A Curated Bay Area Home & Beautiful Garden - California House Tour

Hello, my name is Helena. Welcome to my home in Piedmont, California. Come on in. You're watching Homeworthy, where we believe every home has a story. I'm Alison Kenworthy, the founder of Homeworthy, and we take you inside the world's most beautifully decorated homes and introduce you to the brilliant people who live there. Hi, Homeworthy. I'm Liz Lang. Welcome to Grey Gardens. Click the join button below to access all of our latest episodes ad-free and watch extended cuts of this and other homes, opening the doors to new rooms and exclusive content featuring our beloved hosts. I can't wait to see them. I'm so excited. And if you're looking to shop items inspired by this and other Homeworthy tastemakers, be sure to use the product links below or scan the QR code on screen to find fabulous furniture, coffee table books, and accessories that can transform your house into a home. Hello, my name is Helena Simon. I am the founder and CEO and creative chief officer of Helena Simon Fine Floral Brooches. My family and I wound up in Piedmont because it's close proximity to San Francisco. It's also close to Berkeley, wonderful schools. It's a beautiful area, lots of trees, beautiful gardens. So we're close to Tahoe, Napa, San Francisco, South By, but it's sort of like a little gem that we can escape to. My personal design style is a confluence of old and new, modern and antique. I love to collect, whether it's a garage sale or something from a gallery. If it moves me and touches me, that's why I get it. I also love gardening and flowers. I love art. I love fashion. And I love color. So you'll notice in my home we use a lot of different types of fabrics and patterns and color. Nothing is muted. I just lean into it. But you also find that I bring the garden, like the outside, inside. That's important for me. Welcome to our living room. This is one of my favorite rooms in the home. So this is, of course, a wonderful view straight into our garden. I always like putting a plant in front of a window because I think it bridges the outside inside. This is a Ken Fandel amazing piece of art that from afar I thought was calligraphy. But if you get close to it, it's actually tires that came off of big rigs on Highway 405 in Los Angeles. It's just exquisite. I love it. It just spoke volumes to me. So this is our fireplace. This home is built in 1928. So it's the original fireplace. I love having a fire in the winter. It's a little warm for today. I found these on Etsy, believe it or not, but I love them. Hi, hello. It's a beautiful antique mirror. I love to do floral decorations. So you'll see that all over the place. A nice chaise for lying down in front of the fire. Piano. I play piano. My dad is an excellent pianist. And then again, lots of green curtains to bring the outside in. A beautiful soft chair. And I kind of went crazy with the pink couch, but my designer Allison Kokoma was like, do it. And I'm so happy we did. Again, all of this artwork I've collected over the years. This is one of my very most favorite artists is John Funt. I have, I think six of his pieces. He does beautiful artwork of flowers. Lots of just beautiful distilled lice, but very modern. I'm obsessed, maybe a little too obsessed. I just got this chair recovered. I found this in a store that was, they were moving and going on a sale. So I mean, you know, all of the things, this is my grandmother's beautiful lamp. Everything you see, I've gotten either in sort of like a high level design house, or like I said, in a garage sale on Cherish. I just love to collect and I buy things that really move me. My husband and I, we were in Palm Springs and we saw this painting and I thought, I got to have that. San Francisco in Japantown. I found this. I love it. And again, the green curtains for bringing the outside in. You have our Japanese maple and our tulip trees outside that are just starting to bud. They're so beautiful. And then again, another piece from my grandmother. This is a beautiful blood lamp. Really special. I love Erin Lauder's pieces. I have one of her vases here. And then another John Funt piece is right here, actually. This is kind of a collage, like a three-dimensional piece. I love it so much. Got this beautiful birdcage, excuse me, when I went on a girl's trip with my friends to Petaluma near Sonoma and it brought this beauty home with me. So it's just, as you can see, it's just a collection of things from my experiences, my journeys, times with friends, times by myself, times with my husband. And I think that's what makes a room. And then you just put beautiful flowers and lots of photos of your family up to make it homey. That's really important to me. And voila, there you have it. I also wanted to I found this beautiful coffee table in a little antique store somewhere and it just spoke to me. I love the hand detailing, the gold, the floral print, and it was just the perfect size. I always think black, one