From the outside, this home looks like a modern ranch farmhouse—all-white, galvalume corrugated metal roof, black accents, and big windows—and given its location in the middle of an apple orchard in Providence, Utah, designer Katie Booth wanted it to look like it belonged there, but with a modern touch. "The large windows provide a ton of natural light and for me, it’s all about soaking up the views and bringing the colors of nature inside," she tells MyDomaine.
At 3400-square-foot (it has four bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms) Booth admits this rambler home is one of the largest their young family has lived in (she has three boys ranging in age from 8 to 14), so she really had her work cut out for her with all that footprint. Negotiating the practical needs of a growing family with her aesthetic demands was definitely a challenge, but it was one that Booth was willing to take on. "We made sure that every square foot counts and went with larger living areas and smaller bedrooms," she says.
Booth worked closely with Ballstaedt Builders on the new build spending $360,000 to create their dream family home. After living in a home previously for five years that "didn’t feel like 'us'” Booth was very particular about getting this one right. "During that time, I gathered inspiration and pinned images that gave me that 'feeling' of what I wanted our dream home to be," she explains. "My husband and I knew we wanted somewhere where our boys could comfortably hang out with their friends and where we could teach them to work." The orchard has already provided them with plenty of work opportunities, a little too much if you ask her boys. Read on to see and learn more about Booth's process in designing this home and get ready to pin.
Despite living there for a year, Booth says the decorating process has been slow. "I tend to only buy something if I love it which I’ve learned makes for a much better end result but it takes a lot of time and patience," she says.
The living room looks both stylish and comfortable. This Eames look-a-like lounger is the best reading spot in the house. "I debated between black and orangey brown and decided to take a risk with the latter," says Booth. "It brings warmth to all of the black and white going on."
Booth says her biggest mistake in this room was the sofa. "Although we like the way it looks it is not comfortable," she states. "A comfortable couch is truly the only request my husband made and I thought we had found it, it turns out what we sat on in the store and what I ordered was not the same thing. It wasn’t an inexpensive mistake, unfortunately." So a word of warning, be sure to test as many sofas as possible and always double check what you order online.
What it doesn't provide in comfort, however, it makes up for in its ability to divide the large open-plan space into a separate zone from the dining and kitchen behind it.
Booth knew she wanted a fireplace because "we had never had one, and I’m kind of obsessed with stacked wood." So they created a niche on the side to store it. "Realistically I knew we needed a TV in the room but I didn’t want it to be the focal point so we added floating built-ins to the other side of the fireplace," she explains. "It has become the perfect spot to display my favorite plants and stacks of Domino and Architectural Digest magazines."
When approaching the design of this house, Booth had a fairly simple philosophy. "We wanted a home that fit our family and felt like 'us,'" she says. "I’m drawn to spaces that are fresh, comfortable and a little quirky."
The gallery wall is filled with art that Booth has been collecting over the years. "It is kind of random but special," she says. "Some vintage art, some new. It all means something to me and I can tell you where I got each piece and who I was with. I plan on continuing to add to it, hopefully filling up the entire wall floor to ceiling. It really just makes me smile."
If Booth could offer one piece of decorating advice, it would be to only buy what you love. "I truly feel that you'll be so much happier with the end result if you fill your home only with things you love and that mean something to you," she says.
Since the kitchen, dining and living room are all one large room, Booth really needed to ensure the layout created separate zones but still allowed each room to breathe. And we certainly think she achieved that. "I wanted a white oak table that could seat enough for family and friends," she explains. "The black chairs stand out while being modern and timeless. I also really love the simplicity of not having a light fixture over the table in this instance."
The white kitchen design is obviously striking but there is one thing you notice straight away: the lack of upper cabinet storage. Booth admits she was a bit nervous about it at first but ensures us that it was absolutely the right decision. "I'm here to tell you that won’t miss them at all," she adds. "We tried to be smart with our other storage areas, we did all drawers on our lowers which provides easy access to dishes, pots, etc. and utilized the back of our island adding cabinets there for more storage."
The other thing she did differently in the kitchen was to put the fridge in the kitchen and a full freezer in the pantry. "It’s been perfect for our family," she says. "I ran the countertop about 10 inches up the wall for a modern backsplash and I love the simplicity of it."
Booth wanted the kitchen to feel clean and fresh so she painted everything white. This gave her the perfect backdrop to display her vintage treasures.
Booth's favorite part of the kitchen design is the vertical shiplap. "It has my heart," she says. "I feel like it’s the more modern version of its horizontal sister."
The backsplash is a horizontal piece of marble that runs the length of the counter but Booth decided not to take it all the way up the wall. This creates a different design feature.
Another feature Booth had to have in the kitchen was the sliding barn door leading into the pantry. "I had my cabinet maker cut an oversized slab that was really inexpensive and my husband painted it with chalkboard paint," she says. Genius.
The oversized black pendants really pop against the white backdrop and become the focal point of the kitchen.
The bedroom is very simple by design ensuring that the main event is, in fact, catching z's which I think is a great example of prioritizing function over aesthetics.