Hi Friends!!

I feel like it’s been a long while since I have sat down to visit this little bloggy blog. We all know it has been a wild couple months, but I have some pretty pictures to share, and that’s worth breaking my long silence. I am BEYOND excited to finally share the reveal of #clientmemyselfandicantmakeupmymind with you!!!

If you missed the back story of how our house came to be, let’s do a quick review. We bought our home way back in 2016. The original house was about 1500 square feet, and almost untouched since being built in 1956. It stayed in the same family the whole time. When we first found the house, we knew it had SO much potential, and the actual land itself was worthy of all the heart eyes. We just totally fell in love with the property and what felt like a giant expanse of land and endless possibilities. It was chock full of mature Oak, Cedar and even fruiting citrus trees. You see, in our neck of the woods, it is very rare to find a flat acre of land anywhere near the Los Angeles area within our budget and full of such nature. We knew that when this opportunity presented itself, we had to jump at the chance to buy this beauty and hoped to build our dream home one day. After a couple years of living in the existing home and saving every penny, we decided to make our dreams a reality. The hardest part of the whole process, was being my own client. It had some high highs and low lows… all of which I learned major lessons from! Even though I do this for clients for a living (obviously) nothing could have prepared me for going through this process for myself!! It is just a completely different ball game when it is your time, your energy, and ultimately your money.

We started demo in May 2018, and moved in earlier this year. Actually March 2020, days before the world shut down, and my whole life as I knew it changed forever after being diagnosed with MS. Luckily, we had the guidance and support of my Dad, who we hired as our GC. He has been a builder for years, and working with him meant we could trouble shoot, and make things happen on the fly. He is the best, and we are grateful for everything he did for us over the years to get us into our home.

I don’t want to bombard you all with too much too soon, and I have sooo much to share, so I figured the best way forward was to break the series of photos down into multiple mini tours.  Today we’re gonna start at the front! The Entryway and Living Room…which BTW looks SO different from when we first got the place! I mentioned we started with 1,500 square feet of living space that was definitely dated, and pretty void of natural light. After all was said and done, we added almost 2,500 square feet and now have 4 bedrooms and 4.5 baths…and oh SO much natural light!

I know you’ll want ALL the sources…SO I am giving it up!! Keep on scrolling to get all the details. You can also see more of what we went through in Progress Tour 1, Progress Tour 2, and Progress Tour 3…

xoxo Amber

entryway

They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression, so I designed our entryway to be a knockout. I wanted a space we felt happy to come home to, and also one that felt welcoming to our friends and family, was naturally bright, and always a blank enough canvas to evolve with my ever changing furniture swap outs, and numerous rug selections. I have always loved the look of brick, and I knew I wanted it sprinkled throughout our home. We chose a reclaimed brick from Mission Tile on the entryway floors and laid it in a herringbone pattern with a soldiered pattern border to give it some interest. On the walls, we used vertical shiplap and painted it “Table Linen” by Portola Paints . It’s the perfect Greigey tone that feels bright, but not too bright, and complimented the reclaimed ceilings and the brick floors. Speaking of ceilings…this is also a recurring architectural element that I used throughout the house. I sourced all the reclaimed white oak from Ross Alan Reclaimed and they worked with me to mill the tongue and groove boards, as well as make all the box beams for us. No shocker, I chose a vintage cabinet to fill the space up and house our keys and such, leaned a vintage mirror and framed piece of art for interest and to check our teeth as we walk out the door, and hung an insanely cool vintage coat rack to hang all stuff on!