piece of black in any room really anchors it. It's a bit of tension, but good tension. So that's why I love this piece. And then this is a Fortuny light, which I love. I just love these little details like this, like this little gem hanging down and the delicate beading around the edge. It's really beautiful. And I find it really important to have something, especially in a big cavernous room like this, you have to fill it. Otherwise, it just echoes and it feels sort of, you know, almost sad. So we wanted to bring some light, the light down to warm up the room. That's another wonderful, I have a lot of pieces by this artist, Dharma. It's all hand painted. And then if you go really close, you can see those little beads in those flowers. It's just really special. Lots of family photos, of course, lots of plants, flowers everywhere. That's to me, what makes a home a home. And then we have the Rose Tarlow chair. And I covered this in a fabric that I had that I just couldn't wait to use. And I thought it would go really nicely with the pink couch, even down to picking this, the edging here. I mean, I just, I love, I live for this stuff. It's important to me when I have guests in the room that they have a place to sit and a place to put their cocktail or their coffee or whatever we're doing. So lots of chairs, lots of space for sitting, lots of place to put your things. You want it to be beautiful, but you also want it to be functional and practical. Sometimes I'll even find my daughter reading a book or my son on, you know, feet up on the couch in front of the fire. And that's, those are the things that for me make a home a home. One of my favorite pieces in this room is actually the tiniest piece. And it's this beautiful green alligator leather footstool that I found when my husband and I were in Beaufort in South Carolina. And I saw it in the window of a store, the store was closed. And I thought, I'm going to come back for it in the morning. And I did, and I grabbed it and I was so happy, brought it back, or actually they shipped it. And here it lives under our Bunny Williams table. This I found again at a, gosh, I think it was like a open air market somewhere. You put some art books on the table and boom, you're done. So it never, never, whenever you're interested in something, I always, I'm like a heat seeking missile, just go for it. And if it fits with your budget and your schedule, then I say get it. Cause you'll, you'll never be sorry. Now we are going to head into the foyer and the entry. Follow me. I purposely kept our entry clear. My kids just went to college, but before that they were constantly coming in with their backpacks and things. So I just wanted it to be a clear path for them. But I did buy this beautiful carpet, actually purchased it in Berkeley at a beautiful carpet store. Lots of art on the walls and this beautiful staircase and this beautiful window, all made in 1928 when the house was originally built, really sold us on the home. The light that filters down, it's perfect for all the flower arrangements I always have up front. And it's a beautiful view of the garden. I put this purple neutral colored carpet, both because I wanted color, but I also wanted to be realistic about kids coming up and down stairs. And I aligned it with some beautiful green leather and nail heads. And then I framed the, I wanted the art on the wall, not to compete with this beautiful stairwell and the wood and the wrought iron or the window. So I just actually took these pieces of art from a book I had and I had them framed. So we've got like Leo, the lion and Taurus, all these wonderful things on there. My favorite memory from living in this home of ours is definitely around Thanksgiving and Christmas and birthdays. We're very fortunate that we have a large living room and dining room and we're able to gather everyone together and celebrate with all the generations of the family. You know, our kids are our world. And so any graduation, any big milestone, we always celebrate. So I would say having everyone here Christmas morning, we light the fire, we have a big tree kind of right in front of me where I'm looking. And Thanksgiving, it's just, it's really special. I love to cook too. So anything that revolves around tradition, food, milestones, those are my favorite memories in this house. Here we are in the dining room. This is a Rose Tarlow table that I bought because it's like a really wide, long wall. And of course, when we have company or food, we will clear this and we will sometimes put, you know, either holiday decor or actual food there. And one of these, one of my favorite artists is Rebecca Callahan. And so this is one of her pieces. I just love it. It's so peaceful and I love the purples and the oranges. So I, this room is really special to me. This is, this room holds a lot of memories of birthdays and holiday celebrations. This is a Keith Fritz dining room table. And I love this fabric. I always wanted to put it somewhere and I