Living happily alongside 80 houseplants

By A manda L ong

The Washington Post

BEACH TRAFFIC ON a Friday afternoon is its own certain kind of hell, but toss in a pre-tunnel crash and a 40-minute detour through local, light-heavy roads, and you’ll know how frazzled I felt when Tracey Hairston invited me into her family’s home in Chesapeake, Va., for an interview.

The second I stepped through the doors, my traffic jitters and accompanying grumpy demeanor evaporated into the vaulted ceilings of her open-plan ranch home. The 2,913-square-foot space is as warm, welcoming, intentionally authentic and as vibrant as its owner, who greets me with a hug.

The fact I felt calmer is no accident, says Hairston. The interior design, fashion and plant blogger and military spouse has had to make eight locations in two states and Japan feel like home since she and Reggie, a retired Marine colonel, married 28 years ago. She blogs about her projects, vintage finds and all things fashion and flora at Mocha Girl Place and on Instagram.

“My style is led by the sense that I want you to be able to come in, take in the beautiful space, and just put your feet up, sit back and relax,” she says.

Hairston’s curated flow encourages visitors to linger, inquire and admire. The most powerful visual magnet is the first floor’s dual-sided fireplace, framed by alcoves leading to an equally vibrant gem: a 15-by-13.5-foot sunroom with 52 plants. “As soon as I saw this room, I knew this was our house,” she says.

Hairston has dreamed of a leafy room of her own with every move and challenging layout of base housing. “It’s difficult to move with plants,” she says. “I’ve given away more plants and clippings than I’ve ever owned. If I don’t have the space, or we’ve got to move, why not bless someone else with them?”

In 2017, while living in California on Reggie’s last assignment before retirement, the couple shopped for a permanent roost and settled on this deceptively simple white ranch house. Six years later, Hairston is still building a tranquil bohemian lair filled with what she loves: 80 houseplants (so far), color, texture, more plants, natural fibers, brass, fake plants, baskets and vintage finds. We spent a couple hours chatting about her plants and how she lives with them. Here are edited excerpts from that conversation.

Q. This house is very you; how do you ensure Reggie, your husband, feels at home?

A. Didn’t you see that 75inch TV hanging over the fireplace? I hate that big ol’ TV, but we have to compromise, right? That’s all him!

Q. I didn’t even notice it; I was too busy taking in the pampas grass on the hearth beneath it. You’ve camouflaged it well.

A. When we moved here, my husband really gave me free rein. As that military spouse, that officer spouse, I was the one always holding down the home front. I was the one taking my son to the barber, taking my kids to A, B, C, D, you name it. A lot of our dynamic is him saying, “This is your house,” and the other part is that we work well together. He’s a wood- worker who loves to build as much as I like to come up with things for him to build. We’ve done projects together, including the table and shelves in the kitchen. He’s got a different pace than I do, and that can be challenging, because once I have an idea, I want to see it. It’s my vision, on his timetable. He really builds the bones of the home, and I bring it to life. He appreciates the fact that I want to take care of the house and make it distinctly ours.

Q. What advice do you have for first-time plant parents, especially those who got inspired during the “Plantdemic” when all things domestic took off?

A. Go slow! Get one plant at a time. I made the mistake of bringing in way too many plants during the pandemic. All these Facebook groups started popping up and everyone was sharing them for free! How could I resist? I had like 20 new plants all at once — and they all died. Start with an easy-care plant — a pothos or snake plant. If you can keep it alive for six months to a year, then get another one.

Q. Let’s get this out of the way: Fake plants or no?

A. There is this great debate, right? I’m not one of those plants snobs who thinks