At Home With Andrea Duclos

We are happy to welcome our next guest, Andrea (Drea) Duclos, in our "At Home With" series. Drea is here to share her open and light living space with us!"This home has been a bit of a dream home. After two (plus) years of searching and 6 long months of short sale waiting, I was beyond pleased to be able to finally call a place "my home". This home is in a quiet (later) 50s neighborhood, so you can imagine each home has a bit of character. Our living room came equipped with a useful, but not incredibly handy skylight, a huge (HUGE) built-in shelf, and some funky shades to cover our jalousie window. To add to this already built-in character, I brought in a lot of patterns—like, a lot. I'm a girl who loves a lot of light, white, bright, space, with a handful (or armful) of mixed and match patterns throughout. The built-in shelves are filled with books, records, and collected meaningful items."

"I think most things in my home and in the living room can be looked at as a bit "unusual". Most homes don't come with a large open room or a full wall shelving and storage built in. All the pieces in this space have been collected over time, nothing rushed or forced, but things that come to me as I might need them. Nothing is expensive in this space (unless you count the hand-me-down rug from my mother's travels). But together, it looks like a rich and loved home.  I love each piece. I love that you can look at everything as a whole, or each item individually, and know theres a story behind it. The couches pull everyone into this space. Both are incredibly warm, bright, comfortable, and completely my aesthetic. Neither couch was purchased over $75. The giant art piece is something people ask about quite a bit, a piece Alex made a few years back, when we were together in a 250-square-foot space (if it was even that big).""I've been in this space, approximately 6 months or so… thats such a long, but short time. I'm absolutely, 100% one of those people that moves into a space and sets it up ASAP, but it didn't work quite that way with this place. Moving from a 600-square-foot home to 1,600 square feet is a big change with a lot of empty space to fill! All the walls needed painting, a lot of things needed repairs, upgrades needed (and still very much need) to be done, and so on.  The first month or so was a whirlwind of painting, tearing carpets, cleaning, and fixing. After that, it slowly (if you count a five month transition as slow) evolved from an empty(ish) space to one—I don't know—a bit more lived in. A few months after our (Marlowe and my) move in, her father, Alex joined us. The shelves began filling up, but only in good ways. Together, we all create a major neat-freak, tidy, and organized bomb of color and belongs."

"This living room is our main space. It's adult friendly, kid friendly, dog friendly, and guest welcoming. We enjoy our lazy mornings, our movie nights (via laptop), our avocado toast lunch dates, our 10-minute catch-up coffee talks, our dance parties, and our big (and small) party times here. It's a space where people can come in, and feel comfortable to choose a seat, and enjoy their time—and a space, where we absolutely enjoy ours."

Thank you so much, Drea, for sharing your lovely space with us! You can see more of Drea and her family over at her blog Oh Dear Drea. xo.