A Gorgeous Renovated Nashville Home Has the Coolest DIY Backyard Greenhouse

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Name: Andi, Eric, our daughters Lucy and Winnie, and our dog Jack
Location: East Nashville, Tennessee
Size: 2,000 square feet
Years Lived In: Almost 2 years, owned

We moved from a 650-square-foot apartment in San Francisco to our home in Nashville just about two years ago. We moved with my husband's job, and had one day with a realtor to tour houses in between a family trip to the beach and flying back to California. We knew the area in Nashville we wanted to be in, and were both super aligned on the style of home we were looking for. A few non-negotiables were hardwood floors, great natural lighting, and character. Oh, and a dishwasher and laundry because we never had that in our San Francisco apartment!

We toured a few houses in the morning and nothing clicked. We were having lunch, feeling defeated, when my husband looked at the Realtor.com website and saw a home. We immediately texted the realtor and asked to see it ASAP. We ended up touring the house one at a time, as the other person sat in the car with a sleeping baby and our dog! We both just knew this was the one. The living room was connected to the bedroom via pocket doors, which reminded us of our one bedroom in San Francisco where our bedroom was connected to our living space via French doors. The kitchen nook was the other area that immediately sold me. I immediately envisioned drinking coffee there with Eric, coloring with Lucy, doing homework, family meals, and so many happy, ordinary moments in that spot. We put in an offer immediately, before anyone else had the chance to even see the house, and went under contract soon after. We didn't want a full-on fixer upper, but wanted something that we could tweak to make our own. The house had such good bones and character, but just needed some modern updates—which we've been slowly making since we moved in!

We love hosting, although the pandemic certainly has changed that a bit! We loved having friends over and my favorite thing was seeing adults and kids dispersed all over in different rooms. Over the holidays we had a family brunch potluck and I remember people were in every room of our house, eating and drinking and playing and chatting—and I remember thinking, this is perfect. Most of our time these days is spent rotating from room-to-room playing with our girls, who are 2.5 years old and 5 months old.

Apartment Therapy Survey:

My Style: Refined modern bohemian. Bright and airy, colorful, and cheerful. Travel-inspired. Always evolving.

Inspiration: Travel… California surf culture, Moroccan souks, nature, and my girls! We have one of Eric's old surfboards hanging in our living room; a nod to our time in California before moving to Nashville. I've always been drawn to Moroccan and Turkish textiles but after a recent trip to Marrakesh, I became full-blown obsessed with textiles. I started my own shop curating and selling Moroccan textiles, so our house inevitably is filled with many interesting blankets and pillows! Travel has always been a huge source of inspiration and joy for both of us—and I think that's reflected in our home. We've always been "plant people" but now have 150+ plants in our house and greenhouse. I feel like I'm decorating around the plants at this point! I say that my girls are an inspiration when it comes to home decor, because it's important to me that our house is a reflection of the stage of life we're in—playful and messy and chaotic and FUN.

Favorite Element: This is a really tough one! I love my daughters' room because it gets the prettiest afternoon light pouring in through the windows and is a happy, colorful space. I also love our kitchen window nook—we spend a lot of time here whether it's having a family meal or coloring with Lucy, our toddler. I love the old house character (it was built in 1918)—the creaky, uneven wood floors, the fireplaces, the tall ceilings, and many other original features.

Biggest Challenge: Our house is 100+ years old and there's a ton of character, but also lots of quirks and challenges! When we moved in, all of the trim—and there was a lot—was brown. The first thing we did was paint all the walls, doors, baseboards, and window trim a brighter white. It really brightened the space, making it feel much more modern and fresh. We have basically no storage or closets, which can be challenging. There are a lot of doorways and three fireplaces, which makes designing each room a challenge in terms of fitting in furniture and having a nice overall flow. In terms of the lack of storage, we tend to purge and donate things often to not have extra stuff sitting around. And we've come up with some pretty great storage solutions: baskets, baskets, baskets!

Biggest Indulgence: The Midwest gal in me loves a good deal! Most of our home furnishings are in the mid-range cost category, so I'd say the biggest indulgences have been pieces I've picked up from our travels—rugs from Mexico, blankets from Morocco, ceramics from Italy, etc.

Best Advice: Your home should be a place you want to spend time in, and a reflection of you and your family. While I love beautiful, picture-perfect spaces, our house is a real place where we live—including a wild dog and two kids! We have Lucy's dress-up area in our living room and her play kitchen in our family room. Since we don't have a dedicated play room, I try to integrate "kids stuff" in a functional, but still beautiful way into the main areas of our home. I think it's also important that your house serves you and the phase of life you're in, too. Our family room (the one with the green accent wall) used to be our dining room, since it's right off of the kitchen. After about a year of living in our house, we decided that the space could be better used as a family room even though that's not the conventional set-up. We use this room SO MUCH MORE NOW, and I'm so glad we made the change because it's been better for our family, even if that's not what an interior designer or realtor would recommend.

What's your best home secret? We have a few IKEA pieces that have been super functional storage pieces for us; I swear by our IKEA Billy bookcase! A simple hardware swap makes them look more modern and less "IKEA" and they have been life savers.

UPSTAIRS SUITE LIVING SPACE AREA

UPSTAIRS SUITE WINDOW NOOK

UPSTAIRS SUITE BEDROOM/OFFICE AREA

Source: apartmenttherapy.com