All of my favorite spaces on the internet by the most amazing designers across the world, combined to make my wildest dream home!
I consume design inspiration constantly. It feels like every single day I find my new favorite designer, new dream kitchen, new favorite lighting company, etc. And as much as I love the puzzle-like problem solving required for designing real homes, it is so fun to imagine exactly what I would do if there were zero constraints. What does my actual dream home look like? What unreachable concepts, outrageous budgets, and totally inaccessible design legends would I pull together to create my ultimate sanctuary? What would my personal space look like if it were just as easy as pinning them to an inspiration board? So I pulled together some of my absolute favorite spaces from designers around the world and came up with my ultimate dream home. The craziest, least cohesive, most Abigail Shea home I've ever seen! The best kind of daydreaming.
This was such an interesting and helpful exercise as a new designer. Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the exciting, creative, trendy ideas and concepts other designers are running with, but it is so important to identify and come back to your true personal style. Actually, I usually start this way with clients -- we throw around tons of ideas, lots of which are purposefully inaccessible, and then we add the layers of practicality and accessibility. I want to know exactly what their dream home would look like before I start dampening my creativity with budgets and logistics. The ultimate goal is always to give them a dream space that works with their real-life constraints. So here is mine!
Oh, and I hope this is obvious but I did not design an entire house for this blog post.. lol. This is a collection of my favorite spaces by some amazing designers so A. all photo and design credits are given! and B. literally every room is from a different house. There's mediterranean styles, English cottages, Californian-luxe, etc. It's all over the place. Does it all totally make sense together? Definitely not. Is it even physically possible for a single house to be all of these different things? Don't think so. But the point was to explore my truest style with no boundaries, and the thread of similarities between all these spaces is totally obvious and very lovely. So enjoy, fellow daydreamers!
Architectural Style + Exterior
My interior taste is far from eclectic English cottage but my favorite exteriors belong to those homes. More than any other architectural style, I adore English cottage-style homes. Old, vine-covered stone houses with overgrown gardens and mossy roofs make me SWOON. Wouldn't you just die to come home to this place every day?
Entrance
Okay so yes this is technically a kitchen, but what a ridiculously dreamy way to enter a home! And in truth, my dream house definitely includes a super functional but equally beautiful entry space. So if you will, imagine this tweaked a bit to be a mudroom --maybe replace those open shelves with built in, ceiling height cubbies with old iron coat hooks? The sink definitely stays exactly as is because 1. it's amazing and 2. in my dreamland, a utility sink for kids/pets/future-me-as-gardener (??) in the mudroom is a must.
Design - Leanne Ford Interiors / Photography - Reid Rolls
Living Room
It is unclear to me how you could see this room and not include it in your dream home? Does it work with the rest of the house I have put together? No. Is it perfectly moody, collected, warm, minimal, and lived-in? Definitely. The proportions are genius, the materials are amazing. It's a non-negotiable in ASI dreamland.
Design by Jake Arnold / Photography by Michael Clifford
Kitchen
I would straight up PLAGIARIZE this kitchen (jk Breland-Harper, you're inimitable). This is one of my favorite spaces ever and is exactly what I need my home to be--simple, calming, warm, earthy. Unbeatable. Plus that indoor/outdoor situation is *literally* what my dreams are made of.
Design by Breland-Harper / Listing photos via Compass.com
Dining Room
What a drool-worthy dining situation. The colors, materials, and scale of this room are amazing. The fireplace ; the french doors to what I can only assume is an equally-dreamy patio situation! So good. I decided while doing this that a dining space with doors to outside is a top priority some day.
Design - Amber Interiors / Photography - Tessa Neustadt
Bedrooms
I've adored this space since the moment I saw it and am completely convinced I would be a better person if I woke up here every day ;) I can just feel the calm through the pictures! Clearly the space gets amazing light and seems bright + airy enough to be rejuvenating, but moody enough to also feel calming. Chef's kiss Anna!
Design and Photography - Anna Karlin
For extra bedrooms, let's just keep rolling with the beams + warm white walls situation. I'd probably have to sneak into those Las Perelli bedrooms for a nap every once in a while cause WOW -- stunners.
Top L - Via Pinterest
Top M - Knowlton + Co
Top R -Via Pinterest
Bottom L + R - Las Perelli
Bathrooms
Okay, it's getting real weird but bathrooms are my FAVORITE thing in the world and it is so hard to choose. In general, I want a few bathrooms to feel very casual and worn-in, and a few (including my primary bathroom) to feel a little more clean and crisp. All of these are absolute stunners and I'd be so lucky to have even one bathroom as nice!
Top L - Juniper Tedhams
Top R - Phoebe Nicol
Bottom L -Nicole Albert via. Remodelista
Bottom R -Moore House Design
Studio
Okay, in my dreamland I have a perfectly rustic, quiet, outdoor studio/office in a little garden by this incredible fountain thing. I definitely also have a huge indoor/outdoor (but somehow also perfectly weatherproof) storage space for allll my vintage goodies! Do you think I am manifesting this all by writing it down?? Fingers crossed, cause honestly -- what a life!
Top L -Via High Street Market
Top R - Leanne Ford for Domino
Bottom L - Leanne Ford for Domino
Bottom R -Via Pinterest
Bottom - Eneby Home via 1st Dibs
Thanks for taking a trip to ASI dreamland, keep your fingers crossed that I end up there for real someday! And if you want to see more of my brain dump, check out my dream home Pinterest page! Xoxo