Name: Marty
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Size: 1,859 square feet
Years lived in: 5 years
Although a great deal of Apartment Therapy's content and reader submitted material skews toward the modern or contemporary, not all of our readers are modernists, nor do the majority live in modern dwellings. Today's house tour illustrates the point: a reader submission hailing from Phoenix, Arizona and showcasing a traditionalist's flair for colour, texture and and carefully curated interior decorated with deep woods, glowing surfaces and rich leather. Join us as we take a decor departure detour and into Marty's Warm & Inviting house tour…
AT Survey:
My/Our style: Traditional
Inspiration: To take a small builder basic without any architectural features and turn it into a warm and inviting home on a budget.
Favorite Element: Neutral background with beige carpet and creamy beige marble floors. This gives the home a feeling of spaciousness and allows all the areas to flow seamlessly into each other. The home also has a lot of windows and lets in a lot of light that helps create a flow from the indoors to the outside. This expands the feeling of the rooms and makes them seem larger.
Biggest Challenge: We downsized from a much larger home, so taking my favorite pieces and making them work in a smaller space was a challenge. Also all of the windows sometimes presented a problem since I didn't want to block the light or the view outdoors.
What Friends Say: Very warm and inviting. Open and airy with cheery colors that make you feel welcome.
Biggest Embarrassment: A plaid family room sofa. This piece fit, but is a little country looking. I've tried to make it work with pillows and accessories.
Proudest DIY: Living room and family room drapes. I used two complimentary fabrics in the living room to creat interest and in the family room I used a fabric that is neutral to the walls and carpet that would still frame the windows.
Biggest Indulgence: Mini remodel of the kitchen by replacing the formica island counter with granite and adding a new stainless steel sink and faucet. We also put corbels under the breakfast bar area for some additional architectural interest and character.
Best advice: Keeping all furniture pieces as neutral as possible to give the illusion of space and then accessorizing with pops of color.
Dream source: I browse decorating magazines for ideas and then take those ideas and try to apply them to my own style.
Resources:
Furniture: Thomasville and Ethan Allen are where most of the pieces came from. Other pieces are found at auction, thrift stores and consignment shops.
Accessories: All of my accessories have been collected over time. They came from a variety of sources including major dept. stores, thrift stores and goodwill. When I find something that I love then I find a home for it. It's also fun to repurpose items.
Lighting: Most of the lamps in my home came from Lamps Plus.
Window Treatments: The home came with 2 inch wood blinds that I have kept to control light and privacy. I made all of the window treatments from fabrics that I purchased from a discount designer fabric store called Home Fabrics.
Artwork: Collected over time from mainly local artists or auctions.
Paint: This is a soft cocoa beige that is a tone of the carpet and tile to help create a cohesive neutral background.
Flooring: Carpet is builder grade.
Rugs and carpets:I am using two area rugs that I have had for years. One came from World of Rugs, the second came from a discount fabric and carpet house.
Tiles and Stone:The builder had installed a creamy marble in the kitchen, breakfast area, baths and hallways.
Other: Large mirror in Living room came from a designers showcase clearance sale.
(Thanks, Marty!)
We've had amazing response to our Apartment Therapy House Tour Submission Form. While we will work with homeowners of our favorite homes to feature full tours, we will also share the best as House Calls — short, quick tours of readers' homes. Submit your home here.
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I love the alphabet chair. Yay for different styles on AT!
I really like the alphabet chair too. I actually think that chair would look great in a more modern room.
I understand you really like traditional, and there's nothing wrong with that - but at the same time, I'd love to see you incorporate maybe just a touch of modernism somewhere here - I think it would make the room just that much better. I recently did a blog post where one of the things I touched on was the way that art and style can juxtapose to make things more interesting. See here: http://bandanamom.blogspot.com/2009/12/further-random-rambling-art-thoughts.html
You obviously have some really great touches here - I love some of the pillows and the plates and I especially like the shells very much. But I think a touch of modern somewhere would make this really fresh.
This style isn't my thing in the least but I have to say I don't think the plaid couch sticks out or is an eyesore or anything...imho.
Love the chair too, and the shells around the mirror.
This home is really lovely -- it looks very comfortable and cozy. I think if my mom had a better sense of what she wanted in terms of interior decoration, this would be close to her ideal.
It's fun to see different styles here...thanks for sharing!
The tour felt a bit incomplete and like I was viewing the same thing repeatedly.
