Name: Kristin Salazar
Location: San Diego, California
Size: 3,000 square feet
Years lived in: 10 — owned
We've seen Kristin's ingenious concealment of her garage door opener and we turned to her when we needed a tutorial on installing glass in solid cabinet doors. Now we finally get a chance to see Kristin's entire house.
Kristin's home is what I picture as my ideal California dream home. From the easy breezy style and open floorplan to the fabulous stone fireplace and abundance of detailed steelwork, I'm in love with Kristin's uncommon slice of suburbia.
I also appreciate that Kristin has put together this gorgeous home on a budget. As she mentions in her survey, Kristin doesn't pay full price for anything. That's my kind of lady! It doesn't take a lot of money to look like a million bucks, as this tour demonstrates.
Apartment Therapy Survey:
My Style: Traditional with a french cottage flair.
Inspiration: HGTV, design magazines
Favorite Element: The open floor plan with high ceilings.
Biggest Challenge: The kitchen by far has been the biggest challenge for us but has given us the most satisfaction.
What Friends Say: We have done a great job making our home inviting, warm and lived in.
Biggest Embarrassment: Too embarrassing to say :)
Proudest DIY: Having the kitchen published in Better Homes and Gardens.
Biggest Indulgence: Knocking out the wall between the family and living room. With a growing family the traditional layout of a formal living room was not working for us. We worked our tails off to save our money and hired out a contractor to knock the wall down so we would have one large open floor plan. In our home there is not one space off limits to our kids!
Best Advice: Be patient, creating a home you love takes time. Don't be afraid to paint even if the item is new! Keep your large pieces of furniture neutral. Add color using smaller pieces that can easily be changed out and doesn't cost much!
Dream Sources: I read a plethora of magazines and blogs. Craigslist is our best friend! All of our kitchen appliances were purchased off CL for a fraction of the cost. I rarely ever pay full price for anything!
Resources of Note:
PAINT & COLORS
- • Master bedroom: Sherwin Williams Zircon 7667
• Dining Room/halls/upstairs: Benjamin Moore Bleeker Beige
• Guest Room: Ace Paints Chelsea by the Sea
• Kitchen cabinets: Sherwin Williams Summer White
• Kitchen island: Glidden, onyx black
• All Trim and ceiling: Swiss Coffee
• Family Room: Dunn Edwards Inside Passage tinted 200%
Thanks, Kristin!
Images: Kristin Salazar
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We're buying a house with those wooden floors shown in your living room. Are they as much of a pain to keep clean as I fear they are?
Love it! Must have that back patio :)
@austinpeahen: Sweeping and the (very) occasional mop is sooooo much easier than vacuuming all the damn time!
Kristin"s blog is one of my favorites. it's always interesting and flowing with style.
Why the empty frames going up the stairs? Wouldn't it be better to have art or pictures of your loved ones in there?
To the homeowners: Ignore ChicagoNancy. Clearly your home has lots of personality. I enjoyed the tour and imagine spending time in your home would be like staying at a beach house. Lovely!
Unlike Amy Elizabeth I love the empty frames. They provide much needed texture and interest to the stairs. I think if there were photos of loved ones in the frames it would look like COMMON, typical suburbia. And would make it look cluttered. It's completely not my "thing" but I can see that a lot of work and thought went into the home.
I adore that color palette.
just gorgeous!
Everything is beautiful!
This looks gorgeous!
Although I do get a sense that it might have taken a huge budget to buy all the beautiful furniture [that I could never afford :'( ]
... source for tea set on the bed? XD
This is totally my style and love everything in this house! I wish AT posted more of these beautiful country rustic looked houses..
love that coffee table especially.
I am not big on cottage-y but this is beautiful. Really, really beautiful. I love the soft color palette.
The empty frames along the stairs are perfect: there's a lot going on in the room and I feel that the empty frames are the perfect solution.
I want to copy the kitchen backsplash. Can you tell us what you used?
Home looks very comfortable to me, a great place to relax. I might not put quite so much in it, but it works!
Very aesthetically. I like the empty frames, esp. the one (not empty) with the key. The TV above the fireplace for me lives a bit too much his own life. All in all a great arrangement of the elements.
Thanks for the kind comments!
Regarding the floors, yes, they show every piece of dirt and hair. With three boys and 2 dogs you can only imagine. However, I still wouldn't go back and change the floors, I love them and the distressing hides all scratches. We invested in the roomba a few years ago, it cleans all the wood while we are sleeping. Once a week I give it a good vacume and steam.
The backsplash is a 4x4 travertine stone.
