Over the past few years, I’ve been delighted to see a change in the mindset of home design enthusiasts. When I first started blogging, people were most interested in homes where everything felt brand new, seemed magazine-ready or designed to match or impress. But over the past five years, there’s been a surprising (and wonderful) resurgence of not just a love for older furniture and homes, but a love for creating spaces that are less about impressing and more about welcoming people and making them feel at home. Sean and Jackie Wrafter did just that when they bought their home in Buffalo, NY. Sean, a designer and craftsman, and Jackie, a stylist, knew from the start that they wanted to create a space that was functional for any situation they could possibly come across. Whether Sean brought over a couple of sawdust-covered friends for lunch or friends dropped by with their children, the Wrafters wanted a home that was beautiful, but functional and comfortable, too.
After looking for homes around Buffalo, Sean and Jackie kept returning to the same street. They found themselves driving up and down the block looking at every house and dreaming out loud about how much they wanted to live in such a beautiful, walkable and quiet neighborhood. Then two years ago a home opened up – just down the block from the childhood home of F. Scott Fitzgerald – and the Wrafters knew it was the place for them. So they packed up and moved in, along with the rest of their furry family, three cats (Bijou, Linda and Andre) and a dog named Malik.
Both Sean and Jackie are incredibly creative and visual people, so they used their combined talents to create a home that spoke to their personal style. Sean builds furniture and fixtures from reclaimed wood and used to work as a finish carpenter, so he used his vast tool collection to make the most of the wealth of inexpensive (and free) salvage materials and furniture the couple was able to gather around Buffalo. Sean explained, “We would literally look at Pinterest and then go pull wood out of dumpsters and vacant lots and try to recreate things that we liked.” The result is a home that stays true to the beautiful lines of the original 1880s architecture but also captures the couple’s unique style and love of entertaining. Max had the honor of seeing this home in person, so I’m hoping that I can nab myself an invitation to join the sawdust-covered friends for lunch one day. Until then, I’ll admire all of the love and hard work that went into this home from further downstate. Thanks so much to Sean, Jackie and all of their pets for welcoming us into their home. xo, grace
All photographs by Maxwell Tielman
Images above: The top image is Sean and Jackie’s kitchen. Sean built the table from reclaimed beams from a local factory and worked with a local metal fabricator on the steel frame. In the second photo, Andre the cat keeps guard over the living room, which is decorated with a table by Wrafterbuilt and a rocking chair salvaged from a dumpster of the apartment building Sean’s father used to manage.
Click through for the full home tour after the jump!
via Design*Sponge http://ift.tt/Z9S5U4 From Grace Bonney
No comments:
Post a Comment