let’s nest.
Bougie on a budget…that’s what I once called my design style when a friend asked. I like pretty things, but “pretty” seemed to be always out of my reach. When you study printmaking in undergrad and creative writing in grad—cough, cough, double basket weaving—you’re pinching pennies for most of your 20s. Fortunately, that’s how you get creative. We can make “pretty” happen to your home. Let’s nest.
PopPop used to always say We’re not building a piano when I’d get tied up and stuck in perfectionism. Now that he’s gone, I tell myself that as I fiddle with my house and the woodwork. I’ve come to love the imperfect; especially, since imperfect is actually just right. In carpentry, if you overwork wood or spend too long fussy with it, you can make it worse. Same goes for life, right?
Just the other day, I was waiting for Dad to come home from work. I thought I’d royally f@#&ed up a set of drawers. When he walked into the garage, he saw my face, laughed, and said What did you do? When I showed him, he said, You can’t permanently damage carpentry…there’s always a way to fix it. Carpentry is one of the most forgiving trades out there.
The home featured here is a 1922 craftsman in Norfolk, Virginia. It was most likely a “Kit” build, and when we took apart the house, we found everything from studs, shiplap and lath labeled in a delicate, pencilled cursive. We tried to restore as much of the craftsman “essence” as possible by repeating beadboard, shiplap and wainscoting accents.
