Living And Loving Cottage Style Home Tour

Hello my friends! Things have been busy-busy behind the scenes here at the hollow! I can’t wait to catch you up on everything. Until then, I am so happy to be sharing Kelly’s home with you today. I met Kelly through Instagram during the weekly #foxhollowfridayfavs hashtag event I host and I instantly fell in love with her warm home and warm personality! After following her and falling even more and more in love with what she shared, I knew I needed to get her featured over here on the blog so you could see what I see! Lucky us, she has graciously allowed us to stroll though her home.

— Please welcome Kelly and enjoy the photos we put together for you…

Hi I’m Kelly, We built our home about 15 years ago after returning back to Pittsburgh from Washington DC where we lived for 8 years, shortly after having my first son Joshua. (My heart yearned to be close to my parents and when you are from Pittsburgh, you always come back 😉 )

Our home was built from Queen Anne Victorian plans we purchased ourselves. Living in a victorian home is something I dreamed about from a very young age, little did I know that a dream that started before I could even spell Victorian would be granted to me and my family.

Originally I designed our home with a traditional Victorian Style, but as time went on I started to keep a folder of what I loved now… white, wood, shiplap, cottage, easy, comfortable, rustic and imperfect with a few little tech tweeks. I did include state of the art burglar alarms, to keep the house protected. I wanted all of my hard work safe and secure. I also added a few modern touches with the faucets and kitchen wear. Little did I know that this folder or my heart’s whisper would turn into a real space that would inspire me each and every day.

You know, that’s how we get our dreams to come alive. They have to start and we have to allow them to start with a thought, a folder or a plan. We need to believe and hope.

One day you pick up a magazine called Country Living and you see the cover with 2 cute, cute people and their dog, Tom Ford…yes that got my attention. And then you look at the pages, just as you have a million times before, but this time they speak to you and the spirit behind the design, Leanne Ford speaks to you right through the pages. So I contact her, yep, with no fear… only hope, that she would return my call… and she did. She came out to my home that same week and by Sunday Ikea arrived and set up what would be my favorite furniture to date. Love at first sight..EKTORP !

Leanne not just quietly helped me design my house, she encouraged me, showed me, shopped with me, texted me and told me she saw something in me other than what I had labeled myself to be, a girl who only colored in the lines.

Living and Loving Cottage Style - Cottage Farmhouse Home Tour

I told her I was not cool enough to live in my new space, but she thought otherwise, she is a spirit, free and without boundaries and I became drawn to that spirit.

That was over 2 years ago, and since then I have continued watering and nurturing something she brought to life in me… love of home, space and happiness. This is how I feel about IG. People just like Shannon, who simply want you to grow and help you. I had probably 3 IG accounts that I started and then deleted, but something tugged on my heart and I kept coming back and now I started to get my groove on. Design is not about money its about choices and now I know how to make them wisely. I have 2 boys, one in college and one in middle school. I have bills, lots of them, just like everyone else, but if I waited to redo my space for when I had enough money for a major renovation, I knew that day would never come. I know now where to shop, what to buy and to stick to the formula I love…white, wood, chippy and imperfect, vintage, new and pops of green. Its just what works for me.

Yep, everything is white and I am in love, really it is L-O-V-E ! That LOVE is called Decorator’s White by Benjamin Moore… and its everywhere. I wouldn’t have it any other way ! Its all high gloss and cleans beautifully. Yep, I keep a touch up can under my kitchen sink.

My advice? Fill your home with what you LOVE and with what works for everyone in your space, then you will find everyone wants to come to your house, which is the way I like it anyway.

Living and Loving Cottage Style - Cottage Farmhouse Library and Office

Life is short and I plan on making the most of everyday, of every moment in my white, cozy cottage with the people who are most dear to me and of course Walden and Thoreau, I could never forget them, my literary felines.