in the kitchen. This is a common mistake, I think, made by lots of homeowners that have their pretty little UNUSED formal living room so separated from the heart of the house. What a waste! To remedy this, in the hopes of really utilizing every square inch of our downstairs, we designated the first living space as you walk in the front door as our TV room–it’s nice and cozy with a big sectional–and the big living room in the back that’s adjacent to the kitchen as our formal entertaining room. Probably not how our mothers from the 60’s would prefer, but I think it’s a really great way to spread the love around your house, so to speak. Now, when we have other young families over, we love having the ability to entertain our adult friends in this room while our kiddies munch popcorn with a movie on just next door.
My main goal of the space, style-wise, was to create a fun atmosphere that encourages long evenings with friends laughing, sipping cocktails, maybe playing some games around the coffee table. I wanted a space where people never got bored. I wanted it to look collected over time, a unique mix of midcentury modern, boho, industrial, maybe even a little ‘crazy lady.’ Before kids, my husband–once my high school sweetheart–and I spent a lot of time traveling the world, having big adventures, (also: sleeping in, ha!) and of course, collecting lots of sentimental goodies to remember it all by. Those souvenirs, along with a really (really) big dose of my prized vintage finds from antique stores, flea markets, craiglists etc, have been lovingly schlepped around the past 12 years and I thought it high time to finally create a space for all the goodness to be displayed and enjoyed. The big blank wall mocked me for about a month until I just took the plunge and installed floor to ceiling, wall to wall, shelving. We simply screwed brackets into the studs and stained pine boards my favorite yummy Walnut shade, threw all my hoarded treasures up there and never looked back. It gets constant rearranging–and welcomes new additions as I slowly discover new consignment/vintage store gems in the area–and I love that it holds so much interest not just to me, but to everyone who comes into our home. The best compliment I can receive when people first come to my house after they’ve gotten to know me a little is: your home is so YOU.
My favorite thing in the room is probably my vintage leather lounger chair I scored off craigslist for something nutty like $40 when we lived in Palm Springs–MCM mecca, believe me!. I’ve seen this exact chair on firstdibs and Chairish for crazy money, but I’d never have the heart to sell this thing, it feels like an actual friend in the room to me. The mushroom-toned tufted leather is buttery soft and the chair is the perfect place to curl up with some tea and a good book.
Their beautiful girls. Adorable!
Thank you Suzy for sharing a sneak peek of your beautiful home with us. What a treat!xx
