What’s Better Than Better Homes & Gardens
For nearly 100 years, Better Homes and Gardens magazine has been a source of joy and inspiration for people who love home and design. Who doesn’t remember flipping through those pages growing up and daydreaming about the house you would someday call your own? When you pick up the April issue, you’ll see a familiar face on page 102—that’s right, it’s our Lucy!
Better Homes & Gardens, April 2020
Waking up every day in this house is a joy and being able to share it with everyone in BHG is a complete pinch-me moment. Wow, just what a fun spread!
Seeing it all come together has really been such a treat for us from start to finish, and we are just so proud that BHG wanted to share our home with their readers. As they took each set of photos, there was back and forth with the remote editors, and conference calls to go over everything. After all, every detail matters—especially when you are photographing for a magazine.
Like any magazine shoot, it was a process to get these perfect pictures. We would prep one room at a time—with the other rooms full of photo equipment like lights and white screens, cameras and computers, with people just everywhere. Luckily, it’s something of a party house, so we had room for them all! We were bringing in accessories, filling the space with fresh flowers (yay!), and moving everything around until it looks just right on camera. That striving for magazine-worthy perfection every day is practically impossible—and we’re completely okay with that. We’re here for the happy, after all! But it sure was fun to be flawless for a day, though.
The article talks about how we mix our signature love of color with all of the treasures we’ve collected on our travels over the years. Our adventures truly were the roadmap that led us to this house! We love the features they called out—the pretty-but-practical tiles we used on the kitchen wall, the neutral black, white and beige backdrop that allows our treasured possessions to sing, Winnie and Pooh Bear’s puppy den. (We may be biased, but how adorable are Winnie and Pooh Bear? They get if from their dad David—Pooh Bear even has his white curls!) These features are the kinds of decisions and details that make this our home.
When we took these photos and did the interview, on a glorious end-of-summer day, we had no idea what 2020 had in store for us—but did anyone? But we feel as lucky today as we did that day. Lucky, honored, and proud to collaborate with and work alongside the best in the industry: Style & Design Director for Better Homes and Gardens Jessica Thomas, who was such a joy to work with, and writer and editor Kelly Ryan Kegans, who did such a delightful job capturing why we love our authentically-us home. Jessica had a glorious hoard of hand selected flowers sent to the house ahead of time, which was a wild, wonderful surprise. She has an uncanny eye for color mixing—we, as color lovers, were enchanted, and learned lots of tricks. And Kelly has an art of listening, she captures the personality and spirit of people in such a ‘wow’ way.
And we cannot thank photographer Kim Cornelison enough for so beautifully capturing our house at its very best. We had so much fun working with and spending it with this talented group—they made it an experience we’ll never forget! This efficient team glided through the house like silk: Kim speaks Jessica’s same language from years of working side-by-side. Like giggling sisters, we all piled into my closet together, diving through dresses and outfits and options.
They would set up on shot, work to get the position just right, then Jessica would jump in and wave her style wand like voila! In the meantime, Kim was making magic with her camera, clicking away at the already perfectly-styled shot they’d already set up. It felt like a family—everyone laughing together and all pitching in. We wrapped up the day sitting together out on the patio, clinking our glasses of rose, enjoying great food and even better conversation. What a fun day of work!
We also want to give a special shout out to Colby Mattson for designing and to Chris Van Klei for building our Cape Dutch-style forever dream home. How can you not love that sexy Cape Dutch gable with its Mallard Green door? We always say it takes a village, and it’s especially true here!
You can see the full feature in the BHG April 2020 issue that just hit newsstands or in these ‘stay at home, safe at home’ times, check it out.
Many of you have already seen the feature and sent us such sweet and kind messages—THANK YOU! We’re hoping by sharing our little slice of heaven with you that it will help keep spirits high & you inspired!