decided to put it in our dining room because I thought it would go beautifully with the wallpaper that I picked for the room. It's also the same blue as our, the brand Helena Simon, our signature pale blue. It reminds me of the sky. I love, love, love doing flower arrangements. And for today, I just actually put candlesticks and filled them with water. I wasn't sure if it was going to work, but here we go. I think it looks lovely. This is another John Funt painting. Can you tell I'm obsessed with John Funt? And there's another one behind you right here. I just adore his work. I think he has obviously a very special relationship with flowers, just like me. And he just captures everything that I see when I see a beautiful flower arrangement. These windows are really old, 1928, all iron and very delicate. Same with our picture window in the foyer. So whenever the window washers come, I'm always like, please don't go too hard because they will break. I do like to bring the outside in. This is an antique mirror and I covered it with this beautiful fern. I just, I love bringing plants inside. Same with the myrtles over here. It just, it just makes me feel like the house is breathing and it's also oxygenating the space, but it truly just feels bringing the outside in feels really special to me. This is a Rose Tarlow table that filled the space perfectly for me and also is practical because you can put things on it. Rebecca Callahan painting. I love her work. Lots of green. You'll notice lots of blues and greens and vermilions in my house. Those are my colors. And a beautiful carpet that actually Alexis Smith found for me. I love it. It's light and airy, um, does the trick and it doesn't really, uh, compete or detract from the rest of the space. So that is, and you know, the dining room, I will add is one of my most favorite rooms too, mostly because it carries so many memories from birthday parties and family events and holidays. And so when I think of family, this is sort of the room that I think of. Now we're going to head into the family room. Follow me. And on our way to the family room, I'll show you our powder room. Um, it's a little jewel box of a space. Uh, it, we wallpapered it in this beautiful plum colored grass cloth and have this beautiful, um, curtain made with all these gorgeous beads. Um, this is a touch that Alison came up with and I fully appreciate it. I've covered the walls with art that I've collected for my whole life. Um, there seems to be a theme of sales ships and naked women going on. Um, so, you know, interpret that as, as you may. Um, anyway, I, we, I did redo, kept the original floors of this bathroom. So these are 1928 tile. Um, but I did pick out a new, um, basin. Um, I love this mirror. It's actually Buddy Williams. I picked it for the height, um, cause it's such a tall room and I love the star fixture and it's just a nice space. So, and you know, I, I get more comments on this room actually than any room in my house, believe it or not. It's really special. And I'm hoping when people shut the doors, they feel like they could just relax and enjoy the view. Okay. Let's go into the family room. So we're going to walk into our family room and I'm, uh, you can see, I love our, this is another Rebecca Callahan painting. Um, and this is a desk, uh, that I use lots of flowers. I like to actually keep my desk space really clear and clean. I maybe have ADHD, but I just need to be able to focus on the task at hand. So, um, I purposely keep it really clean. People are like, do you clean that before we come? And I'm like, not really. It's actually always like that. Except for when I get my mail and I'm sorting it out and gets a little crazy. Um, so this is our family room and it looks out onto our garden, which I love. Um, we have a beautiful custom bookcase here that houses a lot of photos of the kids. I keep plants and old books. There are actually some really special things in here. My husband's grandfather's, uh, has a purple heart. Um, when my mom was born, she was born on a manor during World War II that housed, um, soldiers who were injured and also, um, women who were in London and needed to escape to the country to avoid the, uh, bombing. And my mom, my, my grandmother was pregnant with my mom. And so my mom was actually born, um, on this manor. And when she was born, um, they gifted her these, uh, a beautiful set. And it's from, um, it's just, it's like a, it's a really special, the, the, actually the woman was a bridesmaid to Queen Elizabeth when she got married. Um, so this is our family room, very cozy. Again, lots of plants, some bunny, a bunny Williams couch and this crazy red, I think I've mentioned earlier, I love vermilion and, and sort of, uh, rusty reds. And so it's cozy. Um, this all turns in the fall, which is about to happen, a beautiful red, lots of maples. And so it picks up the colors. So this is my favorite room in the fall. So we are now in our garden and as you can see, it's a beautiful vista beyond