OUR FIRST HOME | A Classically Curated Atlanta Townhome

Hi, Homeworthy. I'm Lauren, and welcome to my Atlanta home. Come on in. Welcome to our newest Homeworthy series called Our First Home, where we meet young lovebirds who are building their first nest together. Now we're the Taylors. These couples have both charming love stories and lovely homes. It just feels great to be not only building a home, but building a life together. So prepare to be swept off your feet by these incredible pairs and the places they call home. You're watching Homeworthy where we believe every home has a story. I'm Lauren Tilichalski, and I am an attorney. My name is Carter Tilichalski. I am a real estate closing attorney here in Atlanta. We are in our townhome in the Morningside neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia. And our townhome is a three bedroom, three bathroom, really just cute 1,800 square foot home. I'd say it's a newer build. It was built in 2019. It was really builder grade items, kind of just looked like it came straight off of the townhome catalog. And we have worked with all of our hearts in the last two years we've been here to make it have a little bit more charm and character. And we have worked very hard. I'm going to give Lauren most of the credit. But yes, a team effort, right? Definitely team effort. Lauren and I met in the first day of law school. So we actually sat next to each other on the first day of class. Lauren being the eager beaver that she is, was there probably about an hour before class started. I showed up about five minutes beforehand and the only seat left was one right next to her on the second row. So sat next to her that first day of class and the professor went, Hey, I want to let y'all know these are going to be your seats the rest of the semester. And then we were, we were dating very soon after that and never looked back. So we are here in our landing. It's the first thing you see when you come into the home. And my jewel of the home, I think is this Serena and Lily hexagonal light fixture. I have adored this light fixture. I had been coveting it for forever, but I didn't covet the price tag. So I was very excited when we found it on Facebook marketplace, going to be a common theme throughout the house for a fraction of the price pickup at 20 minutes from here. And so I think this was the first investment we made when we moved into this home. There was no light fixture here originally. And I just wanted something that was a true statement that everyone saw when they came into our space. Now let's head into the powder room. So now we are here in our powder room. This was another first touch up fun project that we did in this house. Um, I really wanted a fun powder room wallpaper. I love a wallpaper, but for both cost and just taste perspective, Carter is not a big wallpaper fan and it's a hefty investment for a non forever home. We decided to color drench this entire space, along with our trim, which we did, um, throughout the home in Sherwin Williams gray screen. So we updated the paint to just give it a little bit of that powder and pop changed our mirror into this really great size, kind of interesting shaped mirror with a really pretty lacquer gloss updated the light fixtures, and then added in just a bunch of small details like our little towel ring here to just elevate the space. I call this our matchbook room because we have a handful of different matchbooks and an artwork of the Ritz Paris matchbook. I just always have thought collecting matchbooks are fun. You'll see them throughout our home, but we specially framed some of our favorite Atlanta restaurant matchbooks. We have some of our wedding matchbooks here for guests to take as they visit. And then we have a matchbook from the hotel we stayed at on our honeymoon, the four seasons Bora Bora. And then the last little kind of cheeky fun piece I put in here was my first ever needlepoint project. I'm an aspiring needle pointer, and I think I'll be an aspiring needle pointer forever, but high hopes, low expectations was my first ever canvas. I think it's funny. Um, it's not very good. And I think that kind of goes with the whole point of it, you know, high hopes, low expectations. And every time we have guests over, they laugh about, um, some of those little touches. And so now we can head on into our dining room. Moving into this townhome was during a very interesting chapter of our lives. Actually, two years ago today, Carter was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. We were 27 years old, had been married a year and a half. And I found out that my husband had cancer. And so we started like every, you know, family, every person who's experienced cancer. We started the process of lots of hospital visits, lots of treatment. So during the first few months of Carter's cancer battle, he had neutropenia or he was neutropenic, which just means he had like no immune system. We were masking up. We weren't able to really leave the house and we were having really frequent emergency hospital stays for three, four days at a time, whenever he'd have a neutropenic fever, because if he got sick, he had no immune system to fight it because of the cancer treatment. And