The tea set was my mothers bought over 50 years ago handed down to me. I have seen these sets in antique stores.
Puina~ don't ever get discouraged about buying furniture. It has taken us over 11 years to furnish the house, much of it from garage sales, second hand stores, craigslist and many beautiful pieces passed down from my grandmother. Don't forget paint and fabric can do magic.
Yay! Ray and Kristin are our friends/neighbors and we've watched them transform their home over the last 10 years, ever since we all moved into this "slice". So cool to see their house tour on AT and fun to see some of the mural painting I did for them featured too.
I like it a lot. Its a little more Pottery Barn than much of AT, and the house itself is a little big for my taste, but its very warm and thoughtful and not too stridently theme-y.
Its the best aspects of suburban style to me. I really like the boys' room, with the not-too-shrieking greens and blues, its cheery without being loud.
The living room is a little too open-plan for me but I like the restrained palette and the classic furniture styles makes a nice contrast with AT's usual count-the-Eames look.
Oh, and I don't think what it needs are family photos in the picture frames.
Absolutely gorgeous!
Kristin - I too love your home! Can you please tell me where I can find a wood beam/shelf like the one you have over your fireplace? Did you stain it yourself?
Beautiful house. Awesome kitchen.
Now this is a home I love! And the outside sitting area is just amazing. The house It's so light even though you use black. I love the kitchen island and the kitchen lights. So soft and inviting. 3 boys? Well you can tell mom still rules the roost!
This is beautiful, love the soft colors. But seriously, with dogs and boys how do you keep everything so white? I'm on the verge of giving up my white on white bedroom because my 3 year old little girl, dog and cat are wrecking havok on it! :)
Beautiful!
Love your management of color, it allows the occasion dark piece to really shine and make a presence without darkening everything. You subdued colors make my heart sing!!! So clean and fresh! Love the mural in the boy's room. I've always wanted clouds somewhere. Your patience and persistence have paid off. Absolutely lovely!
Such a pretty house!
I'm even more impressed reading about the young family who makes this house their home-it can't be easy to take care of a family, write a blog and take an empty house and make it a home.
Kristen has a well trained eye- very nice use of color and space.
Love, love, love the mix of Craigslist finds with other more traditional furniture.
Thank you for showing us your home!
You know what I love the most? That you made a sea of sheet rock look cottage and vintage without putting up bead board or wood paneling.
THANK You for sharing your amazing home!
Hi Miss Nancy- The beam over the fireplace was purchased at Home Depot for under 20.00. We stained it with a very dark stain so it would stand out from the stone.
Regarding the white, I can throw it in the wash with bleach and it gets all the stains out. SO it makes it pretty easy :)
Thank you again for all your nice comments.
When I envision my dream home this is exactly what it looks like! You've done such an amazing job of decorating - love your style. I'd love to know where you found the light fixtures above the island in your kitchen.
Thank you so much for sharing your home.
feels like home...
Lovely and comfy!
It's still too suburban for my tastes (although, I have to say, my home doesn't even compare to this!). My parent's home looks a lot like this. There's no denying it's really nice (and BIG!), and filled with nice things, but there's just something really boring about all of it. It just lacks the character that I like to see in homes that are showcased on here.
Gorgeous! Usually I'm not a fan of such a neutral color scheme, but this really stands out for me. I love how well you've blended masculine and feminine, and nothing feels over-the-top or unlivable. Fantastic job!
Very pretty home. My favorite part is the grouping on the wall above the staircase. It's not 'too suburban' if you ask me, but I live in suburbs myself!
Sigh.... Just Loverly!
Fabulous. I rarely log in to comment, but I had to-on this one. Maybe because I wouldn't go for those colors etc. myself-and still I love it, in your place. Even TV above the fireplace(is it a TV?) which I usually don't like. Beautiful, gracious home. And I love your floors. I have a feeling mine are the same..at least close. And I'm madly in love with mine. Mine are something walnut..what are yours?
I think it looks great....nice change from the ikea set...curious abt exterior style of house...guess I better read your blog
My husband and I just bought our first home and we have so many ideas of how we want to decorate. I was looking through your post and your fireplace is exactly what we're planning on doing to ours. It was like seeing our thoughts put together in your picture! We love it!
We've been looking around at the stacked stone but can't seem to find the right color. When we see a color we like in the brochure it ends up looking nothing like it when we order a sample. What brand and color did you use?
Hi Kehau
Congrat's on your home!
I have listed all my resources here
http://www.myuncommonsliceofsuburbia.com/p/resources.html
The stone was sure hard to find just the right color, I hope this will help you!
Take care
Kristin
wow.