Our May Cover Home Perfectly Blends a Rainbow of Colors

Amanda Louise Campbell and her husband, Kevin, knew they were taking on a project when they bought their 1970s split-level ranch in Greenville, SC. But they didn’t dive into a big renovation—in fact, they completed it over years not months.

“Renovating the whole home at once wasn’t realistic for us financially or practically,” says Amanda Louise, an interior designer. “By taking it room by room over time, we could put more of ourselves into each space.” In the family room, Amanda Louise expressed her love of color and local art with a gallery wall over a vintage sofa updated with a pink slipcover.

As time and money allowed, she and Kevin tackled various projects in the 2,400-square-foot home. They moved the laundry from the garage to the house, replaced finishes and fixtures in the primary bathroom, and finally—and most significantly—revamped the kitchen and turned the adjoining garage into a mudroom. They did most of the demo and painting themselves to keep costs down and called in the pros for the rest. “We knew the limits of our skill set,” Amanda Louise says, laughing.

At their home, Amanda Louise and husband Kevin (with daughter Lula) built a porch around a frequently used side entrance through the garage to make it more welcoming.

The couple kept the original living room footprint—“we didn’t want to get into the cost and chaos of tearing out walls,” Amanda Louise says—but they upgraded features to make it work for their family. Installing vintage shutters and a bar table transformed an awkward window to the kitchen. An existing nook got a makeover with the addition of wallpaper and shelving to display books and collectibles; a skirt below hides toy storage. An overhead fixture on a dimmer and sconces above shelves provide layers of light.

Decorating happened over time too. “Even though the house was built in the’70s, it was enough of a blank slate that we could take it where we wanted it to go,” she says. For a decorator known for her use of color, that meant maxing out on textiles and wallpaper in upbeat shades of green, yellow, and coral and layering with vintage furnishings and art. “Since it was my own home, I felt like I could really go for it in terms of color and pattern.”

The couple considered expanding the kitchen but realized after living with it that they were fine with its size. They splurged on custom cabinetry to maximize space and saved money by adding a tall table instead of a custom island.

As much as she loves color, Amanda Louise wanted more of a neutral backdrop in the kitchen. She brought in personality through choice finds—a vintage console and lamp, a commissioned painting of their family dog by Glory Day Loflin, and a love seat in a sunny corner, which is now everyone’s favorite spot in the house.

As they worked on the house, the couple changed course as their needs evolved, especially once they became parents (they now have two daughters, Lula, 4, and Perry, 6 months). Amanda Louise converted a downstairs den into her studio, for example, so she could more easily balance work with parenthood. And storage rose on the list of priorities, she says, pointing to the custom cabinetry in the kitchen, sets of shelves hidden by skirted fabrics throughout the house, and a wall of floor-to-ceiling cabinets in the mudroom. “Of everything we’ve done in the house, creating places where I can shove away anything that needs to be shoved away—that was the real game changer,” she says.

The couple loved the original peach tub in the primary bath—the tan tile it was paired with not so much. Adding white tile, tongue-and-groove paneling, and lively prints freshens the look of the whole room.

Amanda Louise deftly mixed textiles in the primary bedroom; the varying scales of the patterns and white backdrop make it work. A lower-level den became Amanda Louise’s workspace with the addition of simple shelves for her textile collection and a worktable.

The family turned their garage into a multifunctional mudroom for crafts and potting. The kitchen’s old cabinets were moved into the space for storage. Custom wallpaper by Teresa Roche and blue hex tile brighten the laundry room.

Whimsy rules in Lula’s room, thanks to floral wallpaper, a reading nook created with the removal of closet doors, and a canopy above the bed.

Produced by Andrea Caughey