so at the time we were renting, we were renting in an older home. We became concerned about, you know, some of the things that can come with an older home, some of the environmental factors that could be affecting his health. And then also just the stability of being a renter. We didn't know when we went into the hospital for our handful of different stays, we would be there 24 hours. If we would be there a week, if we'd be there a few months. Amidst all of this craziness decided it was time to maybe invest into really make roots in something more permanent that could be ours. Carter had just started his first of eight rounds of chemotherapy injected directly into his spine. And we decided this was the perfect time to buy a first home and to go through that process. So this, honestly, we knew we wanted a town home for less maintenance during this crazy time of life. We wanted a place that was newer built as much as I, I would love a home with lots of character and charm and that's historic. We knew we needed a place that would be maybe newer build because it would probably just environmentally be safer. And there wouldn't be as many maybe surprises coming along. You know, you hear the, all the horror stories of first buyers having, you know, flooding or needing a new roof. And we just didn't have the bandwidth for that. So this was the first and only place we toured. Like I said, it was built in 2019. So we knew that it was going to be more up to date and probably safer. It's like a mile from where Carter was getting treated, um, at the time where we were spending a lot of our time. And so that was a plus. I saw a vision that we could make the bones of this place. We could really turn into something that felt like home. And I'd say that we have brought plenty of charm to this house. Um, but also at the same time, it did help out with me being in residential real estate, have friends that are real estate agents. I work at a closing law firm, right? We, we probably went from deciding we wanted to get a house to the closing process being complete in a month. Yeah. I mean, it was, it was all a very, very quick process. Thankfully we did our due diligence. We knew what we were doing and we were able to move quickly because of that. So we're standing outside of our dining room and I just love these two pictures we have hanging here. These are actually photographs from our wedding day at the Biltmore here in Atlanta captured by Caroline and Greg Willett of Willett photography. I wanted to have touches from our wedding day in the home, but I do, I'm not a huge fan of just the typical huge shot of the bride and groom at the altar. It's not really my taste. I wanted something a little bit more architectural, a little bit more of a slight nod to our wedding day without being so overtly bridal. And I feel like their shots absolutely captured that both the exterior of our venue and just the beautiful, uh, ceiling and chandeliers within the Biltmore, which is why we selected the venue. And you can see some of the cherry trees we had at our wedding day from, um, Andy Beach peeking through in there. And so I just love seeing this artwork. It's just architecturally beautiful, but at the same time it's fun when you know the story behind it, that it's actually from our wedding day. But moving on here into our dining room, this is just a lovely all purpose, you know, breakfast nook, makeshift, uh, workstation mahjong table when we have friends over. And I have just adored really curating this into a textural, playful, colorful space. All of our linens you'll see here are from actually a really great friend of mine, Olivia. Um, she owns Maison Venue and all of her linens are handmade block printed in India and they're just colorful and bright and fun. And as a tried and true lover of blue and green, um, I just loved pulling in the different patterns and incorporating them throughout our China settings and some of the artwork we have in the space. This side, you'll see, we have a little bit of a bar set up, but some of our favorite wines, some details that are customized to us in our home. And then this gorgeous piece of artwork that is on loan to us, actually from Greg Irby galleries. It's by Shannon Woodford. It's a piece called Party Prep. We have been experimenting for a while to figure out what to place here in this little alcove. And I'll tell you, this is by far our front runner. I saw this piece in Greg Irby gallery a few months ago and I've been thinking ever about it ever since. I think her colors are stunning. I just think that the texture is beautiful and I can absolutely see this scene. I can see the woman who is setting this scene. I feel like I've been this woman setting the scene, prepping a table, getting ready for a party. And it's just, I've thought about this piece ever since we saw it in the gallery. And so it's been really fun to see it styled in our own home. On this side of the dining room, we have an Hermes vintage scarf that was framed really beautifully. I love vintage Hermes scarves. Um, I think I'm inspired by Queen Elizabeth. You'll see a lot of Queen Elizabeth nods throughout the house. Um, but this is probably the first one. She was an avid collector of