SPAGHETTI FRIDAYS , Christmas mornings, sleepovers with cousins—these are just a few of the things that swirl around in the childhood memories of designer Lauren Branch. And they all took place in her grandmother’s home, which she has lovingly restored for her family of five.
The Branches moved into the midcenturymodern home in Country Club Hills before Christmas of 2017, giving them just enough time to set up a tree and some beds before spending yet another holiday morning in the home.
“This home is part of my fabric,” says Branch, primary designer and founder of Kefi Designs. “When my grandmother passed, the house went to my parents, but they weren’t really in a position to buy it and take care of it, so my husband and I moved back to Raleigh from Charlotte and purchased the home for ourselves.”
Branch’s grandmother worked for decades in a popular home store in Raleigh, owned by her sister, called National Art Interiors. “I can remember running through the store as a little girl and pretending the vignettes were my own house,” recalls the designer, who frequently “hosted guests and played house” in each of the rooms. Many of the furnishings from the store ended up in her grandmother’s home, and Branch’s love of interior design was ignited.
The home was built as a spec around 1954, when Branch’s grandparents purchased it. A few years later, they built a small addition to add square footage, but it’s remained relatively the same since then. “She took pride in her home, so it’s always been in top-notch shape,” says Branch. “But she was always adding things and styling. I remember when my grandmother showed me this new European faucet she got for the bathroom, and she was so excited about it. I kept the faucet when we moved in and searched for months and months to find a match (which I did!), and now I have two in a double vanity. Things like this make me feel like she would be so happy about what we have done.”
The faucet is among a myriad of things that Branch preserved, reused, or tried to match and update. Wood paneling in the living room was covered with plastic during the renovation so that it could be preserved, but also so it wasn’t mistakenly removed. “I think when many people see wood paneling, they assume it needs to be torn out,” says Branch. “But it’s because they can’t see how it can live in harmony with a modern home.”
To help with the renovation and architectural details, Branch called on her friend and neighbor Manny Aretakis, a talented architect in Raleigh who lived in a Matsumoto home just down the street. Incidentally, that house was also in Branch’s family, once owned by her grandmother’s nephew. “Manny was key in helping us figure out how to preserve what we have but bring it up to date,” says Branch. They kept the fireplace and the wood-paneled walls, but for a family of five, the ranch home really needed a front and a back addition. These additions created hallways that ran through bedrooms, so Branch shifted those rooms into an office and a laundry room instead.
They also vaulted the ceiling in the great room, and swapped the kitchen and dining room, where a beautiful skylight lets in morning light. “I can remember my grandmother standing over the sink doing dishes when that room was the kitchen, cursing the skylight above her, saying, ‘This damn skylight is so damn hot!’” Branch laughs. “And now it brings us so much joy in the breakfast room.”
The walls between the main living areas were left open ateight feet high, even after vaulting the ceilings, to create a sense of air and openness while still dividing the rooms intodistinct areas. All new HVAC and electrical were installed, along with new windows and more skylights, and Branch painted her grandmother’s yellow walls white. The sunroom is now the playroom, her mother’s old room is now her daughter’s room, and her grandmother’s bedroom is now Branch's office. Layers of beautiful, funky wallpaper were uncovered, some scraps saved and framed for her mother and aunts. Tiles from her grandmother’s bathroom were reused in her daughter’s bathroom. “In every change I made, I tried to keep something of my grandmother’s too,” says Branch. “I feel like my family was watching me. This home was sentimental to all of us, and I wanted to keep that in mind. In fact, I had my husband do all the demo because I just couldn’t stand the thought of strangers doing it.”
In her own home, Lauren expertly mixes the old and the new, the high-end and the low-end, juxtaposing expensive vintage pieces with affordable Ikea items. “There is something comforting about midcentury-modern style,” says Lauren. “And with kids, nothing can be too precious, but it still has to look good.”
When each room carries a piece of the past, it’s easy to be comforted, regardless of style. When a light flickers in her daughter’s bedroom just before bed, they like to think it’s just grandma and grandpa saying goodnight. Nothing more, nothing less.