THE COVETED GREEN THUMB. Faux plants are a great option for homeowners who have trouble keeping their plants alive, but they don’t always look realistic. Lacking a green thumb herself, Chrystal mixes real with her faux plants, which takes away the fake look and tricks the eye. “I love plants, and we want to incorporate real over faux, but my husband has to remind me to water them and keep them alive,” she says.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE PATCH
LIVING FOR NEUTRALS. With neutral tones and white walls, the living room is a soothing space to rest and relax. Chrystal added faux shiplap to her walls using 6-inch strips of plywood. “I love incorporating budget-friendly ideas,” she says. They chopped down a dining room table and painted it to use for their coffee table, and they layered vintage windows above the sofa to create a focal point in the room.
A CRATE IDEA. Believe it or not, HomeGoods occasionally sells vintage pieces, and that’s where Chrystal found these crates. “They came with hay and cobwebs,” she says. “I was collecting books and had nowhere to put them, so I thought I’d hang them on the wall.”
When you’re caught up in looking for your dream home,
it can be easy to forget to factor in your dream home’s location. For homeowner Chrystal Urdiales and her husband, Juan, the historical charm of Fredericksburg, Virginia, lured them into the decision to build their own home rather than buy. “We looked at older homes, including old farmhouses, but in the end, we weren’t comfortable with a full gut job so close to my husband’s retiring from the Marine Corps,” she says. “As much as I craved that character older homes have, we decided to build and infuse character on our own. It’s a slow process, but so much fun.” Their home took five months to finish, but challenges arose when they weren’t able to use a custom builder. “We picked the model, but the builder was very limited,” Chrystal says. With determination, a budget and a plan, they made this new home work for them with the vision of adding character once the home was finished in 2017.
HISTORICAL DETAILS
The property sits on a little over three acres and still had the rubble remains of the original house and barn. “The land we chose was connected to one family for many generations, nestled among many of the area’s gold mines,” Chrystal says. They found old pottery, farm and garden items and even old vintage car parts in what remained of the two properties. “My favorite find is old horseshoes,” she says. “I have been told the original owner helped train horses.”