The Inspiration For Our Little Eclectic Home

When we set out to build I knew basically two things 1) it was going to be on the small side 2) it needed to have “charm".

So like any good 20-something, off to Pinterest I went! Somehow I stumbled across James Farmer’s The Farmdale Cottage and I absolutely fell in love. I thought “This is IT! The coziest little Southern cottage of my dreams!!!”

I loved the rich gray-brown (I believe he used something close to “Dark Chocolate” by Valspar) against the vintage look brick and white trim, along with the gabled front porch. I think his front doors are painted, not wood, but I could just imagine something similar with a richly stained double wood front door.

And although the floorplan wasn’t going to work for Damon and I, and there was no way we were going to be able to deal with a metal roof, the general concept for look and shape was perfect! These are the photos we sent to our architect so he could help us come up with something similar for our own home!

The kitchen was also something I found on Pinterest and immediately said “that’s it.” I wanted to do something fun with our cabinets (not white) so I was looking for blue/gray cabinet inspo and found these! I loved the color of these cabinets (they’re Benjamin Moore “Wrought Iron”) and also loved the idea of doing a big window over the sink and leaving that wall cabinet-less.

We ended up going with a similar color that Damon actually picked out that was more blue and less gray (Benjamin Moore “Abyss”)

The other thing I had a very clear vision for was our fireplace and mantle. I basically just showed this exact picture to both our brick mason and framer and they built it based off the image! We used the same brick we used on the exterior of our home - you can see what we picked here.

Moral of the story: spend some time looking for specific things and styles that you love! Also, don’t be afraid to show your builder exactly what you want - they’d usually rather you show them a picture instead of just describing it to them. It helps them give you exactly what you’re looking for!