Design Reveal: Our "Vintage Contemporary" Country House
- Molly Ishmael
- Dec 31, 2021
- 7 min read
Updated: Feb 13, 2022
Happy New Year's Eve! I know one thing our family will be toasting tonight: the start of construction on our new home! Woo-hoo! We started this process last spring, and now finally wrapped up the design process - and we stayed on budget, yay! I'm so excited to share our final choices and interior design inspiration photos that guided us to this point. Do you guys want to see what we ended up picking?!
I'm calling the style "Vintage Contemporary Country." The architecture is a blend of turn-of-the-century European farmhouse and cottage elements to be decorated with vintage contemporary flair. We chose sturdy, solid surface, mostly classic finishes to withstand the wild, wooded setting and our future plans for animals, gardening, and all that good (messy) stuff. Cheerful colors and warm textures will be brought in via decor. Scroll for inspo pics and more design ideas!
The exterior rendering of our house. It will be white stucco with black stained wood accents.
A few weeks ago, we were finally given our design pricing. It took 3 months which surprised us, but we got everything wrapped up (just) in time for construction's scheduled start date, so it's all good!
Until this point, we've been working blind as we didn't know pricing on some major items from the September meeting. At that time, we choose things like paint, doors, hardware, and anything else for which there was no separate vendor meeting, and we also discussed custom designs like the built-in shelves next to the fireplace and the outdoor kitchen. However, we did not know pricing for most of those choices, such as countertops and paint. We went on to vendor meetings to choose cabinetry, tile and appliances, and those prices were transparent, which was nice. Not having pricing for the first round of decisions, we just reigned in other choices as best we could and hoped for the best. The builder's designer told us we were "way over budget" but that's all we knew. We could only hope we were making up for the overages elsewhere.
Upon receiving pricing in December, the week before construction's scheduled start date, David and I quickly worked to finalize all of our choices. By the way, the final design packet was 80 pages which I reviewed painstakingly. But we couldn't take too long to ponder at this point, as construction would be delayed if the design contract wasn't signed. We immediately made the decision to cut the gate completely out of the plans which was a major savings. Between that and deciding to do some of the work ourselves later (I'm looking at you, landscaping) we were able to stay within our budget. Granted, there will probably be some construction overages later - like I mentioned in my last post, we were already forewarned of the well issue - but at least as of right now, we don't have to write a check. That was pretty nice news right before Christmas.
In the end, it all worked out. We stayed on budget and came to a consensus about what to keep and what to ditch just in the nick of time. December 8 we were given pricing, December 13 we made absolute final selections and signed off on them, and 2 days later they started prepping the home site. Whew!
Want to see what made the cut? Scroll for inspo photos of some of my favorite design choices.
OUR VINTAGE CONTEMPORARY COUNTRY HOUSE DESIGN
Designer: Tommy Smythe. Photo: Houzz.com
1. KITCHEN: BLACK & WHITE & GRAY
When choosing finishes, I took inspiration from the kitchen pictured above. Though we didn't exactly replicate it, we chose a similar look.
Our Choices:
Cabinets: White Shaker style cabinets with glass accents
Island: Black Shaker style island
Hardware: Brushed nickel bar cabinet pulls
Backsplash: Carrara marble tile
Pendant Lights: Oversized black lanterns
Flooring: Gray woodgrain porcelain tile throughout the main floor
Windows: Black casement style throughout house
FYI here are the lanterns I picked:
Photo: LoveCreateCelebrate.com
2. PAINT: WHITE WALLS & BLACK INTERIOR DOORS
Black interior doors is a look I've loved for awhile. Imagine how psyched I was when David signed off on it. Yes, he knew what he was signing, haha! We're going all-in: every single interior door will be painted black. Both the Shaker Style doors we chose and painting them black were upgrades (which was interesting to me as the doors would be painted either way) but we made up for it in savings elsewhere. Pairing the look with white walls will create a crisp contrast.
Want to try the black door trend yourself? Semi-gloss is a striking and durable option.
Photo: HomeWorldDesign.com
3. ARCHITECTURE: HIGH CEILINGS & OVERSIZED WINDOWS
Cost-wise, this was definitely our biggest splurge. In fact, the windows are one of the main reasons we had to skip the gate. But that's ok. We feel good about our choice: a simple, inexpensive gate can be installed later, whereas changing windows after market (not to mention window sizes) would be astronomical. The architecture was really important to us so the house could stand alone without a lot of "decorative stuff" needed. We knew we were already getting high ceilings included from our builder, so to capitalize on that, we requested specialized windows with transoms above.
