Design | Guest Bath

Deciding on finishes for the house is quite challenging. Even though nothing is permanent, I’d like something that we won’t feel like we will want to change years from now. With that comes simple, timeless bones that transition well with a variety of interchangeable design aspects. I recently found the image on the top right on Pinterest of some custom tile by Fireclay Tile — probably the dreamiest tile I’ve seen yet. It reminds me of a bowl we saw in Georgia O’Keeffe’s studio and fell in love with… the perfect toasty white. If all goes well and we can get that tile, everything else will fall into place. A custom wood vanity, vessel sinks (that we already bought!), champagne bronze faucets, etc. Finish off with some Virginia Sin hooks & baskets + a Kalon Studios stump that will look so good next to the white tub.

from above | triple seven home light, sink (discontinued but managed to find what we needed), delta faucet, custom Fireclay Tile, custom wood vanity, seagrass basket, kalon studios stump, virigina sin accessories

Lighting

Choosing lighting for our home has been one the easier tasks on the finish side. I’ve been dreaming of the Cedar and Moss Terra Surface lights since I first saw one here in 2017! We are mostly sticking to recessed lighting throughout, some no-light fans in the bedrooms (necessary in AZ) and the above lights as accents here and there. Really excited for this to all come together!

1) Terra Surface — all over accents (living area, hallways, etc) - 2) Ubet Sconce (bathrooms) - 3) Akari Pendant (dining room) - 4) Tortue Sconce (accent in living area) - 5) Folk Pendant (kitchen island) - 6) Clay Cylinders (outdoors)

The Plan - Living/Dining

from above: House in Habit, Posada, Olivia Thebaut, Desert Wild, Paige Geffen

Back again to show you some ideas on the rest of our main living space! I’m really looking forward to seeing how some of our current pieces translate to our new home. For years now, we’ve made an effort to only bring things into our home that we could use in a new space (a lot of those items being in our living room). Our beloved Article couch and weave chairs will be coming with us… coffee table idea TBD. I think these will bring a lot of warmth into our space, which I’m planning to be a clean-white (possibly Benjamin Moore Super White). The living room will have a white plaster fireplace (inspiration above) and a built-in bookcase for our pottery and records. Obviously, we will need a Samsung Frame TV for this wall (obviously). Moving into the dining room, will need to build or find a new dining table — something rectangular with our current dining chairs + possibly a bench to fill in one side. Ever since seeing Georgia’s dining room above, I knew we’d need a Noguchi pendant light above the table.

Here’s another look at the concept floor plan below. There will be a picture window along the porch wall + some sort of 3-panel door + two 3 wide 5’ tall windows on each side of the fireplace to let a TON of natural light into this space. I’m thinking of adding a few skylights between each section of the main living area — I’m not taking any chances on a dark home! Other than that, I'm hoping to add some beams throughout this space for a finishing touch.

The Plan - Kitchen

A huge advantage to building is that we have complete design freedom on the lay-out of our home. Being able to consider which way to situate a certain element to take advantage of the way lighting will affect it will be everything! Here is our basic concept floor plan for our main living area — specially focusing on the kitchen on this post. On either side of the kitchen/island area, we will have some large, rectangular windows shown above — which I believe will offer beautiful lighting throughout the day. For the cabinets — the plan right now is to start off with basic Ikea cabinet drawers, & work with our friends at Midtown Artisans on special cabinet fronts. For counter-tops, we’re imagining a warm white to match the Cle Tile backsplash + a little secret surprise idea for the island backing and sides. Using Cafe Appliances for our fridge, oven/stove and dishwasher will be the element that truly brings this kitchen to life. Tying in with the appliances, the above Delta faucet in Champagne Bronze on a large Signature Hardware sink will be in the island. I’m still undecided on our island lighting — but these Rejuvenation pendants are looking like a beautiful option.

The Inspiration

Inspiration for our home has been on our minds 24/7. Our vision includes a smooth stucco exterior, a focal feature plaster fireplace, thoughtful built-ins and warm accents throughout. Here are a few inspiring spaces to us right now.

House in Habit / Gordana Golubovic / Desert Wild / The Posada / Olivia Thébaut / Villa Kuro / Cre Natural Building

The Property

Here is a little video to give you all an idea the size of the property. It is a little under a half of an acre — around 16,000 sq ft. We’re looking at building a home around 2000 sq ft before the porch and garage, giving us lots of outdoor space!

We're building a house!

We’ve been dreaming about this day for what seems like a lifetime at this point. I’ve been actively searching for a home or lot for us for years now. A fixer upper has always an option if we had to settle for that, but a lot… a lot was the dream. A space we could truly create a space of our own. Finding a property to build on in Tucson was rough, though. Between the lot sizes, prices, location — there was a point where I had given up and went back to the drawing board on trying to find a fixer upper that would work.

In October, I was doing my usual Zillow search when I decided to go check out a mid-century modern house on the East side of Tucson. Not really our style… but the lighting was beautiful and there was potential. Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t the one — and I left feeling more discouraged than ever. I ended up doing some research of the area that day and stumbled across a little, tucked away subdivision. It had sixteen lots… most sat empty. For the location and size of these lots, I was shocked that they even existed, let alone, were not up for sale. I did some more research and read about the history, the current owner — and decided to write her a letter. Within a week I heard back from her and they were willing to sell us a lot! So after site visits, dreaming & scheming… here we are.

We’re building a house! A completely custom home. We are currently working with a builder with of a concept floor plan I created on MICROSOFT PAINT (haha) and will hopefully begin soon!

In our friend’s book, At Home in Joshua Tree, Sara and Rich talk about the connection of your home to meaningful experiences throughout the day. In this space, I can imagine those moments now; from coffee in our sun-drenched living space in the morning, breathing in the smell of fresh creosote on the porch in the afternoon and in the evening, welcoming loved ones into our home to share a meal and conversation.

We’re so excited to take you on this journey with us!