This Sweet Alabama Home Is a Handmade Masterpiece
Four years after buying a perfectly nice builder-grade home in southern Alabama, Jamin and Ashley Mills realized its cookie-cutter design with beige walls and dark wood just didn't reflect who they were as a modern Southern family. So five years ago they started dabbling in remodeling and discovered a passion for the process, chronicling their story on the popular blog, The Handmade Home. "I like to bring in a vintage piece with a new piece, combined with our own handmade art, and that's what culminates together to make 'The Handmade Home,'" Ashley says.
The Mills have now completely transformed their 2,300-square-foot home into a style they call "global farmhouse eclectic," almost completely with their own hands—all while homeschooling their three kids, ages six to 10. "It's not our mother's home, it's not our grandmother's home, it's not our sister-in-law's home," Jamin says. "It's ours so we can make our own rules, do it our own way, and make it the home we love."
Kitchen
The transformation started in the kitchen, painting the existing dark laminate cabinets a fresh white (Benjamin Moore's Chantilly Lace) and swapping out beige tiles for white beadboard on the backsplash and heart pine wood on the top of the island. Its base was painted a vintage green (Benjamin Moore's Medici Malachite) and adorned with a framed chalkboard. Fluorescent ceiling lights were replaced with vintage schoolhouse fixtures, found on eBay, and a white farmhouse sink from Ikea completes the country charm. Hand-cut wood letters over the cabinets and colorful DIY rosette magnets on the Big Chill fridge are the special handmade touches that make the Mills' kitchen totally unique. "We always say we don't believe in the dream home, we believe in your home," Ashley says. "This house is the testament to that, just really making it a space for us."
Dining Room
In the dining room, the Mills maximized storage and design with wall-to-wall shelving, custom-made by a welder friend out of 70-year-old wood reclaimed from an old peanut barn. "I have a real love for that old feel, and that is something that is deeply engrained in our southern culture," Ashley says. "It's a must-have for me in all of our spaces, something that tells a story or something that reflects something from the past, whether it's a piece of barn wood or a piece your grandmother handed down to you."
Dining Space
The dining room has gone through many changes—painting the traditional dark wood table with Paris Grey chalkboard paint, swapping out seating for new dining chairs and a repurposed park bench, transforming it into a homeschooling space—but in all its iterations, one thing remains constant: It showcases Ashley and Jamin's ingenuity and passion for creating a dream home.
Table Setting
Now the Mills are helping other families do the same with in-person and online home design and construction services and a new online home store of curated items and one-of-a-kind Mills' creations, including a line of fabrics, shown on the dining table here. "Most of the art in our home we created ourselves in some form or fashion," Jamin says, noting that Ashley is a former art major and graphic designer who loves oil painting.
Living Room
"It's a place to gather and to entertain that's not high maintenance at all," Ashley says of their laid-back living room. "We want people to feel comfortable when they come over, and we want our own family to feel comfortable. We don't want it to be stoic or unused." Central to the room's comfy vibe is the gorgeous Andella Home Chesterfield sofa, peppered with throw pillows in fabrics from the Handmade Home line. Contrasting with the sofa's traditional style, a framed collage of Instagram photos hangs above it while a Restoration Hardware-inspired DIY coffee table is modernized with a color-blocked top.
Entryway
"We wanted a big statement piece for when you came in the house," Jamin says of the custom-made patchwork map of the United States that hangs above the homemade bench with gold-leaf triangle stencils in their entryway. "That map contains a bunch of our own paintings we cut out of our books." Covered in Plexiglas, it also serves as a dry-erase board for homeschooling lessons or to mark family travels.
Bathroom
After a leak and subsequent mold issue led to a complete gutting of their master bathroom, the Mills seized the opportunity to create the spa retreat of their dreams. Ashley got the frameless glass hotel-like shower she's always wanted, as well as a vintage clawfoot tub with a swanky chandelier above it. Adding to the luxurious feel is scads of tile: Carrara Venato 2″ octagon polished mosaic tile on the floor, white glass subway tile with rope trim on the walls, and Carrara Bianco polished 3″ hexagon marble mosaic tile on the shower floor and recessed shelf.
Master Bedroom
"Our bedroom is the one place at night where we can put the kids to bed and go in our little sanctuary and relax," Ashley says of the master bedroom in their four-bedroom home. "The rest of our house is all about our family, but it's our own space. People wait to do their bedroom last, but I think it's totally worth it to go ahead and do that for yourself." The diamond-tufted headboard in peacock blue balances the neutral tones throughout the room and is flanked by side tables with handmade faux agate knobs. Of course, the Mills custom-made the art hanging above and beside the bed: a DIY ampersand and a metallic abstract watercolor. The chandelier, the Isaac 5 in natural brass from Schoolhouse Electric, is a work of art in and of itself.
Family Closet
"The master bedroom had a great, very spacious closet, but it just didn't fit our needs," Jamin says. "Again, we decided, 'Why are we living with something that some architect or builder designed for the random masses?'" So the Mills ripped out the existing wire racks and replaced them with solid Ikea Expedit units with a few modifications, then added pegboards (and faux taxidermy) for accessories. It's now a family closet for them and their three offspring, streamlining accessing items and putting away laundry. "We always tell people it might not work for your floor plan or for your lifestyle," Ashley says. "The point is to always do what really works for you and your family, and that works for us."
Backyard
Topped with a white pergola and grounded with a diamond-patterned painted concrete slab, the Mills' patio is an outdoor dining area (on a table they made from an old door, of course) and "perfect for sipping a cold glass of sweet tea," Ashley says. Adjoining the space is an uncovered area with stone pavers that rise to a fire pit in the center, excellent for roasting marshmallows and hot dogs.
Handmade Hideaway
While the back porch is a space for adults and kids alike, the Mills created a "handmade hideaway"tucked back in corner of the yard just for their three kids. Complete with a pitched tin roof, wooden deck, and wave slide, the lofted fort is a kids' paradise.
Jamin and Ashley Mills
Overall, the patio and backyard are Jamin's favorite spaces. "Even though it was hard and a lot of manual labor, it was just fun to really change that area up and give it some life," he says. "I grew up with a father who could barely hammer nails straight, so I had to learn a lot of it on my own. We tell everybody they can create whatever home they want, and they can do it themselves. We're living proof of it."
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