A piece of family history is an essential anchor in every room of the Wheeler home. Lisa and Thomas with their children Alice (15) and Thomas (18).
Lisa Wheeler likes to tell a funny story about the potential stress of building a new home. “When I was young, my family moved across the country, and my parents decided to build a home instead of buying an existing one,” she says. “I was small enough to think that meant they would literally be building it themselves but old enough to know that they absolutely did not have the necessary skills. I got myself so worked up about it until I understood, once we got there, that building a house does not mean actually doing it yourself.”
Many years later, faced with building her own home in Columbia, Lisa thought back to that story. “People told me that building a home would be incredibly stressful, but I didn’t think it was at all,” she says. “I knew what I wanted, and we made it happen.”
What the Wheelers wanted was a home that could change as their family changed, with plenty of room for everyone but without so much space that it would be overwhelming to maintain. Instead of an open layout, they wanted rooms with walls, too. “By the time we built our house, Thomas and I had been married long enough to know how we live,” says Lisa. “I’m not a passionate cook, so we didn’t need a big kitchen, but I am an avid reader, so I made sure to include plenty of spaces to curl up with a book. Open cupboards were a must but a large yard was not. Once you get past your aspirational life and really look at your real life, it’s much easier to make decisions that work.”
Another of the details that sets the home’s design apart is bedroom placement. Rather than put any family bedrooms on the second floor, the Wheelers opted to place all three on the main level. As a result, the entire second level was like an open playing field where Lisa and Thomas could get creative. “You don’t realize how big a second floor is until you take away the bedrooms,” says Lisa. “We found ourselves with a huge area that we could customize to our specific needs.”
At first glance, the second floor’s main room resembles a large room over the garage, with dormer windows that Lisa has cleverly transformed into homework bays, a large television, a comfy sectional, and a wet bar. “What once held Legos is now a space for the ping-pong table,” says Lisa. “The children are 18 and 15, and the room is growing with us just as I’d hoped. Right before I started on this project, I read a book about hotel design. It motivated me to think about space differently. This is the result.”
Lisa also included a place for a dining table, which she says comes in handy for impromptu lunches or snacks. But the table has another use — a place for guests to have their morning coffee. “I decided to put the guest room up here, too, so that when people come to visit, they can have a bit of privacy,” Lisa says as she walks into an unexpected guest room hidden behind what, in another home, might be a closet door.
Set with a window seat and sloping roof line, the room resembles a wondrous hidden attic that one might find hiding on the third floor of a rambling old home. Even better, tables and shelves loaded with books and magazines, beds covered in patchwork quilts and cozy lighting all encourage lingering. But there’s another reason the room feels so welcoming: the furnishings. In the center of the room, the round table stacked with books came from Lisa’s grandparents’ home, and the coffee table belonged to Thomas’ grandparents. A simple wooden chair with a curved back sits in front of a desk made by Thomas’ grandfather, who not only sanded and nailed the wood but crafted the dentil molding and ornate fretwork as well.
“A piece of family history is an essential anchor in every room of our home,” says Lisa as she points out a dresser made by Thomas’ father, a bookcase made by her great-grandfather, and a painting of an exciting thoroughbred race that hung in Lisa’s childhood home, all in the playroom. There’s even a wall hanging of an American flag that Lisa fashioned from the slats of son Thomas’ bed, a spool bed made by a 19th century ancestor.
Lisa explains how she has managed to incorporate so many antique furnishings into a home that glows with vibrancy. “Brown furniture was not in vogue when we decorated this house, but we could also never paint anything that had been made by a family member,” she says. “What I’ve come to embrace in these pieces is the fun of working them in as they are.”
From the looks of it, Lisa has had a lot of fun. In the living room, for instance, a wooden plant stand built by Thomas’ grandfather holds a sculpture instead of a fern; bright throw pillows add style to a traditional wingback chair and sofa. Connecting it all, the clean lines of a coffee table made from glass and softly glowing gold-colored metal add a subtle contemporary touch.
Art is located everywhere, too, much of it created by Lisa, a trained painter. A Romanesque wall hanging decorates the living room; in the front hall, a portrait of Alice Wheeler, Lisa and Thomas’ daughter, hangs above a round piecrust table made by Thomas’ grandfather. “I painted that portrait of Alice exactly for that space,” says Lisa. “I knew as we were building the house that it would be just perfect.”
Lisa’s talent is evident in other rooms as well, from strategic swaths of patterned wallpaper that add interest without overwhelming the space to bright pops of color here and there and the high-low mix of furnishings in the family’s dining room. “The table is an antique, so I wanted to jazz it up,” says Lisa. “I ran across these chairs, which look sort of ’60s-ish to me, and thought, ‘Why not? If I love it and it makes me happy, then it’s a good choice!’”
Lisa also added a signature touch to the room’s hutch, which holds an array of glittering silver, crystal, and china, by covering the mirrored back with contemporary wallpaper, row after row of dots, each perfectly spaced, uniquely shaped, in ever-so-slightly differing shades of blue. “At one point in my life I felt like I had to buy more brown furniture because it would match what we had,” she says. “This is one of those pieces. But instead of replacing it, I decided to dress it down with the papering. I think it works particularly well since what’s inside is so formal.”
One of the family’s favorite places in the house is the library, which is dominated by a huge map of the world Lisa painted in acrylic directly on the room’s largest wall. Adorned with ships, historic facts, a sea monster, and a stunning compass rose, the work is as informative as it is stunning. “My husband and son are both geography buffs, so I made it for them,” says Lisa.
The room also has another feature not often found in family spaces: a worktable. “A lot of thought went into that table and that part of the room,” says Lisa. “I wanted it to be multifunctional, a place that was comfortable for everyone to do whatever they felt like doing.”
To encourage creativity and keep screen time limited when the children were small, Lisa kept the table stocked with crayons and paper; today, Lisa keeps the table clear so the children can choose to do homework there. During the day, it serves as everything from Lisa’s desk to a laundry folding station. “We use that table more than I ever would have imagined, but the important thing is that no matter what anyone is doing, we’re usually together instead of in separate places.”
Lisa says that life trained her to create her home. “Early in our married life, Thomas and I lived in a 750-square-foot condo,” she says. “When your space is that limited, you learn to choose wisely. Now, even though we have more space, that lesson has stayed with me.”
Lisa’s artistic training also provided a huge assist. “I was definitely able to visualize where I was going with the house’s design and decor,” she says. “As an artist, it’s really nice to envision something and then be able to make it happen.”
Happy as Lisa is with the home’s evolution, she still considers it a work in progress. “As the children marry and have their own children, I’m fully aware that my studio, which is on the second floor, will become another bedroom. Having the whole upstairs will make it easy for them to visit!”
Still, no matter how much the Wheeler home evolves, Lisa will continue to showcase the historic pieces that tell the family’s story. “Honoring our family with all of this is a privilege and a joy,” she says.