Hermes scarves. And so I had to follow suit and just the scale, the colors, the grandeur of the ship and the tassels and the gold and the blues. I just, it felt too beautiful and, um, such a great scale to just wear around my neck. I wanted to really highlight it in our home. We also have these gorgeous sconces that I sourced from a vintage store on Etsy. I think that the wheat detailing, um, is often imitated, but to this detail never duplicated. And when I saw them and I saw the size of them, I knew that they would be amazing counterpoints on each side of this piece of artwork. And then toward the middle in our table, we have a Ballard Designs Outlet light fixture. I am Ballard Designs Outlet, number one customer. I swear. I am constantly messaging them, seeing if they have certain pieces in stock that is an absolute design hack for anyone who's based in the Atlanta area. Do you see something at Ballard that you love? Don't be afraid to message their outlet store because they often have the same pieces in at a fraction of the price. And then the last piece I'd love to highlight in here are just the beautiful flowers that you'll see throughout my home were done by a really dear friend, Lauren Lutton. She's an attorney here in Atlanta with me. We met in law school, but in her free time, she's also a florist, a magnificent florist. And she often will do arrangements like these or for Mother's Day or a birthday at cost, plus a donation to a woman's shelter that she is passionate about supporting. And so I try to support her whenever I can. And I just have always loved flowers. I think that there's something really beautiful in the idea that they are artwork and that they're precious, but they're not going to always be here, that it's just a temporary, beautiful touch in your home. And so I try to incorporate fresh flowers as much as I can, especially when my dear friend, Lauren is the one making them. That is our dining room. And now let's walk on over to the kitchen. I will say Lauren probably makes about 99% of the design decisions in this house. I like to say I have veto power, which essentially means if I really, really don't want something, I probably won't get in here, but it might just show up. So, but no, Lauren, Lauren makes most of the decisions, but she does factor in the things that I'd like like this beautiful couch that we're sitting on. I did want somewhere comfy to sit and be able to watch some football. So we were able to make that happen. And it fit in with the design aesthetic that Lauren wanted as well. I'd say we have similar taste. I'd say. So I love beautiful things. I've always loved beautiful things. I love curated interiors that still feel like home. And I think that's where, you know, no pun intended, but the marriage of me and Carter's tastes come together. I think there is one design war that we do have. Lauren was surprised for me to say that. I think it's, it's wallpaper. Lauren loves wallpaper. I'm not a huge wallpaper person. And we've had this conversation. It's no secret to family or friends that we are not planning on retiring in this home and is not where we're going to be the rest of our lives most likely. And so we've come to the decision together that for now we'll hold off on the wallpaper, at least for the time being. So we are now here in our kitchen, which I think really is the heart of our home. One of my favorite pieces in our kitchen is our framed cork board, where we host just things that are special to us and also all of our upcoming wedding invitations, parties, showers. I think it's a lot more chic candidly than putting them on the refrigerator. And it allows us to really just have this playful space where we get to see all the fun and exciting upcoming events we have coming up during the holidays. It's filled with holiday cards. And we also have a few mementos that are really special to us. My grandmother's store that she owned in Genoa, Illinois, we have an ornament from, we have some of our wedding papery up here. We have the beautiful serenity prayer and then just a lot of fun, beautiful paper. I love paper. And so highlighting it as its own sort of artwork in the home is a really special touch. And whenever people visit, they really like this idea. Moving more into the actual kitchen cooking space. I am not a chef. My favorite thing to make for dinner is reservations, but I do like to have a tablescape or a host scape. And this Island really has served as the perfect home for all of that. My other favorite thing in this kitchen is our organization. We had the neat method from Atlanta come in when we first moved into the home and they organized our kitchen impeccably girls who love organization, get it. This is very appealing. This is very satisfying to my organized friends. Um, and so I just, I loved having the neat method come in and just make this a very easily maintainable space so that whether it's just prepping dinner for two or hosting a large get together, it's really easy to find everything you need. And we've been able to maintain it for almost two years now. That is our kitchen. And I would love to show you the living room next. So we are here in the living room and the grounding piece stay resistance. And