We are hard at work on a dream project.

The dream project is this: a full home interior design plan for a beautiful home in Oklahoma City, just up the road from the shop in Tulsa.

The home, a 1950s Georgian dwelling, is owned by Stephanie and her lovely husband, Ryan.

“Ashley, I am so glad we are hiring Retro Den to decorate our home,” Stephanie said. “I love how you all care about people, and I love how you make spaces that are meaningful and that give energy to the lives being led in those spaces and homes.”

We did some Instagram story highlights here about the project.

We love saying it: those who wake up in purposeful and lovely spaces, go out into the world and are better people.

Steph and Ryan have two kiddos, laborious jobs, and big hearts. We couldn’t be prouder to help support the already beautiful lives they live.

We are breaking our plans into three phases. Phase 1 focuses on four rooms: the downstairs living room and eat-in kitchen, as well as the upstairs living space and playroom.

Starting from Scratch and Making a Meaningful Space

Steph and Ryan’s recent years were a whirlwind of wrapping up medical residency, moving to Oklahoma and starting a family.

They are freshly moved into their new-to-them house and need a larger number of furnishings than many of our home-styling clients.

We often take a lot of cues from what people already own in the way of furniture and decorations, but while they have a few family heirlooms and a few knick-knacks, we really are starting from scratch—a blank canvas.

To start, we wanted to delve into this couple’s hopes, dreams, and preferences. We want this home to reflect them, not just be pretty.

We began by pouring our secret sauce on them—our very own home survey, which takes an inventory of a person’s style as well as how they use their space currently, and how they want to use their space in the future. (Want to see the survey? You can download it yourself!)

We also asked Stephanie and Ryan to create a mood board to help us better learn about them—their likes and dislikes.

Too, we created a mood board of things we thought they would really like, as well as photos that represented a wide range of styles, so that we could go through those images with them and gauge their responses.

This is their home as it sits right now (the before):

Before: Downstairs living room leading into the eat-in kitchen.

Narrowing Down the Design

After touring and measuring the home, as well as asking Stephanie and Ryan lots of questions and reviewing colors, art, and furniture styles, we put together a plan.

Over ice cream and champagne, we offered up mood boards with all the grounding furniture pieces Team Retro Den plans to use in each room, as well as the colors and special details we want in each space.

We wanted approval on the large items, art pieces, and overall concept and feel for each room. We offered options, and Stephanie and Ryan quickly decided on which sofa, which rug, and more. We were nailing down details like crazy people!

Here are the design boards we presented to Stephanie and Ryan:

The mood boards are full of color. Plenty of beautiful Gus* Modern Furniture pieces, vintage furniture and rugs, and handmade items by House Sparrow Fine Nesting, Jake Fowler, Katherine Hair, Craig Proper Home, Owl and Drum, and Very Good Handyman.

Local Sources for a meaningful home

Something we LOVE about Stephanie and Ryan is their commitment to supporting local makers and small businesses in the design of their home.

They chose us at Retro Den to help them with their home because sourcing locally is a key tenant in our approach to home decorating.

And we cannot tell you how much meaning and beauty this approach is going to bring to the spaces in this home already rich with history and tradition—a house curated with items made by passionate people, featuring vintage pieces steeped in history, and arranged by two super-nice ladies named Ashley.

Magic is our word for this project. It’s going to be magical when this home becomes a place where sweet family moments run rampant and every day will start on a beautiful, purposeful background.

Cheers to this project. We eager to share more with you.