Entry wall color // ‘Table Linen’ by Portola Paints in Eggshell, and Trim Color is ‘Piano Room’ by Portola Paints in Eggshell

Ceiling Beams // Ross Alan Reclaimed white oak lumbar

Flooring // Mission Tile 

Baseboards // WindsorONE tongue-and-groove painted in Portola Paints ‘Piano Room’ in Eggshell

Wall Sconces // Custom

shop entryway

living room

Our Living Room or really our Great Room and is one of my favorite rooms in the whole house…although I might say that about every room! It’s the center of the entire house, and connects to our kitchen and dining nook which you’ll get to see more of next week. I value spending time with my family above all else, so designing an open layout for our most-used spaces felt like the best way to go. On any given evening you can find Mike cooking in the kitchen, while I catch up on homeschooling with Gwynnie at our dining table listening to classical music while the fire roars in the back ground…HA! OR more realistically, you can find all of us on our devices sitting alone in various corners of the room. HEY, at least we are all still together in the same room, right? Once you walk through the entry, everything opens up with high, vaulted ceilings with T&G detail from WindsorOne. The room is flooded with natural light with big floor to ceiling windows and sliding doors from Marvin. The flooring from DuChateau is white oak with random width planks, which I really love. I knew I wanted a big ole fireplace right in the center of it all and I wanted a cool unique limestone mantel surround. After searching and searching I finally scored one on 1st dibs from a vendor in Europe. You’ll also spy a peek of that same brick from the entryway that we brought back for the fireplace surround. You may be noticing, I broke the Designer rule of all rules. The peeves of all peeves. YES, WE PUT A TV ABOVE THE FIREPLACE. I know, it’s a sin, but I had to pick and choose my battles while building a house with my spouse, and Mike Lewis really wanted a TV in this room. It has actually not been that bothersome to me, because we tried our best to hide it by recessing it within the drywall. Plus, there’s just nothin like watching the Dodgers win the world series with the fireplace on!! When designing this area, I knew I wanted shelves for all my tchotchkes, but I didn’t want them to be your standard built ins. I wanted the pieces to feel like furniture, so we custom designed some! With a combo of open and closed shelving we can hide away all our board games but still display all my funky collectables. They are made of white oak, and I chose a cerused oak finish. The color and the texture are just gorge!

Flooring // DuChateau Varació in Tonalé

Doors // Marvin Signature Ultimate Multi-Slide Door 

Windows // Marvin Signature Ultimate Collection

Ceiling // Tongue & Groove WindsorONE

Paint // Walls are ‘Figueroa’ by Portola Paints in Roman Clay finish, Windows and Doors are painted ‘Piano Room’ by Portola Paints in Eggshell finish, Trim is ‘Figueroa’ by Portola Paints in Eggshell, Ceiling is ‘Table Linen’ by Portola Paints in Eggshell finish 

living room continued

Now that we’ve covered all the materials that lay the groundwork for the room, let’s get down to all the furniture and decor! And you already know what I’m gonna say…if it ain’t vintage, it’s from Shoppe Amber Interiors! Sorry, but I have a pretty good discount, cause I know some higher ups at the company, and I basically got a really good deal. If it wasn’t Shoppe, then it’s vintage pieces I have hoarded along the way. From the leather arm chairs, to the side tables, and the console, its all one-of-a-kind and that has always been my decor jam. I have never not used vintage in a single home or project I have designed. I believe if you want a room to have soul you’ve gotta have some vintage!! Of course it takes time to source all the right pieces, so some of these gems I have been hanging on to for years waiting for the right home for them. They finally found one!!

Furniture // Carpenter Sofa with custom bench seat, Lewis Arm Chairs, Connecticut Coffee Table, Topanga Cubes all Shoppe Amber Interiors

shop living room

With two dogs, three cats, a husband and a kid, you kinda just have to be ok with nothing in your home being too precious. Everything in this space feels comfortable, and approachable and is Made For Living. It’s definitely hard when you care so much about your surroundings and want things to look just so, but at the end of the day I never want my designs to feel stuffy, and I never want anyone to feel worried when trying to chill in our home. I’m a firm believer that things just get better with age and wear, and being amongst the things and people you love, matters the most. Stay tuned next week for more of the tour!