the wall. Um, another striking piece of our garden is this beautiful tile, um, tile work that was original to the house also, uh, 1928. And so we purposely plant around it, but never cover it because it's so beautiful. And these trees will all change, gosh, in just a couple of weeks, um, lots of space for playing around. We have this lovely fountain and I, uh, we gather here for lunches and summer dinners. It's always very special. And then we also have this really beautiful, um, fireplace here that, um, it's just, it kind of anchors the space. I know that a mantle in the living room also anchors the space and I feel like here it does the same. Um, this door actually opens up into our living room and you can, in the, again, in the summer we will walk in and out, especially if we're having a party. Um, and then this space is kind of where we congregate to, uh, have more sort of quiet chats. The kids will hang out here a lot. Um, and that is our garden. There's also this original fountain here, um, which is really special. I love the sound of water going. It's, I mean, I don't know if any of you guys have an app on your phone for meditation or sleep, but it's often the sound of water. So just having the water going, um, will kind of set you right. I designed my home with the help of two interior decorators. So I, I will say that I am very, uh, I've always designed all of my homes. They're my space. I know exactly what I want and I know what I don't want. Um, but I did enlist Alison Kokoma to help me, especially with drapery and this beautiful couch here. And she's incredibly talented, had lots of ideas. And then I, um, um, also worked with Alexis Smith, the Shoshin, and she also helped upstairs in my bedroom. Um, a lot of it is, uh, particularly with Alexis, like telling her, you know, this is the fabric I want, this is the, um, furniture I want. And then she would of course introduce new and wonderful things that I didn't know existed. So it was a, it's real teamwork with the both of them. But ultimately I would say most of what you see is, is really things that I've just bought and found and upholstered myself. I just reupholstered our piano bench for instance. Um, I love doing it. It's like my side passion project on the side. A design tip I would share both from working with Alice and Alexis who are so talented. Um, and also just things that I've picked up from my mom and grandparents and, you know, people in homes that I've lived in is always listen to what speaks to you. So there may be an art piece that really speaks to you that doesn't speak to someone else or speaks to someone else that doesn't speak to you. So anytime anyone's showing you fabric, just always speak your mind and say, you know, my vision really for my room was this pale blue cloud, or my vision for my living room was to bring the outside in doors. And, um, you know, people really listen. And I think, um, you should, you know, my, my advice to anyone who's decorating their own home or working with someone else is just to really kind of be quiet with yourself for a moment and listen to what your vision is, what your objective is for your home, because listen, it's your home, it's no one else's. So you want to be happy with it. So we're here at, um, the landing upstairs in our home. Um, there, I, this is a custom piece that I designed and I got this, um, to fit the arc of the wall. If you notice it's a, it's a curved wall. I love it. Um, and I found this just at a scrap yard, this beautiful piece of marble. I had it honed. And I, again, the green I thought brought out the, um, garden outside. You have a beautiful view of the window. I picked these, uh, Hector Finch lights. I picked them because I thought that they, um, complimented the beautiful crown molding at the top, which again is original. And you can see it's got these little sort of drops. It almost looks like a icing on a cake. I just, I love it. Um, I just love old home so much. Um, anyway, we also paired it with some modern art. Uh, Dharma is one of my favorite artists. She's also downstairs in our living room. And you can see if you close up, these are all hand-painted and then there are these tiny little beads in the centers of the flowers, more flowers, of course. Um, it's just so delicate and so peaceful. And every time I come upstairs, I just, it just makes me so calm. Um, and I just think it's a lovely juxtaposition against the sort of classic, um, architecture. And then you have these clean modern frames. Um, I have my favorite frame store in the Bay area is Barbara Anderson Framing, and I brought these to her to frame. And, um, she did a beautiful job. She's framed so much in our house. Um, again, I love flower arranging. This may be a little cuckoo to some, but I love it. Lots of books. Um, and we can go into the master bedroom now. Follow me. So welcome to our bedroom. Uh, this bedroom is another reason we bought this house. It has beautiful views of San Francisco, which of course is covered in