Leslie Saeta - A Home to Share: Designs that Welcome Family and Friends, from the creator of My 100 Year Old Home

A Home to Share has been a work in progress for quite some time. As a lifelong designer, decorator, entertainer, and DIYer, I have been dedicated to creating a home for my family that I want to share and that my friends want to visit. It is at the heart of everything I do.

There are a few things you should know about me. I am not the gal who spends lots of money on holiday decor or flowers for a dinner party. I am however, the gal who gets up at 5 a.m. to buy flowers at the flower mart and creates arrangements that look like they cost an arm and a leg. But they dont!

I am not the gal who buys an expensive formal coffee table for her living room. I am the gal who buys an inexpensive vintage trunk, distresses it with milk paint, and transforms it into a coffee table that looks like it costs much, much more.

I am also not the gal who buys big sets of expensive china dishes and glassware for entertaining. Instead, I am the gal who has shopped vintage flea markets for years and has a beautiful but very inexpensive collection of china, glassware, and flatware that can be mixed and matched for dinner parties large and small.

Why am I that gal? Because I love to create a home that makes my family and friends feel special. And thats what A Home to Share is all about.

Our family home was built in 1915, and when we bought it from my in-laws, we wanted to keep the legacy and the spirit of this home alive while also making it work best for the way we live.

I launched My 100 Year Old Home on social media so I could share my decorating, entertaining, craft, and DIY ideas, and now I am very excited to debut a whole new batch in this book, created just for you.

I have organized and designed every chapter to help you create (in less time than you think) a little magic: whether that means reimagining a table setting, a dinner party, the living roomor the whole house.

All homes, whether they are new or one hundred years old, have a heart. I hope you feel the heart of your home each time you open this book.

Leslie

When we remodeled and expanded our kitchen, we had two goals for the project: one was to make it look original to the house, which was built in 1915; the other was to make it timeless.

Do you have a room in your house that is your favorite?

The kitchen is, hands down, my favorite, as it is for so many of us. Its the place we gather for meals, whether a quick bite before we head out the door or one that takes time and patience to prepare. We gather here while looking for a snack and chatting about our day. We find our way back here in the evenings, looking for a little something sweet before we say goodnight.

Our kitchens overflow with memories. In our home, its the room of chaotic happiness, where we have had some of our most joyful times. Weve made birthday cakes and prepared for holiday celebrations by roasting a turkey, making pies, decorating cookies, or coloring eggs. Its where report cards were affixed to the refrigerator alongside game and swim schedules. The fact that my husband and his siblings hung their report cards and game schedules in the same space all those years ago creates an additional layer of sentiment to our memories.

When we bought the house, the kitchen was very, very small. It had original cabinets, turquoise vinyl floor tiles, and teal-colored Formica countertops with a metal edge. There were a few upper and lower cabinets, but storage space was severely limited. We had only a single sink, and no dishwasher. Twenty-four years ago, dishwashers were pretty standard in kitchens, just not in ours.

Our kitchen island was made with function and entertaining in mind and is the heart of the room.

One of my favorite architectural features in our kitchen is the transom window. Both the transom and door are original to the house.

Islands, especially those with at least one recessed side to tuck in stools, are a great spot for a quick breakfast before starting your day. Choosing one with built-in drawers and cabinets also gives you more storage space.

Whats your dream kitchen? For years, I dreamed of having a big white farmhouse kitchen where I could make pancakes for the kids before school and cook to my hearts content. Instead of counting sheep at night, I planned my dream kitchen. At the heart of it I wanted a big island with a butcher block top where I could try new recipes and pretend I had my own cooking show. I pictured it as equal parts workspace and tablefor a family or buffet-style meal and for guests to perch with a drink, grab an appetizer, and chat with me while I put finishing touches on a meal.

As I waited patiently for my dream kitchen to become a reality, I bookmarked pages of magazines and collected photos of the interiors and kitchens in producer-director Nancy Meyerss movies (Somethings Gotta Give, Its Complicated). After years of imagining what the space would look like, down to the low cupboard where I would put the cereal bowls for the boys to reach, I knew exactly what I wanted. When we bought my husbands family home from his parents, I finally got my chance. The bones of this incredible home offered tall ceilings and space for cupboards to store my collection of flea market finds and everything else I needed to host large dinners for friends and family.

In designing the kitchen, we paid special attention to blending in the latest technology while preserving period details. The original tiny kitchen had a small laundry room behind it, so we removed the wall to combine the rooms into one space. Preserving the beautiful wall of windows in the former laundry room allowed sunshine to fill the entire room. All the kitchen windows and their vintage glass are original, including the transom window over our back door. Their craftsmanship has stood the test of time. We are lucky that in California we do not have extreme weather that can take a toll on wood windows. However, the wear from weather in your area is an important consideration when you are looking to remodel.