I like traditional style but think this is boring (in part because of the million pictures of the living/dining room). I like the furniture itself (clearly quality pieces) and the drapes (nice work!). The accessories, though, are not that interesting, and I don't think the owner has achieved the "pops of color" yet. To me, it looks dated, not classic.
I think the traditional style is well executed here, even if it's not my style.
I would not call it much of a house tour though, as I feel like I stayed in the kitchen, living and dining room. What about bathroom and bedroom?
I couldn't live with traditional, but I think this seems like a lovely execution of that style. Nothing feels cramped or kitsch, and I like some of the accessories a lot. In any case, they fit the space, are not overdone (like so much traditional) and are also not spartan and bare (like another big chunk of traditional, mostly people who buy a livingroom set and never do anything more with it...)
It does feel warm and cozy, and I can see people living comfortably here. Nice!
Thank you all for your comments. This has given me a different perspective of my home. It's always interesting to see others reactions and to hear their point of view of my decorating style. I do appreciate the comments. Marty
What a lovely representation of a traditional home done with love and care. The colors are warm and inviting and the choice in classic furniture pieces really work in this room. You can tell by the way the accessories are placed that this home owner loves her home. It is nice to see other styles on this blog. I love to see all types of design when it is done well. I enjoyed this post very much.
I think many things here are done very well, but I'm with pearlgirl-this home looks dated to me. Although there are many great pieces here something is missing. Open up any magazine from Elle decor to House Beautiful or even a Pottery Barn Catalogue and you will see examples of traditional done very well that look current. The overwhelming "beige" here makes me a little sad.
edit, edit, EDIT
not the owner, but AT
Just because you took 6 pictures of the exact same thing, but from 6 slightly, VERY slightly, different angles, doesn't mean you should post them ALL!
I like traditional styles, and I do think that a lot of this works very well. The plates seem to be everywhere, and between the curtains seem a bit much to me! I would've selected one wall to put the favorite plates on, so they don't look like clutter. I think the family room would work much better if some of the sofa chairs coordinated a bit better, I don't think it's the plaid sofa that's the odd one out. I would've also loved to see the bathroom, bedrooms and any hallways. Thanks!
I personally tend toward modern design in my home, but I do think this is lovely. It looks very warm and inviting, and I love all of the personal items on display. I adore the alphabet chair, and the shell vignette is beautiful. And the draperies are gorgeous, wish I could sew. Even though my home is rather contemporary, I would feel very comfortable in this beautiful home.
I agree with the previous comment.Although my home leans more toward contemorary I appreciate all styles.I think that although this home is tradional it has a wonderful blend of old and new.That chair is stunning and would look great in any home.The window treatments are outstanding,I too wish I could sew.I enjoyed the tour and think that it was very inspirational for everyone on a smaller budget to show what can be done with some imagination,creativity and talent.Very well done,thanks for the tour.
What a warm and inviting home! The fabric choices all compliment each other and the rich colors and varied textures add such depth to the rooms! The owner did a great job on the window treatments...amazing that she did them herself. And that alphabet chair is a classic! This is a fine example of what can be done with a lot of creativity and a small budget. It was nice to see something a little more traditional! Thanks so much for the tour of your lovely home!
This is a beautiful home. The owner changes up her accesories really well and that creativity is inspiring. I kept hoping to see the offbeat item but it was all so 'classic'. I thought I was very classic but this shows me that one of the reasons I love Apartment Therapy is the eclectic mix of stuff that people find. I also love the flea market mentality. Buying furniture at Ethan Allen and Thomasville is not "budget" to me! Having said that, I am glad to see the contrast of this creative home with some of the more modern homes featured here which just goes to show, a house can look great if you add in beautiful or interesting things!
There are some really beautiful pieces here, and it does look very cozy and inviting. If I lived here, I would make a couple changes like taking off the blinds and clearing all the surfaces (the tabletops look a bit cluttered to me). I also think a bit more color could be introduced, and some of the lighting looks very generic to me (I see Lamps Plus is the source, which is probably the issue - I'd love to see some antique lamps or on the other end of the spectrum some more modern lighting).
Everything is put together with great care and skill -- the look is meticulously done. It differs from other AT posts in that it does not have a lot of whimsy, which I believe would spice things up a bit. I'd love to see more unexpected details (along the lines of the Alphabet Chair) or ratcheting up the color palate a bit, which could certainly be done using some brighter classical colors. That said, the overall effect is charming.
It's so... brown; color would go a long way in helping freshen the place up. I also think it's overload on the knick-knacks/decorative items. But, kudos for showing some traditional stuff on a site that otherwise seems devoted to contemporary design.