The Forever Home

This bright and spacious common room combines kitchen, living room, and dining room with expert cohesion to create a functional meeting place for the whole family. Pops of color energize the neutral pallette.

Baby blues and dreamy creams showcase the home's exceptional natural light while effortless symmetry provides the perfect nesting place to relax and unwind after a long day.

Larger-than-life windows send thick streams of sunlight beaming into the open-concept living space of the corner lot home on Parkwood Road, illuminating the classically breath-taking design by Martha O’Hara Interiors. Their work on a young family’s “forever home” showcases the property’s natural lighting with pride and offers tranquility with its predominantly cream-colored canvas, which is splattered intermittently with bursts of personality in the form of bold prints and pops of color. The Parkwood Road project’s clients wanted a home that could grow with them. As a young family, they wanted their house to have the room to evolve and take the shape of their busy lifestyles and rapidly growing children, but it needed to be a space that fostered the sort of togetherness that they wanted to instill in their new family.

The designer, Carrie Ellington, is a personal friend of the clients and has been lucky enough to witness firsthand the home’s functionality in an everyday context. Carrie shares that the clients are still living in the corner lot, and with a new addition to the family as well: “Every time I go there she says ‘I still absolutely love everything [O’Hara Interiors] did in this house’” adding “that’s a great end goal”. Indeed, the space has a sense of timelessness that lends itself generally to the futurity that the growing family wanted to achieve. One of the reasons for the resounding success of this project was the fact that the design team was involved from day one: “We helped pick all of the selections for the tile and the floor, the carpet… any interior selections”, enabling them to ensure they had an ideal landscape to mold their design to.

When asked about their clients' personal taste, Carrie reveals that they were very involved in the decision-making processes: “they were pretty traditional in their style…. But they definitely had ideas to share and we collaborated really well together”. For Carrie, this cooperative dynamic is crucial to creating a project of this caliber: “that collaboration and putting that trust in us can make all the difference in the world”. Elaborating further, she asserts “A lot of people don’t know how to bring what they want to life, but we do… by listening to someone and understanding what they need…. When you’re able to do that for someone, it's huge” even when it comes down to the small details like picking the right chair.

The home’s most compelling feature is its expansive open-concept living space, which Carrie calls “the hub” of the home. Kitchen, dining room, and living room merge into one with seamless ease, inviting the quality time and sense of collectiveness that was so important for both the designers and the clients to communicate. Carrie states “it’s where the action happens”, after reflecting on the evenings she’s spent visiting the clients' home. It’s the ideal zone for adults to entertain while kids can stay within sight.

Equally eye-catching is the home’s remarkable master bedroom. Here, symmetrical bookcases stun with subtle idiosyncrasies that keep the space from feeling too contrived. The neutral palette of the home makes way for muted blues, which cascade themselves over the ceiling and wall, casting a refreshing wave of beach-side ambiance.

Overall, this home is a classic and beautiful take on the traditional family home. The openconcept living space will ensure their family has room to create lasting memories together and its tranquil designs will offer them comfort and peace when they need reprieve. It is undoubtedly a house that will grow with their family and serve nobly as their “forever home”.

Text: Carlee Baigrie Design: Martha O’Hara Interiors Photography: Troy Thies