here I would say is this gorgeous circular marble top coffee table from front gate front gate was wonderful enough to give me this beautiful piece. And I feel like it just sets the tone for just this really solid spacious piece that has a lot of gorgeous French detailing coupled with a really comfy oversized sectional. That is great for hosting friends. Whether we're watching a big game, I'm curled up on the couch with a book or our beloved pup, Charlie, you can probably tell from some of the indentations on top of the couch has really made himself at home here for our TV. This is one of my most inexpensive, but favorite parts of the home. I have always loved the look of a frame TV. Um, hated the price tag when I saw that I was going to have to pay $3,500 for a TV of this scale and then also pay for a frame. It didn't come with a frame. I was beyond myself. And so I attempted to make my own TV frames. You'll see them upstairs. They're a little sad, but they do the trick. But the best find I came across was a young guy here in Atlanta on Facebook marketplace who makes these TV frames in his backyard, um, for like 250 bucks. And I think it turned out amazing. It is such a statement. We get compliments all the time. You just throw up a little screensaver like this from YouTube. And it was a fraction of the price, which just makes my heart so happy. The only thing I love more than spending a lot of money on beautiful things is when I don't have to spend much money at all on even more beautiful things. And then finally, this is a gorgeous piece of furniture. My mom actually gifted Carter and I for our wedding. This vignette, I just have always really loved playing with seasonally. It's really fun to update and you'll notice throughout the house, curating small little vignettes is really a passion of mine in interior. It sets a story when you have an open floor plan, like we do. I think it really can create some grounding separation and create space, um, that gives your house a really nice flow. And then finally, of course on our counter, we have burning, um, our signature home scent, uh, which is the nest grapefruit candle. Uh, during the winter, I do their blue Cypress and snow candle. But I think by having the same scent going throughout the house, it's just a little hosting touch, a little interiors touch that gives your home continuity that gives it an elevated feel when, again, it doesn't take an interior designer or a ton of money to just have the same scent carrying through your home. And then aesthetically, it really also continues to have that air of continuity. We have finished in the living room and I'm just going to show you a few final touches on our main living area. So this is just a little awkward space we had at our landing and we have been trying to figure out for the last two years, what to do with it. But the moment I saw these white bordello plates, I knew I had to put them up here coupled with a gorgeous garden stool, a beautiful floral. Um, I think it just makes a really sweet moment in which otherwise was an awkward space. Do I love that? The thermostat is right there. Kind of interrupting the flow. Now, if this was a forever home, would I have rejiggered all the wires to change it? Yes, but it's not. So we just roll with it and that's okay. This is one of our favorite pieces of art in the home. It is a framed magazine cover from May of 2001. The pill Gleevec is part of Carter's cancer treatment. He has what is considered a lifetime chronic cancer. And while he did eight rounds of spinal chemotherapy, he'll also have to maintain an oral chemotherapy for the rest of his life. Um, 30 years ago, Carter's cancer diagnosis would have been a death sentence, but because of the invention of this little pill, it's turned into for after his initial treatment, a chronic disease. And we, when we were explaining this to our friends, when he was first diagnosed, we sent them a picture of this time magazine cover. We just think it's a really cool, powerful message. There is new ammunition in the war against cancer. These are the bullets. And one of our friends tracked down the original time magazine cover, ordered it for us and we got it framed. And we just think it's a really special reminder that, wow, our cancer story will always be part of our lives. It is now just one more facet amongst all these other beautiful parts we have in our, um, in our community and in our life. And then finally in this little landing area, we have a gorgeous custom commission piece of art done by LJ design.co. That's her Instagram handle, but it's just LJ designs. Um, and I think it is just such a cheeky, fun collection of just all the colors and texture that we love to have in our home. My favorite Easter egg though is underneath. There is a secret message that says essentially, um, only miserable people don't have fun drinking wine because this artwork covers a secret little wine cellar. We have where we store some of our favorite reserve fine bottles of wine that we have collected throughout our years and our travels together. So you can't really even see it in the artwork, the secret message, but we know it's there. And it's just one of those small little touches that make custom