when i noticed jourdan on instagram, i immediately followed – while her house might not seem like what you’d normally see here, i am so drawn to it! it’s somehow colorful yet not in an overwhelming way whatsoever and playful and fun yet still feels totally sophisticated!

she is also so creative and adorable! they’ve only been in their house for 2 years and look at this home she’s made!!!

tell us about you and what you do!

I’m a lover of color, vintage furniture, pimento cheese and dance parties. I spend my days running my interior design business, and my nights/weekends doing life with my husband, two daughters (7 and 4), and an emotionally-needy 12-year-old dog. My husband, Andrew, and I share a passion for renovating our house, so we spend lots of our free time working on house projects (I design, he builds).

It’s equal parts hilarious and crazy frustrating but we’re always very happy with our work (and still married!) in the end. We met in New York City—I was a magazine editor and he was a school teacher—and so we’re recovering workaholics. And we’re learning to pace ourselves the longer we’re in this home.

how long have you lived in your home?

We moved into this home in August 2022, so just over two years. 
 

how many sq feet is your home?

The house is 3000 square feet.

what would you call your style?

I’ve spent many years writing about/thinking about style, first as a design editor and now as a designer myself. I’d say my style is personal, whimsical, colorful, and welcoming. I love to play between colors, styles, time periods, between old and new, classic and modern. 
 

what’s your favorite room in the house?

It’s a tie between our daughters’ attic playroom and our living room. The playroom was the first space we tackled in the house, and my mother-in-law and I spent 9 days wallpapering it together (yes, you read that right, and yes we actually still love each other! She’s a badass). I’m so proud of it and love it as much today as when we first finished it. And then in our living room, the colors—mauves and dusty blue and pistachio green—are absolutely dreamy. It’s also what I’d consider an old-school living room that’s also anti-formal. The fabrics are vintage or waterproof, the furniture has had many lives…basically nothing is too precious so we can hang out with the kids here but it’s cool enough for cocktail hour. And the arched bookshelves took us 10 (yes you read that right!) months to build. They’re completely unique, add a modern sensibility, and I fill them with all of our favorite family treasures, down to my kids’ weird art.

what was the biggest splurge?

Wallpaper! So far I’ve wallpapered 5 rooms and I wouldn’t change a thing. Wallpaper is the most powerful way to set the tone for a space and you really need very little else once you’re cocooned in pattern and color. Wallpaper is an absolute mood booster and brings me so much joy.
 

what’s something you want to change but haven’t gotten to?

The kitchen! Our home was built in 1946 and the current kitchen is sized to accommodate that blueprint. But the homeowners in the ’80s added a pitched roof room to the back of the house, and now the original kitchen no longer fits the home’s revised floor plan. I knew as soon as I toured the home when it was on the market that this back room had to be the kitchen. Beyond the kitchen, we still have a guest room and bathroom, powder room, and entire basement to renovate, plus our primary bathroom. Basically, the work will never be done 🙂

what’s your process for designing a space?

I start with the existing architecture and era the home was built. I truly believe that we’re meant to be good stewards of our homes — that when we renovate and make changes, we should be thoughtful about what makes sense given the context of the home. What existing architecture am I highlighting or what doesn’t make sense anymore? And then I consider how the room needs to function. Without function, form is pointless. Color is my absolute favorite part and comes next in the equation. I make color selections based on an overall color palette, a particular room’s access to light, the vibe I’m trying to create, etc. In the development of a floor plan, I start considering shapes and scale, and then I start to layer in materials, textures and patterns. It’s an art and a science.

what’s your best design advice?

I firmly believe that a cohesive-feeling home has a highly edited color palette that can be traced throughout the home. So select 5-7 colors that look pleasing together and feel most like you (use your closet for inspiration!) and start saving on Instagram or Pinterest rooms in which these colors are depicted in pleasing ways. This practice will help you start to build a signature color palette for your home and make shopping a bit easier.

what’s a style compromise you made for your kids happiness?

Take a look at both my girls’ rooms and you will see giant, plastic, hot pink Barbie dreamhouses. I actually did a Reel that went viral about this because as high as my interior standards are, I firmly believe that a home is for all people living in it. 
 

what’s your favorite thing about your home?

That every single room tells stories of our life—the places we’ve visited, our family members’ old treasures, quirky items I thrifted with friends—but that it all lives so well together. Our homes should feel like “us” and I really feel like we’re accomplishing that here.

a room is not complete without __ ?

Something personal! Truly. Art, trinkets, textiles, vintage scores. A room should never ever be a copy/paste-from-Pinterest experience.

what are you watching/reading/eating?

I’m totally guilty of ordering too many books that are burning a hole in my brain stacked up next to my bed. I think that’s why I’m devouring “A Bit Much,” a collection of hilariously relatable short poems by Lyndsay Rush. It’s been a nice break from “The Anxious Generation,” which I got 5 pages in before feeling depressed. I’m also reading chapter books from my childhood with my second grader (“Ramona Quimby, Age 8” anyone?). I also made it through two episodes of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives so I could listen to some of my favorite podcasters talk about it.

who are your favorite follows on IG?

I know it seems like I’m just saying @almostmakesperfect because it’s you, but I swear I’ve been clicking on your links and envious of your party decorations for years! Your product round-ups and ideas are playful and unique while being absolutely doable (I was a former crafts editor, so I can tell these things). And I love how you don’t take this work — or yourself too seriously. This—like interior design—is all supposed to be FUN!

I also love following @swike for her playful design content, @sharonsaysso for her good heart and government knowledge, @davidgatepoet for his profound words, and @witanddelight_ for her thoughtful critiques on how we live at home. 

sources

you can shop jourdans home here.

and you can follow jourdan on instagram here.