At Home Places Magazine Summer 2021

HOME TRENDS

Making a house feel warm and inviting is important to Cassandra Clevenger.

Photo by Colleen McGrath

A patterned life

Mother of two transforms 1929 home into eclectic, boho chic sanctuary; inspires others in process.

The Hagerstown home was originally built in 1929.

Submitted photo

Cassandra Clevenger slowly transformed her home, one room at a time.

Colleen McGrath

BY LAUREN LAROCCA

Cassandra Clevenger seems completely relaxed in the “mom cave” of her home.

The cozy front room is layered in textures and patterns in a palette of soft pinks and earth tones that even a hanging plant in the window matches. Fringed chandeliers dangle overhead and leopard-print chairs somehow work in the eclectic variety of pieces that, together, are stylishly cohesive.

In short, the space looks as if it were curated for an interior decorating magazine photo shoot.

Over the past three years, Clevenger has slowly transformed her home, one room at a time, while inspiring others — especially working mothers — along the way.

Without any experience in interior design — and while raising two young children and working full time as a pharmacist — she spends seemingly every free moment transforming her home by painting; hanging wallpaper; searching the internet and local shops for unique and vintage items; and finding and caring for a variety of houseplants.

“It’s really become my creative outlet and my sanity.”

“It’s a work in progress,” Clevenger said. “It’s really become my creative outlet and my sanity. We all have outlets, and mine is putting up wallpaper at 1 a.m.”

Three years ago, when she and her Realtor pulled up to the house on Roessner Avenue, Clevenger saw the exterior and didn’t even want to go inside.

“Once I was inside, I was there for about 10 minutes, and it just spoke to my heart,” she said. “The front of the house was built in 1929, and the old wood trim probably sold me. We were coming from a house that was all white and new and gray. I’m not a huge fan of the newer, open concept in houses. I like having separate rooms.”

She knew the house needed some TLC, but she was up for the challenge.

“Mostly, the painting was so dark and gloomy. I was like, ‘we’ve got to lighten this place up,’” Clevenger said.

Her bedroom, for instance, was fluorescent orange, but she toned it down significantly with neutral colors and shiplap walls, a style of wood paneling that leaves a small space between each panel, an aesthetic reminiscent of cottages and country homes. Clevenger chose a grayish white to subdue the master bedroom’s previous loud coloring and give it a more calming effect.

She started with the playroom and the children’s bedrooms, wanting her kids to have spaces that quickly felt like home. She transformed what was the master bedroom on the ground level into a massive play area for them.

She sought her kids’ input when decorating their bedrooms. Her son picked his own wallpaper, and some of his ideas were incorporated into the space. His room also includes a stack of antique suitcases that belonged to his great-grandfather.

She calls her style “eclectic boho chic” because each room is a bit different.

“I kind of piece each room together bit by bit,” she said. “Usually, I find that one piece, like a rug, that then dictates the vibe of the rest of the room. Each room has its own style.”

For instance, the dining room has a Moroccan theme, simply because Clevenger has always yearned to visit the multicultural country. (The family’s dog is named Morocco.)

She shops at local vintage and secondhand stores, and pokes around for bargains at Home- Goods, T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, though she occasionally splurges on a must-have item from places like Anthropologie. She believes rugs are important to soften the spaces and add texture.

Wallpaper fanatic

Clevenger has become a self-described wallpaper fanatic, using patterned prints for accent walls and to liven up spaces. She wallpapered the front panel of each stair of her stairwell with a pattern that mimics decorative tiles.

More important than aesthetics to Clevenger is making her house feel warm and inviting, a place where her kids and her friends can come and feel at home.

“I want it to be livable, functional,” she said. “I always say, if the kids break something, I can just glue it back together.”

“I always love visiting Cassandra’s home,” said Shawn Boland, a friend and colleague. “It has this amazing warmth to it … an absolute reflection of her spirit. She is what I would call an old soul, and you can just see her love for the structure and bones of this older house preserved beneath her modern touches.”

Clevenger has inspired followers on Instagram (@apatternedlife), especially moms looking for their own creative outlet, as well as some of her friends, like Morgan Horan.

“Cassandra is an inspiration with her eye for design,” Horan said. “Her home is truly a work of art and love.”

‘She really has a gift’

People have asked Clevenger to help them with their interior decorating, but she doesn’t have much spare time for such endeavors. She did, however, work on a project with Bill Hose to transform his Airbnb apartment in Clear Spring. Clevenger works with Hose’s wife and called on him to help her install the shiplap paneling in her bedroom.

“I was so impressed by what she’d done with the house already by herself,” Hose said. “It kind of blew me away.”

It occurred to him that she would be great at updating his Airbnb apartment, which was loaded with Dallas Cowboys memorabilia and — as he put it — colors that didn’t add much.

He credits Clevenger’s work with an uptick in bookings. He closed the listing for a few weeks while she totally modified the seven-room space, including creating what she calls “the treehouse room” in what was essentially a closet.

“It was a fairly hard area to figure out what to do with, because it’s so long and narrow, and there are three dormers in the front and three niches in the back, which are like false dormers,” he said. “She gets a little wild at times — I was hesitant about adding wallpaper — but then I always ended up really liking her ideas. And visitors just love it. She really has a gift.”

Update: Clevenger recently sold her home. She said she is grateful for all she learned during the renovation process.