Text by Michelle Mastro
Photography by Katie D’Arienzo and Vickie Pewitt
Styling by Kathleen Varner

When it comes to house hunting, it’s easy to set your sights on the horizon, always looking for bigger and better abodes. But for Britney Carter and her husband, the best dwelling for their growing family turned out to be a small, three-bedroom 1930s-era cottage tucked along the edge of Wheeler Lake in Rogersville, Alabama. The house also happens to sit next door to Britney’s childhood friend, and it was this bestie who ultimately paved the way for the couple’s dream home makeover, setting in motion a one-room project that quickly ballooned into a whole-house renovation.

“We had been on the hunt for a home for a while, and when this one came available, we snagged it,” Britney recalls. “But the home needed a lot of work—including the addition of a new nursery—and it was my neighbor and friend who recommended the designers, Adrianne Bugg and Brandeis Short of Pillar & Peacock, for the job.”
Because of the home’s modest footprint, one of the existing bedrooms was converted into the nursery. “Britney was already pregnant, so we had a tight deadline to plan for,” Brandeis says with a laugh. Not knowing if she would have a boy or a girl, Britney opted for a gender-neutral aesthetic, which gave Adrianne and Brandeis the clever idea to embrace a nautical design, rendering it with an airy aplomb that takes on a cozy feel when combined with a palette of soft blues and greens selected to reflect lake water hues.

Britney loved what the designers did with the nursery so much that she asked them to take on the rest of the home’s interior designs. Creating a thematic throughline that leaned into the soft blues and greens from the nursery seemed like a no-brainer.
“Britney loves blue—so we came up with the idea of drenching the entire kitchen in this watery lake blue shade called Delft by Sherwin Williams,” Brandeis says. The result was a soothing and serene kitchen guests love to gather in. Creating this vibe in the heart of the home was vital, specifically since the kitchen is connected to other key living spaces, the living room and entryway into the house.

Before the designers set about revamping them, these areas were all adorned in garish yellow and white stripes, “kind of like a circus tent,” Brandeis recalls, “so, we immediately wanted to calm all this down.” Plus, Britney and her husband wanted all these spaces to feel interconnected, as they were the primary hub of the home’s interior. “I think we did that through symmetry in terms of furniture layout and color selection,” Brandeis says.

Wanting to maximize the space further and draw the eye upward, the designers covered the ceiling beams in Benjamin Moore’s White Dove. The color choice also increased a subtle but powerful contrast to the blue paint and seemed to offer a luxe factor. To this, the designers thought to retain Britney’s chandelier to elevate the space even further. Next, they transformed the redbrick fireplace into an eye-catching focal point with newly fabricated gray limestone

Still, the designers wanted to create functional spaces that really capture life on the water. On the back patio, Adirondack chairs and outdoor furniture play host to neighbors when they visit or the family’s English bulldog whenever he comes in from romping in the lake. Hence, the designers thought to source high-end durable fabrics to reupholster the set of armchairs, couches, and ottoman in the open concept living room and kitchen, making these spaces not only stylish but conducive to the family’s life on the lake. “The living and dining areas have become our favorite places in the home,” says Britney. “Looking at these spaces—or anything from the designers’ portfolio—you can’t say, ‘Ah, that’s Pillar & Peacock.’ They do such a good job of making a home what you, the homeowner, want and need it to be.”

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