Friendly Places: Fourth Edition

Welcome to the fourth edition of "Friendly Places." I am so excited to show you my friend Michele's gorgeous home in Atlanta, Georgia. You won't believe the transformation this house has undergone!


Michele bought her first home in the Peachtree Hills neighborhood in 2000.

She's lived in the house for about 11 years, and a lot has happened in that time! First, there was a little real estate romance story. Michele met her husband when she was house hunting. He was selling his house in the same neighborhood. Although she chose this house over his, he asked her out and they were married a year later :).


Michele's relationship status wasn't the only change. Check out what the house looks like today.

Can you believe it's the same house?


The original home, built in 1923, was a small 2 bedroom bungalow. It was very cute, but seemed to get smaller as the family grew. When the couple's first son was born in 2005, the renovation planning began.


Michele's father lived in Ohio and just happened to be an amazing architect. He was about to retire at the time, but couldn't resist having his own daughter as his final client. (He later told her that she was his most difficult client...said with love of course ;) 

They all did a lot of research on the Arts & Crafts home style. Michele loves the warm feel of this style with lots of textured materials mixed together like brick and cedar shingles. Planning took almost a year, but in the end her dad designed the perfect house for them.

Construction began the following year. The home's square footage increased from 1600 to 4000. Michele's family grew during construction, too, with the addition of another baby boy in 2007.

The staircase was designed to have a floating landing and take advantage of the two stories of windows. This is one of their favorite features in the house since it is so central to the main living area and visually interesting. 

The interior design happened over the following year. Aside from the basic bones of the room design, Michele is a big believer in living in a space and allowing it to come together over time. Although she loves the craftsman style, she wanted her home to be interesting and eclectic. As she says, "Everything seems to be an evolution as opposed to a revolution!"

In the master bedroom, Michele could not find any curtain rods that would work for the unique windows they had framing the headboard. Instead, she used decorative furniture nail heads and nailed the curtains right to the wood work.

Michele really wanted to use green onyx in the master bathroom, but the cost was going to break the budget. Instead, they designed a tile pattern with tumbled stone and used the onyx as an accent.

One of Michele's favorite finds in her home is the coffee table, an old furniture moving cart from a company in North Carolina that makes furniture out of reclaimed wood. (She loved it more before it appeared on the front cover of Restoration Hardware a few months later!)

Given the craftsman style and Michele's love of Frank Lloyd Wright design, it seemed fitting that she put her stained glass hobby to work. During the renovation they had many of the cabinets built knowing that one day they would insert stained glass. They currently have over 18 panels of stained glass throughout the house and Michele is still working on a few for the basement kitchenette.

The basement was finished a few months ago. With three boys in the house, Michele said she agreed to the "man cave," although she prefers that they call it the "family cave."

(I don't know about you, but nothing about this space says "cave" to me!)

I hope you've enjoyed the tour of Michele's home. I think it is so beautiful and architecturally interesting, yet also very warm and welcoming. Don't you? 






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