fog right now, but especially at night, we want to see the fireworks on 4th of July. It's just a beautiful view, very light and airy. There's beautiful, um, molding on the walls. You can tell. So there's the heavy molding up top, but also there's this, um, you know, beating everywhere. Uh, and so that also attracted me a room. Again, it kind of fills the space. This is my desk, which usually has my laptop on it. Um, so where I take all my zoom. So if you've seen me on zoom, you're very familiar with this background behind you. Um, I, again, love flowers found this little piece, um, you know, just in a small space somewhere. And then this painting, it's not wallpaper. It's a painting by Ellen little. She's a local artist. She does fabulous watercolor and I don't have very much watercolor in my house. So this really spoke to me. I love going to sleep and waking up to this painting. It's of goat Hill in San Francisco, again, all the details. And I actually kind of saw a bit of this red and pink. And I decided to add just a little touch of pink in our room with this. And I always get pink flowers in here because I think it just kind of speaks to that and the lampshade too. Um, these curtains, I have had my eyes on these fabric forever. And when it was finally time to do our curtains, I said, this is the fabric we're going to use. And based on that fabric is sort of what carried through the rest of the room. We decided to also put it on the headboard. Um, of course we have our dreamy Mattook sheeting, which I love, um, these Androshy, uh, pillows, um, which I love their velvet, um, lots of antique. This is my husband's favorite part of the bedroom. I'll say he loves to sit here and talk to me about what's going on. Um, and he puts the shoes on here and does all this stuff. Uh, and, and we are both avid readers. Um, my husband, uh, particularly, so we've read all these books. There are books in our garage because we have not enough places in our room to put them. Um, but again, this is, uh, one of my most favorite, uh, lamp designers, Christopher Spitzmiller. We actually have two in our family room. You might've seen them. They're the beautiful peacock, um, color. And so I, I love these. I just love when you want to turn off the light. It's just a little thing, every detail, everything you touch is perfect about them. So well done, Christopher. And, uh, let's see, I can bring you into my closet next and show you a little bit of how my space, my personal space, which is very dear to me. Come follow me. So here we are in my closet. Um, this is my little space that is very special to me. This is actually, um, a beautiful Santa jacket that I wore all summer. And, um, this is one of our beautiful flowers. This is the open rose. So it sometimes will hang the outfit that I want to wear and pick a flower that, um, you know, I want to wear with it and see which will go. And, uh, we have a beautiful view into the garden and I have my little space. This is where I sit to put on my shoes. Justin has the little, um, couch in our room and this is my spot and I'm totally OCD. Um, I have all of my bags organized and everything. And then if you come in here, I can show you, um, some of our brooches. I, I actually lay my brochures out like this so I can see, um, I have my, um, small bags and here, and then I have this here and then based on my outfit, I can sort of go, Ooh, I'm wearing a black gown. This is going to look beautiful. Or I'm just wearing a winter sweater and I want to pop this on. Um, so it's really good to access and having these trays out. I recommend anyone who has our flowers definitely get some trays. We're actually making them that you can buy soon. Um, so lots of shoes, lots of color. You can tell I love color. Um, and this is my closet. Welcome to our bathroom. Uh, my friend April, who is an amazing architect, help us figure out how to make the best of a small space bathroom. Uh, you know, we are close to the city, so houses aren't massively big here. Um, and old houses particularly have small bathrooms, but we made it work and I love it. I could spend hours in my bathroom. It's light and airy. Um, we did a very thick marble cover over the drawers and had two mirrors and I have to credit waterworks. I walked into waterworks, um, design room and I saw this beautiful way that they had framed their windows and I thought, Oh, I really want this in our bedroom. So this is where I sit and I'll put on my makeup and do my things. Um, and inside, this is a Paul Ferranti, um, light fixture, which I loved. I actually had it downstairs in our front hallway and I thought, now this belongs here. It's of the sea and it's perfect for taking a bath. These are all original windows. Of course we have our Matuk towels. I can tell I'm obsessed with Matuk. Um, and then I had, this is an antique bench I found actually, and I had it covered in a beautiful fabric that I had left over. Um, it's pure fray and it's just perfect. And it kind of goes with these, um, shell