Melissa's Organized, Colorful, Creative Family Home: Modern-Cozy Inspiration

Are you still cleaning, minimizing, and organizing for the New Year? There's nothing like coming home to clean, clutter-free living space to rest and relax after a day of working or exploring. To inspire you to get nesting I'm sharing Melissa's (of Bubby and Bean's) beautiful Chicago family home. It's bright and organized. Modern and clean-lined, yet cozy. Don't let the perfection in the photos get to you, though. Melissa admits she's a mere mortal with an often-messy abode like the rest of us:

"Well here's the deal. I love design, and I love home decor, and I love how it feels when my space is organized and beautiful. But I am also very messy by nature. And I work from home, and that means all sorts of extra clutter. The reality is that my house is usually in no condition to be snapping photos to share on a public forum...my home is lived in, and a lot of times it just looks like crap. Period."

I appreciate the honesty. I always seem to be "cleaning/curating" because I'm also a creative working in my apartment.  Essential oils here, tags there, book and note piles everywhere... like most right-brained creatives I hop from project-to-project and make a mess. But I'm minimizing and working on it. Hopefully, I can put an end to the epic mess-clean-rinse-repeat process soon!

"I'm a terrible cook, but I still have a thing for kitchens. The kitchen is the heart of the home in many ways, and although mine is tiny, I've still done my best to create a space that is equal parts visually appealing and practical. My kitchen is also probably the boldest, most contrasting room in our place as far as color scheme."

"When I visit someone's home for the first time, it is usually the details of the space that stick in my memory- the pictures, patterns, knickknacks, textures, corners, artwork, colors. It's so interesting to me to see how people choose to incorporate objects and details into the overall aesthetic of a room."

"In addition to the obvious fact that this room is special to me because it's my daughter's it's also special because I got to design it from scratch. It used to be our guest room, and I was able to make it a blank slate- everything except the carpeting was redone. We pulled out all of the furniture, took down the art and decor, repainted the walls to a pale grey to brighten the room, and started over."

"My living room is probably my favorite room in the house. Aside from my office/studio, it's the space where I spend the most time. Robbie and I watch a lot of movies in here, listen to a lot of records in here, eat a lot of meals in here, and spend a lot of late nights sitting on the couch together reading. When we have friends over, the living room is out main hang. We also recently redecorated it with a focus on a neutral color scheme (black, white, grey and tan), mixed with wood and lots of black and white stripes."

"I love minimalism but I also like to fill rooms with collections and trinkets, and I was able to incorporate both into this space."

What's your favorite part of Melissa's home? I like how it's crisp and clean yet doesn't lack personal details. Melissa volunteered at a Tibetan Buddhist center for three years and the scattered spiritual elements are a nice call-back. Now, off to clean apartment clutter with me...

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