artwork fun that make creating a home really fun. Those secret things that you just, you know, are there. Now we will head on downstairs to see our guest bedroom. Okay. We are here in our guest bedroom suite and my really dear friend, Riley Anderson helped me design this space. We have featured wicker and rattan pieces throughout the room to again, give it that grounding almost feels like you're in kind of a secret garden. We're here on the bottom floor. And so I'd like to think it's a really cozy special place when our guests come and stay with us. One of my favorite touches in this room though, is this piece of artwork. This while it may look like an abstract, while we do have some lovely commissioned, gorgeous professional fine art in the home. This actually was made by my mother when she was four years old in her AM kindergarten class, we were digging through old boxes in my parents' home in Chicago. And I found this and I said, mom, this actually looks pretty good for a four-year-old. If you just throw a fancy frame around it, no one would be able to tell. And so honestly, as a gag, she went and got it framed for me, but I thought that it looked so cute in this space, pulling in some of the greens and earthier tones. And I just love the cheeky nod that when people come in and visit, they might just assume it's this fine piece of artwork, but it actually is just Beth Nelson, uh, from Galesburg, Illinois, Douglas Elementary's finest work. It's cheeky, cute, high, low nods like that, that I think are part of my interior and my personal style. And I like to incorporate them wherever. I love that this piece hangs just feet from where a Penley fine art print hangs. Um, and I'm just going to continue to hope to do touches like this throughout my home for the rest of our lives. Now we can head on upstairs to our primary bedroom. We are here in our primary bedroom, which we have redesigned entirely with the amazing help of the team at Front Gate. They were so lovely to gift us on our primary furniture selections in this room. And I had the best time doing it. We fell in love immediately with the ETN collection. And it's just this gorgeous French patina yet really modernly handcrafted, excellent workmanship pieces that are truly lifelong investments. And so when I first saw the collection in person at the Front Gate, uh, studio, I knew that they would immediately fit our aesthetic as well as the function of our everyday life. This would be bed is another classic favorite of mine. The gold patina I think is just the perfect balance of an antique yet again, elegant classic silhouette with the gorgeous detailed finials. This is the Whitby bed by Front Gate. And when I saw it, I knew we immediately had to have it. To be honest, I wanted the canopy selection, but Carter and I compromised on the non canopy option, which I think is just as lovely and classic in its silhouette. It has this gorgeous antique brass patina, and then it has four finials with all this gorgeous scaling detailing throughout. Again, it is just this beautiful antique, classic look with modern craftsmanship that will last us forever. And then one of my final favorite pieces in our primary bedroom is our Fandelier. This is a very popular selection when people come in and see here. Not only is it this gorgeous modern light fixture, but for all of you people who sleep hot, it turns into a fan at night. So you don't have to choose between function and form. You can have both. You just need to find your own Fandelier. So these are three intaglios that me and my mom actually handcrafted together. We found a beautiful designer on Etsy who created the intaglios themselves. And then a quick trip to Michael's and a hot glue gun. And I swear you can change the world or at least make your own intaglios for a fraction of the designer price. One of my other favorite parts that my mom helped me pick out throughout our entire home is our trim and door paint color. It's called gray screen by Sherwin Williams. And it is just the most beautiful, in my opinion, gray blue, depending on the lighting you're in. We decided again, because Carter is not a wallpaper fan to really drench all of our beautiful molding within our primary bedroom in this color. And I think it packs quite a punch, especially when coupled with the door hardware selections, we decided to replace the original builder grade knobs with now over here, speaking about builder grade is my sad attempt in comparison to downstairs professional attempt at a frame TV. But I thought it was just kind of like the finishing touches, the earrings on your ears, the swipe of mascara before you leave the home to place on your television. It just slightly elevates it. And while it is not perfect, do not look too closely. It is something that I think anyone can do. Again, if you have a miter saw a trip to home Depot and some gorilla glue spray paint it, and it will just be that slightly, very cost-effective compared to the frame TV touch that will just make watching TV in bed, feel a little bit more chic and elegant. Now that we've had a chance to talk about the primary bedroom, I would love to show you my cloth. We are here in my beloved cloth. This, this is where I get ready