A Family Home Full of Thrifted Finds & Inherited Treasures
Name: Sara, Daniel their children August, Astrid and 4 cats
Location: Lakewood, Colorado
The basics: 3 years, owned — 3,800
Sara may have a house full of young kids, but she wasn’t going to let that put a damper on her style nor was she interested in removing all signs of tiny folks from her home. The result is an eclectic, lived-in space full of thrift shop treasures and the occasional LEGO.
Tell us a little (or a lot) about your home and the people who live there: I live with my husband, Daniel, our son August (3.5 years), our daughter Astrid (1 year), and four “old man” cats. We moved from Alaska to the Denver area about three years ago, although my husband and I are both from the South originally. When we saw this house, it reminded us both of a little Southern plantation, so maybe that’s why we felt at home here. I’m a designer and artist and I work from home, so it seems like I’m constantly making a giant mess of our house and then attempting to clean it up.
Many of our possessions are old or handmade. I’ve been obsessed with going to thrift stores since I was a kid and I’ve made things for as long as I can remember. Even before I studied Industrial and Furniture Design in college, I was building quite a bit of furniture with my dad. We also inherited a lot of furniture from Daniel’s father after his mother passed away, and many of those pieces had been in the family for multiple generations.
We have two small children so that influences our house design to some degree. I don’t believe that your style needs to change dramatically once you have kids, but I do think that a house should represent all who live there. Nothing here is too precious but I also won’t sacrifice my style just because some sticky-fingered table-climbing monsters live here.
What is your favorite room and why? My favorite room in the house is the front room that we call “the parlor”. The parlor gets a lot of light due to windows on both ends. It also houses about 12,000 kids books along with our LEGO collection, so it is usually strewn with books and blocks. The piano is also in this room, so there is typically plenty of activity here. Also, there is usually a napping cat in a chair in this room, which always improves room quality in my opinion.
If you could magically change something about your home, what would it be? I would probably leave the house itself intact and transport it to a woodsy area on several acres of land with a stream. We’d have some giant gardens, fruit trees, and tree houses… not that I’ve thought about this before…
What’s the last thing you bought (or found!) for your home? I thrifted a Mexican blanket for $6 after buying a new one in Costa Rica that was way too expensive and not nearly as cool.
Which fictional character would be most at home in your place? Since we have four male cats who seem very happy here, I have to say Garfield. We’ve got plenty of sunny spots to sit and pillows to lay on. BUT we also have two little kids who love petting cats, so that could be a potential problem for Garfield.
Sara’s words of wisdom: I’m a firm believer of only buying what you love. I would never dream of going to a store and buying a set of furniture, not only because I don’t like the matchy-matchy look, but because I doubt I would love every piece of a set. It can be frustrating, but it does take time to track down the perfect things for your home. I’d rather go without than look everyday at some object that doesn’t speak to me.
Thanks, Sara !
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