Though you wouldn’t know it now, the Breens’ front room used to be very formal, draped in blue and white toile wallpaper. “It was very overdone,” Shelley says. “The only time we’d come in there was for a nice, fancy baby shower. So my husband suggested that we make the room more comfortable and more usable.” Shop owner Gina Gilchrist helped turn this formal front room into a cozy spot the whole family can now enjoy.
The Breens turned their house from a straight ranch into a U-shaped layout, creating an expanded family room and kitchen on one side and a master bedroom and bathroom on the other with a poured concrete porch in the back to connect the two areas together.
![“I think my own personal style is a bit of French design [and] a little bit of English, but I just love that overly collected, curated, layered space that looks lived in and comfortable,” Paige says.](https://thecottagejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Photo-May-05-2022-2-46-08-PM_OTR-feat-218x150.jpg "Designer Paige Kontrafouris Layers Her 100-Year-Old Home with Collected Treasures")
