This Living Room Traded Bright Turquoise Walls for a Paris-Inspired Neutral - and the Difference Is Wild

A mid-century tri-level on a wooded hill was found through Zillow by searching outside a local interstate. The move happened in spring 2024 when interest rates and limited housing supply required openness to options previously overlooked, including 8-foot ceilings. The home included distinctive vintage elements such as a pink wall oven in the kitchen and a built-in ashtray in the pink bathroom, along with surrounding trees. Interior colors like turquoise and mustard yellow differed from personal style, but the main concern was aesthetic rather than structural. After years of renovations, frequent moves, turning 50, an earthquake, and extensive travel, settling into a calmer environment became the priority, with plans to change the overall vibe.

"The minute I saw this mid-century tri-level on a wooded hill, there was no going back. My husband Brian found the home on Zillow by looking outside the interstate around our city of Louisville, Kentucky. I never thought I'd live "outside the Watterson," and I definitely never thought I'd live in a house so new. (When you've been in back-to-back 1880s builds, a 1950s house feels downright brand-new.)"

"It was spring of 2024, though, when interest rates and the housing supply crunch meant we had to be open to things we'd never thought we'd consider. Like 8-foot ceilings. Yes, I know how that sounds. But we'd only ever lived in super- old houses, and we had 11- and 12-foot ceilings in our last two homes. Eight feet sounded claustrophobic. But this house came with the original vintage pink wall oven in the kitchen and a built-in ashtray in the pink bathroom, and did I mention the trees?"

"Honestly, it was a relief that color was the only thing that would have to change. As a serial renovator, I had taken a string of homes down to the studs and re-imagined them over the last few years. I was tired. And after all those renovations, then turning 50, moving twice, experiencing an earthquake, and quite a lot of circling the globe - all in less than two years - I was ready to settle into someplace calm. And while I appreciated their very real aesthetic commitment to the era of the home, the bold choices definitely leaned more high energy! than treehouse sanctuary."

Read at Apartment Therapy