for the day. We have my closet and some of my favorite accessories styled throughout. And then we also have my bed, my bathroom, excuse me, where I get ready so that I have really just my own space. I'm an early riser. And so having separate bathrooms for me and my husband has really helped him not get that 5.00 AM wake up when I'm trying to get out the door onto my next workout or onto an early morning meeting. I have this gorgeous desk where I can set up in a company of men with a Ballard designs secretary. One of my favorite pieces of art by Donald Robertson featuring the queen and her various territorial pieces is hanging up here. This was gifted to me by Carter for my birthday, my 28th birthday. And you'll see a little nod to the queen throughout this room, especially, like I said, I'm a big fan of the Royal family. And so keep your eye out for some of those Easter eggs moving forward in the room. We have these two gorgeous chaise lounges featuring Maison Venue pillows, matching the napkins we had downstairs. These just reminded me immediately of the spot old Edwards in where you could curl up with your laptop or a cup of coffee in the morning, watching the news, or you can have a great book to end the day. It really has become kind of a sanctuary spot for myself, me and Carter, me and girlfriends when I have them over. And again, Charlie loves to curl up on one of these. One of my last favorite pieces in this room is this stunning antique banquet. My mom found this at an estate sale. And even though it is quite hefty, we managed to find some movers who were willing to grab it for us and bring it into this space. We got it at quite a deal compared to what it would have been at a traditional antique store. So I'm very happy with it. And I hope that it's a piece that stays with us forever. I think it has a lot of character, a lot of detailing and it's home to a lot of my needle pointing projects, books, vases, bags. It can hold a lot and it really does the trick. And then throughout, you'll continue to see styled little details that are just both nods to me personally, as well as the queen. We have some corgis hiding behind another makeshift frame TV here. And then on the other side of the banquet, we have the torts book from me and Carter's first class, where we actually met along with a autumn, an engine log. My grandfather in Galesburg, Illinois was a conductor on a BNSF train for 30 years and, or excuse me, 50 years. I'm not going to sell you short grandpa Jim. And in here were some of his logs of his different travels, his different routes that he would take. And so I love to style just throughout with your traditional coffee table books that you'll pick up at, you know, any designer store, things that just have a little bit more personality, a little bit more touch. The average person who comes through might not notice that, but it's a little wink I get to see every day. That makes me think of my grandfather, me and Carter meeting. And of course my beloved queen Elizabeth. And then this is my bathroom where I get to do my hair and makeup away from a boy away from my husband. Um, this is a place where I just have brought in a lot of pink, a lot of more feminine touches, another original needlepoint piece of art and some of my favorite skincare products to have on display because I feel like it's just, it's cute. It's fun. It's girly. I brought in some really cute blue scalloping pieces. That might be a little bit more feminine than our common spaces typically call for. And then finally, to really make this space feel like a spa, like a hotel in our shower, I went ahead and I decanted my daily products into more, um, uniform containers. Like you would maybe experience at a spa or a hotel just to slightly every elevate the everyday fixings to make yourself presentable for the world. Home to me is wherever I'm with him. Sorry. Um, it's just been, it's just really crazy to sit here two years after what was the worst day of my life and to be in such a beautiful space and to feel so not only beautiful in the sense that I like to think that it's designed beautifully, but that it has been the, the landscape and just the host to so much laughter and joy and celebration and love and, and help. Um, to sit here and to really get, to celebrate how far we've come and how much we have ahead of us. That's all I could ask for from a home. And that's all I want to ever ask for from a home for the rest of my life. Home is home is wherever you, you know, you're, you're comfortable. You're yourself. You're, you're, you're safe, right? I mean, that's, we, when I was going through the rounds in the hospital and staying time at, I mean, we had a lot of good friends and family that came and tried to touch up the hospital room and make it feel like home. And there were, there were some moments, but it's, it's, it's never the same as when you're, you're never truly comfortable unless it's somewhere that's your home. And that's not necessarily even necessarily always where you live, right? Like your home home can be anywhere, but it's, um, always where I'm with you. Right. Thanks for watching. Be sure to go to homeworthy.com for exclusive content, shopping guides, and so much more. Okay.