HGTV Designer Leanne Ford Brought the Paris Countryside to Her Rural Pennsylvania Home
Like many of us, interior designer Leanne Ford has found herself occasionally wooed by the thought of living a charming, small town life somewhere abroad. But when the coronavirus pandemic struck, Ford was wooed by something else: the desire to be close to her family in Pennsylvania.
In an essay she penned for Domino, Ford revealed that when quarantine began, her family's plans shifted drastically. Instead of proceeding with plans for their Los Angeles home, they instead opted to be "stuck closer to family."
"But an epiphany hit me all too recently that I didn’t have to leave my country and my family to live that small-town life," Ford wrote. "I could find a beautiful old estate on land near my hometown and live the same dream, just speaking English and designing with inches instead of centimeters. And so that’s exactly what we did."
Although the HGTV designer lucked out on a gorgeous, 1900s home in rural Pennsylvania, it wasn't the main home that drew Ford in.
"It was the other buildings on the land, the old, beat-up, forgotten parts, that I fell in love with," she divulged. "When we saw the carriage house, I knew it would be the perfect place to host guests, and I completely fell for it—hard.
"It reminded me of a decrepit, gorgeous place outside of Paris in some town I’ve never heard of," Ford continued. "And because I can’t go to France right now, I thought, why can’t we just create that feeling in Pennsylvania? To this day, it feels to me like we bought the carriage house and the sellers 'threw in' the main house for good measure."
For those curious to see just how Ford transformed a rural Pennsylvania home into a "European dream," you're in luck. Her new HGTV show, Home Again With the Fords will document the renovation process. The show is set to premiere on January 2.
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