When I am usually speaking with designer Marie Flanigan, we are debating the season's most popular colors, I am getting advice on what elevates a vignette on your entryway console, or how she styles her kitchen shelves. However, our most recent conversation moved away from design tips and trends to focus on how things run in her own home, especially around the hectic few weeks that see her three young children return to school.
As both a designer and a parent, Marie knows that in a family home, nothing can be purely aesthetic; spaces have to work hard to hide the mess and clutter that come with having lots of people under one roof. Marie built her own dream home for her family of five in Houston Heights, Texas, from scratch a few years ago, and while her home is filled with beautiful design ideas, it's the more practical parts of it that come into their own when her family goes back to school.
