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Wedding planning may be over, but now it's time to turn a house into a home. Here, three newlywed couples share how they merges their individual tastes into a new style of their own.
The Lópezes
Good things come when helping others, which is exactly what happened for Kimberly López, 29, and her husband, Jean, 26.
In 2002, the couple met at the University of Oklahoma when they served together on a campus event committee for the Children’s Miracle Network.
They wed in 2008 and bought a 3-bedroom, 2-bath home in Jenks, with furnishings that reflect a culmination of form, function and style.
“We are both extremely organized and somewhat minimalistic when it comes to design, so in a sense, we share the same tastes for home décor,” Kimberly says. “Because we have such similar taste, many of our pieces worked well together.”
She says her taste for modern luxury “with a cozy touch” paired well with Jean’s style of “timeless, clean and functional design with a look for durability.”
They combined their best pieces from each of their former homes, along with new items and textures, to fit within the country-cottage style.
“Our home, in terms of decorating, is a continual work in progress,” Kimberly says. “Together we created a ‘wish list,’ and now that we have most of the essentials, we are enjoying adding personal touches and artistic décor.”
1. Kimberly and Jean are both fans of jazz music, which is why their first date was at a Harry Connick Jr. concert, where they also met the Grammy Award-winning artist. Since then, the couple have collected posters from concerts they’ve attended, along with memorabilia of their favorite musicians.
2. Kimberly says they chose a light blue shade for the pillows and rug to compliment the darker, chocolate-colored leather furniture. “The living room serves as a perfect reflection of our two styles – functional leather furniture and end tables from Jean combined with colors and fabrics of my choice,” she says.
3. One of the couple’s favorite wedding gifts is a personalized Bible inscribed with their names.
4. The glass coffee table from Pottery Barn is not only a favorite piece of furniture for Harry Connick Jr. (their golden retriever named for their favorite musician) to lay against, but the couple also use it to display a conch shell they found during their honeymoon in Turks and Caicos.
5. The Lópezes are organized and minimalistic in décor, so they keep few, but memorable objects around them, including these photo albums of their travels together.
6. For a personal touch, Kimberly bought these marble coasters with images of the University of Oklahoma from Antique Garden, one of her favorite shops in Norman, Okla.
The Schlipfs
Although Kendall Schlipf, 24, and her husband, Owen, 24, met during their early years at Oklahoma State University, they didn’t realize they were meant for each other until they started spending time together in the same social circle as upperclassmen.
The couple have remained inseparable ever since, and they recently celebrated their six-month wedding anniversary in their newly decorated home.
Kendall says that although her preference for bright, bold colors differed from Owen’s preferred colors of khaki, blue and green, they were able to combine her colorful style with his taste for simplicity and comfort.
“We were lucky that we needed to buy some furniture, so that stayed neutral and normal in size, color and texture,” Kendall says. “Then we used my love for color with accent wall pieces and pillows that incorporated color and patterns.”
They plan to redecorate their kitchen, and Kendall says the process has been a good opportunity to learn to decorate with each other’s likes and dislikes in mind.
“The best part about it is we can pick out everything together – paint, countertops, appliances, etc. – making it ‘our’ style and not just Owen’s style or my style,” says Kendall.
1. Faith is important to Kendall and Owen, so they keep their Bibles and Bible study materials in their “most lived-in” room. Kendall has collected the wall crosses as gifts from her family for three years.
2. A framed photograph of the couple, a wedding gift from one of Owen’s sisters, was displayed at their wedding and signed by guests.
3. Owen’s mother made their window curtains with a hunter green fabric, which he chose to compliment the khaki-colored paint in the living room.
4. Kendall used wedding gift cards to purchase colorful pieces for their home, including this yellow terra-cotta vase from Pottery Barn. Other décor, including a bouquet of brightly colored flowers, creates a vibrant and inviting room.
5. The wood coffee tabletop is a loan from Kendall’s aunt until they find a replacement. “I feel like a little piece of her is at our house with us,” Kendall says. “It’s more home-like.”
6. To balance their taste for different color palettes, Kendall and Owen combined their styles. “There are sparks of color through accent pillows … combined with more neutral-colored furniture and wall colors,” Kendall says.
The Noels
Newlyweds Tamara, 24, and Chris Noel, 27, both grew up in Tulsa and attended Bishop Kelley High School, but it wasn’t until a weekend at Grand Lake when they met and instantly fell in love.
For their new life together, the couple decided to forgo buying a house near their offices in downtown Tulsa, and instead, they bought a new home in south Tulsa.
When it came time to move in, Tamara says she had no concerns about merging her Old World décor with Chris’ modern and functional furniture.
“I knew that we would be able to decorate our house in a way that fit both of our styles,” Tamara says. “Chris gave me free reign to decorate as I wanted to, but I kept his style and tastes in mind.”
She decorated the downstairs in warm browns and modern pieces from local furniture shops, such as I.O. Metro, while Chris made the second living room upstairs a “man cave” that includes a brown leather sectional with four reclining seats, a mini-fridge and three televisions mounted on the wall.
Now that they’ve finished decorating their 5-bedroom, 3-bath home, Tamara says they are pleased with the result: a casual, modern home featuring their individual styles as well as their new style together.
1. Tamara brought this Old World-inspired wall frame from her previous home. The photos are a few favorites from their wedding.
2. This bar cart was a wedding gift from Pottery Barn, along with the wine and whiskey decanters. A couple of wine stoppers have an “N” monogram, and the wine bottles on the cart were brought back from Napa Valley.
3. “We love the openness of our kitchen and living area because it is ideal for entertaining,” Tamara says. “Whether it is just the two of us or we have a group of friends over for dinner, this space allows us to cook, eat, watch TV and catch up on our day.”
4. Chris is a former professional golfer who continues to play in national golf tournaments. A few of his golf trophies, including the center silver plate from a 2009 Cedar Ridge golf tournament in Tulsa, are displayed in their kitchen.
5. Tamara bought this ladder bookcase made of poplar wood with an espresso-stained finish from Target. She decorated it with photos from their wedding weekend and a few of her favorite lifestyle books. Since the couple honeymooned in Napa Valley and one of their stops was at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, they received bookends shaped like the famous bridge from Restoration Hardware as a wedding gift.
6. A plush, dark brown and white polka-dotted chair with matching pillows from I.O. Metro compliment the soft, neutral-colored sofas from Mathis Brothers Furniture.
When the Noels bought the south Tulsa house, they decorated their home with new furniture and items they chose together. “We wanted our home to have more of ‘our’ stuff rather than ‘this is mine’ or ‘this is yours,’” Tamara says.