By the way, I know having a gate may sound "fancy" or totally over-the-top in many areas, but here, it's quite common due to the rural setting. Gates can protect livestock and farm equipment and keep cars from accidentally driving down the driveway. Most of our soon-to-be neighbors have fences and gates. The good news is that it's actually not that expensive to add a gate later especially if we do some of the work ourselves. David has been researching how to build pillars himself. I guess he'll be adding masonry to his set of skills soon!
That said, we're super psyched about the windows! We chose casement style due to safety considerations and also because we can totally avoid grids and achieve unobstructed views. We went with black (technically bronze but they look black) to contrast with the white exterior and interior walls. We also did oversized windows next to the kitchen nook, as large as the state of Florida allows considering hurricane building codes. To match the window height, we extended all the sliding door heights to match the tops of the window transoms. And as all the glass is low-energy, hopefully the electric bill will be our friend.
I have used this type of privacy window film in several past houses. Bonus, it provides UV protection!
Layered rugs have been all the rage for, oh, thousands of years now! Photo: One Kings Lane
4. FLOORS: GRAY WOODGRAIN TILE
(to be layered with vintage style rugs)
The flooring we chose is woodgrain porcelain tile in a color called "Distillery" gray. In keeping with the Euro-cottage-farmhouse theme, I plan to add a few fun rugs to my collection. When we moved out of our last house, I had a yard sale and sold some beautiful rugs so I could start over with different colors in the new place.
Speaking of rugs, if one isn't working for you, try two or three. I've layered rugs in the past and loved the look. Natural fiber rugs... Persian rugs... Scandi rugs... Aztec style rugs... faux fur and hide rugs... they can all be good friends. This is one look where my husband isn't quite sold yet, but I trust my instincts.
This rug is in my Amazon cart for the moment we move in. (Or maybe beforehand, if you think David won't notice a huge red rug in our rental, lol!)
Photo: HVACDirect.com
5. GREAT ROOM: MODERN GAS FIREPLACE
This will be "David's fireplace." He has always wanted a modern linear gas fireplace. I say it's his, but he let me choose the surround, white quartz stacked stone just like in the photo above. We also chose a simple black mantle. I cannot tell you how tricky it was to figure the fireplace height versus mantle height versus TV height. TVs shouldn't be too high, but then again we had to follow code for the fireplace and mantle. Also, the mantle is wood so it's combustible. It was a whole thing, but we finally decided on measurements.
Here is the very affordable mantle we chose on Wayfair: Click here
Basically my dream fireplace. Too rustic? Just kidding... kind of. (Stock photo)
6. PATIO: OUTDOOR WOOD-BURNING FIREPLACE
I would describe "my fireplace" (the outdoor wood-burning one) as something no one would bat an eye at if placed in an 18th century movie set, haha. First let me say, I'm so grateful to for the opportunity to have covered outdoor fireplace. I intend to cook there sometimes, roast lots of marshmallows as a family without having to worry about weather, and just enjoy the smoky warmth on chilly evenings. The fireplace will be finished with tan and gray cobblestone, an ebony mantle, and the best part? NO electrical plugs to be found - i.e. no TV above it. The outdoor area is my screen-free zone.
This is my current outdoor rug. It can be hosed down to clean it - winning!
Try putting your best light in your smallest room. Photo: PureSaltInteriors.com
7. BATHROOM: CHANDELIER OVER THE TUB
Finally, my old stand-by, the ol' chandelier over the tub. There's no better place for your prettiest crystal-laden lighting fixture, in my opinion, than the bathroom. It's easy to ignore bathrooms (and closets, by the way) but we all spend so much time there - it's a room that gets used multiple times for day, probably far more than the dining room. I'm all about giving a little love to the smallest rooms in the house. Bathrooms and walk-in closets are my favorite places to add style surprises!
This is the wrought iron chandelier I had in my last 3 bathrooms. After moving and restringing the crystals as many times, we finally decided to leave it with our last home. I loved this light!
And now a moment of cheese, brought to you by me writing this blog at midnight and getting a bit tired and silly:
My Poem to Tiny Spaces
This one's for all you bathrooms and closets out there!
A vintage rug here and an ottoman there,
Add some art and a chandelier,
Crown molding plus an antique mirror,
And your tiniest room has never been cheerier!
Well, the poem is certainly underwhelming... but at least your smallest rooms won't be.
Wildcard: I'd love to put this colorful glass chandelier somewhere - maybe our daughter's bathroom?
In another post, I'll share more specific decor that's waiting in my online carts as we speak. For now, tell me what you think about the design elements we chose so far for our "Vintage Contemporary Country House." Anything we missed? Also later on, I'll share more design elements that we love but ended up skipping, and why. I'll also post more exterior renderings and my DIY landscaping plan. Until then, Happy New Year, stay safe and have fun!
With Love,
Molly
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