A New Build Farm Cottage with a French Country Twist
Written by Victoria Van Vlear
Photography by Bret Gum
Written by Victoria Van Vlear
Photography by Bret Gum
This new build farm cottage in Texas blooms in the spring with thrifted pieces and French country-inspired décor.
One of the first steps in discovering your décor style is to define the environment you want in your home. For homeowner and blogger Kayla Currier of Live Oak Nest, “peaceful,” “feminine” and “casual elegance” are the words she uses. And the new build farm cottage with a French country look is a perfect fit, especially in the spring.
The front porch is small but mighty. “I tell people to just keep it simple,” Kalya says. Her standard porch décor includes a wreath, flowerpot and concrete bunny. “I’ll tie a color in from the inside to the outside in the bunny or on the wreath,” she says. “I switch out the front porch seasonally, but the bunny stays there year-round.” For the front door, she found a mix of colors she loved from some of her interior furniture projects, then color-matched it with a weather-friendly Sherwin Williams base.A cute mudroom bench is part of the home’s foyer. “We have a mudroom that’s a walkthrough from the hallway to the garage door,” she says. But this area is a better space for styling and storing shoes and toys.On the covered back patio, Kayla loves to add potted plants, especially in the spring. “I love topiaries,” she says. “I do lots of seasonal flowers in pots. There’s a lavender topiary and crepe myrtle. I love ferns and ivy too.” The spot provides an area to relax in during nice weather.
Creating Custom
Kayla and her husband, Merrill, were happy in their Dallas townhome until they had twins. Then they knew they wanted something bigger with a yard. They found their match in this new-build home by Perry Homes. “We didn’t build it from scratch,” Kayla says. “We got to pick the lot, the style of the home, and some of the interior finishes.” What drew her eye about this model was the farm cottage architecture, especially from the exterior, as well as the one-story layout. “Having twin newborns with stairs in the old house—we didn’t like that,” she says. “It’s not that common to find a one-story home these days.”
Kayla’s dining set is another upcycled project. “I found the table for $100 on Facebook Marketplace,” she says. “I was originally going to stain the top, but it had a veneer and didn’t stain well, so I painted the whole thing. It was inexpensive so I don’t care if the kids color on it.” She painted the chairs in a milk paint as well. “Milk paint holds up really well,” she says. “The paint itself isn’t as important as what you seal it with. We did a polyurethane finish for the table.”
Once they moved in, Kayla set to work to add her own stamp to the house. “I love the patinas and character of chippy paint with French style,” she says. “It has casual elegance.” A master at upcycling thrifted pieces, Kayla painted and styled her way into making the interior décor match the charm of the exterior. “I’ve always been drawn to lighter colors and a peaceful living environment,” she says. “I just think [French style] makes your home look elegant.” From a muted sage-green palette to chippy furniture and plenty of fresh florals, the French-inspired farmhouse style gives the home a casual yet elegant base for Kayla to build upon.
Spring Style
Two of Kayla’s favorite motifs are spring staples: bunnies and birds’ nests. In fact, that’s where her blog name, Live Oak Nest, came from. “I typically leave a few out all year long,” she says of her favorite spring décor, “but I started putting a few of them away so I can get them out in spring.” For color, Kayla complements her subtle, year-round palette with seasonal shades—usually mauve and light pink in the spring. She also incorporates fresh flowers. “Before spring, I’ll do dried florals, then add in real florals when it starts to really feel like spring outside,” she says.
The kitchen is open to the dining area and living area. “I love that it’s open, and that the seating is directly across,” Kayla says. “We cook a lot of meals at home, so it’s a functioning kitchen.” One of Kayla’s favorite features is the tile backsplash, which adds a little shine and pattern to the space without changing the neutral backdrop. “The range hood was one of the builder options,” she says. “I liked the size of this one.”Kayla’s office features one of her favorite upcycled furniture pieces: a big cabinet with glass windows. “It was $200 on Facebook Marketplace,” she says. “It had a crackle finish with an Indian painted pattern. I stripped it down, refinished it and put in the glass pieces.” It now holds craft supplies for the DIYs she shares on her blog. The green island in the middle of the room is also a Facebook Markeplace find that she repainted in sage green.The buffet table in the home’s entryway is one of Kayla’s favorite Facebook Marketplace finds. For the base, she repainted it in “Swedish Gray” and then stripped and stained the top. “I love how it came out,” she says. The little chair is a piece Kayla found at a local vintage market.
Crafted Magic in the New Build Farm Cottage
One of the elements that makes Kayla’s style so special are all her homemade pieces, including her crafts and thrifted furniture. Kayla’s DIYs tend to fall into two categories: home accents she crafts from scratch and furniture she upcycles from Facebook Marketplace. “Most of my house is from Facebook Marketplace,” she laughs. Kayla paints much of the furniture she brings home, adding her own touches to make the pieces work with her style.
Kala has several different deconstructed furniture pieces in her home, including this fun bench in the living area. Above, she matched four identical frames with pieces of botanical art that work with her spring décor.
For crafts, Kayla specializes in elegant, French-inspired home accents. “A lot of crafts you see online are more rustic and flea market,” she says. “I want to make higher-end style projects, so I try to do DIYs that go with my home really well.” A few of her favorite spring DIYs include several rabbits from Hobby Lobby that she repainted, a dried hydrangea stem she framed and miniature picture frames she created out of paper clay.
The primary bedroom is Kayla’s favorite room in the house. “I purchased the chandelier for our townhome dining room, but I loved it so much that when we moved, we brought it,” Kayla says. “Our current dining room won’t fit it, and I love how it looks in the bedroom now. It’s very peaceful.” Much of the décor and furniture is from Facebook Marketplace, while the headboard and footboard are pieces Kayla has had for years, and repainted.For those of us who are décor enthusiasts, the house is always a work in progress. That’s the case for this bathroom. “We haven’t done a whole bunch in there yet,” she says. The main addition to this space so far has been the bath tray, which Kayla had to make herself because she couldn’t find one that would fit. “It’s too wide for the store-bought ones,” she says.
Between the handcrafted accents, refinished furniture and new-build architecture, Kayla’s home is a perfect mix of new and old, shiny and chippy. “Curves and a feminine touch,” Kayla says. “I like to add touches of that.”
Opposite the fireplace is a gothic-inspired side table. “I found it on Facebook Marketplace; it has an old chapel style,” Kayla says. “I love the look of it.” The framed art piece is one Kayla thrifted. “I printed out a vintage art piece to put there,” she says.
Victoria is a brand advisor, marketing strategist, writer and editor. She was the editorial director of American Farmhouse Style for almost 10 years, and now enjoys writing occasional articles for the magazine and receiving the beautiful copies in the mail.
Victoria is also a wife and mom to three little ones: two on earth and one in heaven. With any (not so spare) time, she devours books, dabbles in fiction writing and works on her house. As a home décor enthusiast and DIYer herself, she knows what a little paint and patience can do for a room!
