Colorful Southern Family Home in Macon, GA
| Location | Macon, Georgia |
|---|---|
| Home Type | 1988 traditional with a wraparound porch |
| Scope | Kitchen gut remodel. Living room, dining room, breakfast room, and entry. |
| Designed For | My own family |
| Completed | 2023 |
| Photography | Robin Gatti Photography |
The House
This one is mine. My husband and I bought it in Macon, and neither of us is from anywhere close to here. (I'm Canadian, he's from Minnesota.) We landed in Middle Georgia with no inherited opinions about what a Southern house is supposed to look like.
It's a 1988 builder house in a subdivision, under pine trees, with a wraparound porch - which is to say it's the same house a lot of people around here own. Nothing about it was rare or precious, and nothing about it was going to become interesting on its own.
That turned out to be freeing. The house is Southern now, but it isn't the version people picture. No sea of beige, no room saved for company, nothing in it that would make you nervous to set down a drink.
It's also the only project where I was the client, which is a stranger experience than it sounds. I made faster decisions and bolder ones, and I've lived with (and loved) every single one of them since.
Say Goodbye to the Kitchen
Dated 1980s cabinets and generic granite? We took all of it out.
What went back in is full-height white cabinetry, which is the single best decision in this room. Cabinets that stop short of the ceiling create a shelf that exists to collect dust and things you'll never use again. Running them all the way up gets you real storage and a taller-feeling room in the same move.
The island is blue, the backsplash tile is a blue Kelly Wearstler pattern, and the pendants over the island are Moroccan. Brass stools, white quartz counters. The original hardwood floors stayed exactly as they were, worn spots and all, because a floor with some history in it keeps a bright new kitchen from looking like it was installed yesterday.
The pop-art print in the acrylic shadow frame is the piece people ask about. It doesn't look like it belongs in a kitchen. That's exactly why it's there.
Kitchen + Breakfast Room
A navy dining room and a teal sofa
Everyone will tell you not to paint a dining room a dark color. Small room, they'll say. It'll feel like a cave.
Mine is Sherwin-Williams Dark Night, and it's the best room in the house! Dark walls in a dining room work because of when you actually use the room - which is usually at night, with candles and lamps and people around a table. A pale dining room at 8pm is just a pale room with the lights on. This one closes in around everybody, in the good way.
The gallery wall holds work by Macon artist Joe Adams next to old family photos and my kids' artwork, which is exactly the mix I'd talk a client into and exactly the one most people are afraid to try. Acrylic dining chairs keep the room from getting heavy.
In the living room, a teal tufted sofa, a brick fireplace, and a vintage chinoiserie bar cabinet gifted by a stylish friend. Velvet, leather, hammered metal, inlaid wood. All of it chosen to survive two kids and a dog, because family-friendly and beautiful were never actually in conflict.
Living + Dining Room
Start Your Design Project
Want a house that looks like you actually live in it?
We design for professional families across Macon and Middle Georgia. Historic homes, new builds, lake houses, and houses like mine that just needed someone to stop being safe.
If you've been talked out of something you actually wanted, I've got your back. A Connection Call is the first step, and I'll tell you honestly whether the project is a fit.