pictures that, uh, I actually found in an antique store. Love them. They're all over the bathroom. Um, and that's it. Oh, one last thing for privacy, which of course we're big on, even though this is on the second story, you never know. We put in these sort of cafe style curtains, but it's a beautiful, uh, lace fabric. So the light comes in, um, but you still have your privacy, which is of course very important. All right, here we are. We're going to go to the office. Um, my husband loves maps. So I, um, framed Barbara Anderson framing again. Um, anyone in the Bay Area who knows frames knows Barbara Anderson, um, framed a bunch of maps for him in here. Um, this is another one. This is actually another Rebecca Callahan painting over here. Um, I, when I love an artist, I love an artist. So I have multiple paintings of a, of a few artists. Um, I wanted this room to be sort of a man cave for my husband. So I painted it this really beautiful Farrow and Ball, a ball green color. Um, I made a couch. This is actually a pullout couch. So, you know, if we have a, um, extra, extra, extra guests, they can sleep here. Or sometimes kids just want to watch the TV in here and, and pull it out. Um, but it really is my husband's room. So we roughly try and respect that. Um, I put in these built-in shelves, so there's lots of room for books and, um, knickknacks and, uh, and then I painted the ceiling pink because I just, I know on the color wheel, green and red are opposites. And I just thought, Hey, why not have a little fun in this room? I think white would be too white. And I picked a color again, Farrow and Ball that picked up the Rebecca Callahan peach in this painting. And I think it works really well. Again, more views. You can see our Japanese maple is just starting to turn. It's going to be so beautiful and red soon. Um, and then a lot of these trees will be barren. So many, a lot of deciduous, uh, trees, some evergreens. Um, but I love the season, so it's nice to watch. When I was in my twenties and I got my first big paycheck, um, I bought this print. I, when I saw it, it immediately spoke to me. I just loved it. It was soothing. I especially gravitated towards this black ring right here. It spoke to me so deeply. I'm not sure why, but it just anchored me. And maybe why I always think a bit of black in your home and every room really anchors the space. But anyway, it's just so beautiful. I had it framed in maple. It's been with me forever. And this is the craziest story. I'm going to take you into my bathroom and show you something. Well, it's not my bathroom at the kid's bathroom, but, um, my husband and I were in Paris and we were walking. This is like 25 years later, walking down a really tiny random street, some alleyway somewhere that probably no Americans were been on. We were the only ones. And we were in a tiny little art store and I was just flipping through the, um, Rolodex of prints that they had. And I was like, wow, this really speaks to me. And I looked down and it was the same artists that from the artists in Berkeley. He's not from Berkeley. I'm not sure where he's from. And I thought, I can't believe this is real. I'm looking at the same artists that I picked 25 years ago in a tiny little print store. And here I am again, halfway across the world. So obviously I had to have it. And obviously I had it framed of course, by Barbara Anderson again, and I love it. Um, anyway, this is our laundry room slash extra little bathroom. I love it. The light is here. It's beautiful. We added a shower because you always need more showers. And then we added this beautiful tile that goes, it curves right through the shower. Um, it just makes a sort of an architectural statement, even though it's in a laundry room, it can still be really pretty. I'm also going to show you, um, our daughter's bathroom. Um, the girls really like to do their makeup on here and they, uh, you know, it's, it's a tiny space, but they love it. Um, I also have our beautiful motif towels. Um, I painted us a very pale purple. Um, they, I think they wanted something brighter, but I was like, okay, we're just going to do a little bit mild because it's a small space. And as you all probably know, in a small space, you need to keep it light. I chose these, um, milk glass, um, lights to sort of, um, keep things soft in here. And then this is, I got this print at a, um, Salvation Army store and I saw it and it spoke to me so much. It is a merry ground and it's a mom with her daughter and her son. And I just thought, oh my God, it's like me and Anna and Charlie. So I got it, framed it, put it in here. Um, so you can have, again, high, low, if it speaks to you, it speaks to you. It doesn't matter if it's 99 cents or $9,900. Um, if it moves you, it moves you. And that's what art is all about. My career journey started a few years before, um, our kids were going off to college. And I realized that I was probably going to be in a state of despair when that happened. And I thought, I'm