Visiting homes on the market, taking home tours and shopping in furniture stores gave Yolanda Thornton plenty of ideas for how to furnish and accessorize her Lithonia home.
The home was built for another buyer, with upgrades, but when that contract fell through, Yolanda and her husband, Garrick, bought the house, which was only about 2 miles away from their former neighborhood. Then they put their own touches on the home, from the decor to reconfiguring bedroom space.
“You can always add to your home. You can always bring in a contractor to help with you with your vision,” Yolanda said. “A really good contractor will put your vision to work.”
Snapshot
Residents: Garrick Thornton, 38, general manager for DriveTime Corp.; wife, Yolanda Thornton, 38; and their son, Garrick Jr., 15.
Location: Lithonia
Size: About 4,300 square feet, four bedrooms, four baths
Year built: 2007
Year bought: 2007
Builder: D.R. Horton
Renovations: The couple knocked down a wall between the master bedroom and what had been the fifth bedroom to make room for an office in the expanded master bedroom. An archway with columns separates the bedroom from the office area. In the family room, they added built-in bookshelves with recessed lighting.
Contractor: Don Eubanks
Architectural style: Classical
Favorite architectural feature: The two-story stucco archway outside, framing the front door.
Interior design style: Traditional. "I like the Queen Anne look, but I wanted to modernize it a little bit," Yolanda said.
Statement-making piece: A grandfather clock, from Ashley Furniture, that fills the open entryway. "It just makes a really good statement when you walk in. It's an eye-catcher because a lot of people are used to these smaller traditional grandfather clocks," Yolanda said. "When they walk in and it's right there, it adds something to the space. It kind of sets that tone. We see this really detailed grandfather clock, so it seems like all of the other furniture is detailed the same [way]."
Using the loft: They debated between creating a media room or centering the room around a pool table for entertaining. The pool table won out. "That's our upstairs man cave," Yolanda said. Beach artwork and tropical plants also bring in an island theme, which reminds them of their vacations.
Tips for accessorizing a home: When shopping for accent pieces, Yolanda waited to catch deals such as 50 percent off at stores such as Hobby Lobby and discontinued accessories being discounted at furniture stores.
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