Some people inherit a piece of furniture, perhaps an antique clock or an engagement ring, from their grandparents. Beau Allen inherited a house – one that was so dilapidated that several family members thought it was demolished. When Beau and his wife Allison held their wedding on the back lawn in 2015, they threw the after-party in the mold-infested living room. “We filled it with some balloons and a disco ball. We didn’t have to worry about anyone breaking anything,” says Allison 1960s. He and his wife Louise loved to travel and filled the mid-century ranch-style home with Asian and African-inspired wallpaper and furniture. But after Louise died in 2008, the home went unattended for years. Where some saw lost cause, Allison – who trained with designers JD Bell and Ashley Whittaker in New York – saw treasure. Type of. “We thought we’d come in to fix a few things, like a 10-year patch,” she says. Their plan was to make it livable – goodbye mold and asbestos – and refresh it without major construction work. “You don’t want to put a lot of money into a house that you might one day tear down,” she says. Spoilers: there are currently no plans to demolish it. “I had to get creative, but we ended up having a lot of fun,” says Allison. “There are so many unique touches I’ve come to love, like the crazy inlays on the floors and even the vintage hardware. It’s such an interesting house.” She led an insanely quick transformation that took just two months, and that time included a kitchen makeover. “I was the general contractor for the project, and my handyman, William “T-Bone” Bryant, basically lived here,” she says. Color was one of her most important changes. “I am convinced that people decorate in the shades that suit them. Louise was an autumn person, so there were a lot of reds and deep yellows,” says Allison, who opted for a classic blue and white palette. But she made sure to include touches of chinoiserie as a nod to Louise’s love of Asian antiques. Read on to see how Allison modernized the 67-year-old home without tearing down a single wall.
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