just going to pivot a little bit from what I usually do and do something that is really meaningful to me and is a synergy of all the things that I love. And it just hit me like a thunderbolt one night. I thought, well, I love flowers. I love gardening. I love fashion. I love art. I love design. I love beautiful, fine things that are really well made with a lot of care and attention. Um, and I thought, right, I'm going to make the world's most beautiful floral brooches. Um, and it was instant. Uh, I knew I was like, we're going to be made in America. They're going to be in New York. The gift packaging is going to be so special. Um, there'll be an heirloom quality. They're going to bring the garden to people's wardrobes, lots of special hand dyed, hand painted petals and, and, um, embellishments and then our signature gold icon. So they're easily recognizable. Um, and it was funny after I just came up with it, just like that, I was walking down my stairs and I noticed, wow, all of the paintings in my house are flowers. So much of the patterning in my house is of flowers. And I just thought, right, this is, we're going to do it. And it also doesn't exist in the world yet. So another reason I had to do it is bring it to people's wardrobes. This is our front yard. And I actually spend as much time, um, and thought, uh, given to our front yard is the backyard. Um, I always want it to be inviting and it's called curb appeal, but to me it means a lot. Uh, we have, we live in a cul-de-sac, so it's a little street with just six homes and everyone takes very special care of their space. Uh, we have a lot of grass. Um, we have these beautiful, um, horse chestnut trees, which, um, in spring have beautiful pink flowers and then we'll drop the chestnuts in the fall. Um, my daughter and I collect them and, um, we don't roast them. We'll just put them out, um, for show, but they're, they're really special. Um, we have dogwoods here. It's, we're leaning into fall here, so the leaves have lost, but we have tulip trees, ferns, Japanese maples. We have a beautiful wisteria that, um, has beautiful hanging, um, flowers in the spring. Lots of boxwoods. Speaks to my British ancestry and love of England. Um, and, uh, these are, uh, really special. I have a lot of, um, I love white. Actually, you know what? In Piedmont, people like white and green. It is definitely a theme here and in keeping with that, we decided this year to do, um, these beautiful white flowers. Um, I think it's really spray, it's just really bright and happy. There's so much color inside the house that I thought just having something like a simple palette outside was kind of a nice, um, compliment to when you go inside and it's like pal color. Um, and so if you follow me, there are more boxwoods up here. Again, these old, old windows from the 1920s. Um, note to window washers, be careful you don't break them. Um, and then we have this beautiful entryway. The sun sets every day right there and it is just magical. We call it the golden hour. Um, especially when the trees are in full bloom in the summer and it comes through the filtered light. It's really, really beautiful. Um, more boxwoods of course. Um, I found this bench actually at a local store. Um, and it's been perfect. I swear it was like $30, but you know, it's probably in some other place for a lot more. And, uh, we have lots of camellias, azaleas, all of the plants down here that we tend to, it also attracts deer. So, um, every so often I'll spray a little deer repellent, but I don't mind them sleeping here. Um, we also just have some potosporum and ferns in there as well. So lots to see here, beautiful views, sunrise, sunset. Um, as a family, we come out, I always call the kids, they say it's a beautiful sunset tonight. We come out, take a moment from our day and just enjoy and appreciate how lucky we are and how grateful we are for what we have. And I guess that's where I can leave you. Just always be grateful for whatever, wherever you are, whatever you're doing, just think about all the wonderful things, um, and the life you can live. And then I just say, go live it. Home to me is definitely where the family is and, um, where we spend time and make memories with our kids and our parents. Um, I am super close to my family and my kids. And so as long as the home is beautiful and lovely, but most importantly, comfortable and accessible to everyone when they visit or if they live here, um, that to me is what's important that you feel like you walk in and you can throw your bags down and you're looking at beautiful things, but ultimately this is your home to put your feet up um, at the end of the day in your cozy bed, um, and bring friends over. I love entertaining. I love it. My friends, my kids bring their friends over. Um, so that to me, that is exemplifies a happy, healthy home. All right. Thanks for touring the home. Bye. Thanks for watching. Be sure to go to homeworthy.com for exclusive content, shopping guides, and so much more.