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" Jen Renzi: I can&amp;#039;t believe four kids live here \u2014 this house is impeccable! Sara Gilbane: And they&amp;#039;re all under the age of 10 \u2014 it blows my mind. Decorating it made for a lot of clients: Everyone had input and strong opinions about furniture and colors. Looks like all six of them love bold hues.  The husband and wife both like jewel tones and vivid colors. We brought saturated hues into rooms in a way that&amp;#039;s livable and still somewhat neutral. Tempering the happier colors with texture kept them from veering too summery. The palette also had to be harmonious because the library, dining room, living room, and sunroom open onto one another, like an enfilade. Many colors repeat: dark blue, orange, lavender, teal, and that mossy green in the dining room. The house feels tied together, yet every space has its own personality. What draws you into a room is having it feel different than the one before it. Did the makeover extend to the floor plan as well?  The couple reworked a previous addition to the Tudor-style house, which was built in 1919, remodeling the kitchen and creating an adjacent breakfast room to make that area more practical for family use. But the rest of the house stayed the same, layout-wise. The clients had lived there for a year before renovating, so they really knew how they used the space and which rooms had issues. What were the issues?  I love old homes, but the floor plan here is quite linear, which made some spaces seem like they were just throughways. It&amp;#039;s tough when you feel like no room is the natural destination. The living room, for instance, had too many doorways; closing one up encouraged lingering and allowed for additional seating areas. The decor started out very clean, and then we began bringing in benches, stools, another sofa by the window \u2014 that room kept sucking up furniture! Which was hard on the budget, but the more we brought in, the better it felt \u2014 and the more the family used the room. Do the clients entertain often? They do, which meant choosing pieces that could be moved around. We had to be very thoughtful about the furniture plan in general due to sheer numbers: With four kids, we needed ample seating everywhere. Hence that deep L-shape banquette in the sunroom, perfect for tea parties \u2014 or slumber parties. That was the game-changer for the room, which had shoebox proportions. Previously, there was one sofa in front of the fireplace, and the family never hung out there. I designed the banquette to run the whole length and width of the room. Working with the quirks of the house is what leads you to the most unique moments! That piece is so comfortable, and with the dark-blue variegated fabric, it can take spills. The L-shape configuration also makes the seating really multipurpose. The couple have thrown parties where they&amp;#039;ve opened the doors leading to the patio and set up one long catering table that can seat 40. Was art an important part of the design plan? A traditional house with so many rooms can feel stuffy. Art was hugely helpful in terms of balancing out the more formal elements. It breathes new life into a room. That moth painting above the living room sofa \u2014 to me it just said &amp;#039;young family.&amp;#039; We worked with art dealer [and House Beautiful contributing editor] Blair Voltz Clarke on a number of commissions. You chose nature motifs: the foyer&amp;#039;s mural, the fish in the breakfast room\u2026 And those magnolia blossoms on the living room walls \u2014 it&amp;#039;s like walking through a garden. That was the final piece we installed in the room, and I thought, Now we&amp;#039;re in business! I didn&amp;#039;t want the clients to have to explain their works. You can feel put on the spot when asked what a piece is about or why you bought it. Sometimes the reason is as simple as, &amp;#039;I like flowers, and this artist did a great representation of them.&amp;#039; Many artworks nod to their history, like the Southern oaks in the foyer, a reference to the wife&amp;#039;s roots. That&amp;#039;s a reason we love working with young families: You are creating a space that&amp;#039;s going to be part of someone&amp;#039;s childhood memories. In contrast to the whimsical, high-energy living areas, the master suite is a serene, grown-up haven. To have an adult room here feels like a total luxury. While the quiet palette is a departure from the rest of the house, the use of soft, neutral patterns is consistent with the overall feeling. The textures of silk, velvet, cashmere, and embroidery enliven the room. As you can see, fabrics and wallpapers are my weaknesses. You seem to have had the most fun designing the kids&amp;#039; rooms. Absolutely, especially the eldest son&amp;#039;s room, which we call the tree house. We covered the walls and ceiling in a grass cloth, so it feels like you&amp;#039;re in a hut. The day they moved in, the other kids saw that space and were like, &amp;#039;That&amp;#039;s not fair!&amp;#039; He lucked out and got the coolest room in the house. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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