Before getting creative
At the height of Seattle’s real estate market in 2003, when Leah and Chad Steen bought their first home, the property was
far from picture perfect. “There was no landscaping; the previous owners even left us a note about the sad-looking Charlie
Brown tree in the front yard,” says Leah, who owns Revival Home & Garden (revivalhomeandgarden.com), a shop in Capitol Hill. “But the house had tons of character, and there weren’t holes in the ceiling, like other places
we’d seen.”
The early-1900s house’s footprint (1,300 square feet) is small, and the high sticker price left little cash for decorating.
But limits only bred creativity. “Designing a small space means you can be discriminating, and vibrant decor updates don’t
have to be pricey, just imaginative,” says Leah. Besides, “when I met Chad, he was living part-time in a VW bus, so this was
definitely a step up for him.”
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