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Leanne Ford wrote most of her new book, The Slow Down, from the comfort of her bathtub. Because lately, she’s been doing just that: slowing down. Ever since she and her family moved from Los Angeles to her hometown of Pittsburgh three years ago to be closer to family, the interior designer has leaned into a quieter pace of life. She’s letting the wisteria climb up the walls of her freshly painted exterior, getting her hands muddy with clay in her basement–turned–pottery studio, and has no plans to rip out her dated green shower tile. “Sometimes you just need to take the stand-back approach—the-less-we-touch, the better-everyone-will-be kind of thing,” Ford writes in one of the chapters, we assume surrounded by a plethora of bubbles.
The book, which is available for preorder now, is all about the life she and her family have been living in their 1900 cottage–meets–Colonial Revival and some of the renovations she’s made so far. We thought we had seen it all when she swathed her L.A. bathroom in a concrete skim coat and wrapped rope around kitchen handles, but we promise there are no shortage of surprises in this space. Ahead, steal a glimpse inside the pages of The Slow Down as we spotlight some of her most delightful design ideas yet.
She Gave Up a Bedroom to Gain a Hangout Space
Our third floor was brought back to life with loads of warm white paint. The attic was uninspiring at best but had an incredible amount of space. We actually took out a bedroom up here in order to create a common area. A real-estate no-no but a quality-of-life yea-yea!
She Hung a Parachute From Her Basement Ceiling
I found a retired French military parachute and used it to hide the pipes in my basement ceiling. It’s funny, I bought it to just try out…assuming it was a bit of a wild card. But I actually started laughing when I saw the guys putting it up on the ceiling, because, well, IT WORKED! Who knew? Not me.
She Removed Wallpaper and Chose to Live With What Was Left
When I removed the wallpaper from the upstairs hallway… (And note: I said I did it one day when my husband was out of town on business! He didn’t notice for weeks. Which is the ideal scenario.) Well anyway, when I removed it, this beautiful plaster was imperfectly wonderful behind it. We didn’t do a thing to that. We painted the trim and lower half of the room to bring it all back to life and let the old plaster stay!
She Positioned Her Bed in Front of a Fireplace
We have a charming fireplace in our primary bedroom, but truth be told, we don’t actually use it—so we put our floating bed frame right splat in front, in the center of the room. It’s a better layout for how we truly live. And the mantel remains a beautiful place for beautiful things. The side tables were left in the home when we bought it and have just kind of stuck around. A coat of paint made them our own.
She Turned a Mantel Into a Backsplash
An old marble mantel top lives a happy new life as a sink backsplash on my bathroom vanity. I picked it up for $25 at a salvage yard, unaware that it was the exact width of the vanity that had gone in earlier that day. I love when a not-so-planned plan comes together.
She Put a Second Sink in Her Kitchen
Be prepared to pivot when you find good reasons to. I do it constantly. To the chagrin of my construction team. We found these original and oh-so-stunning windows behind cabinetry when we did the demo. Welcome back, ladies! Wow. This is now the secondary sink in our kitchen, a detail I didn’t actually do on purpose. But when we found these windows, I knew I wanted to create a center point for them. So we pulled this beautiful old sink out of storage that I had saved for a rainy (or sunny) day. A beautiful pivot, indeed.
“The Slow Down: For the Love of Home” by Leanne Ford, Amazon ($45)
