Susan and Mark Doughton didn’t intend to build a new home, but that all changed once they became grandparents in 2017.
“We needed a yard,” says Susan, which their previous home in Winston-Salem didn’t have. “There was a stone patio and a pool, but there wasn’t any place for them to play ball or run around.”
The need for a yard became more urgent as one grandchild became two, and then three. “It seemed like we had a new grandchild every year,” Susan jokes. In the spring of 2021, the Doughtons found the perfect lot in Winston-Salem—an acre of land located about ten minutes away from their church. There was only one problem: there was no house on it.
At first, Susan was daunted by the idea of building a home from the ground up. But the opportunity to customize the house around their growing family was too good to pass up. They turned to architect Gregory Koester and interior designer Kara Cox, who worked together on the design of the home. “I knew, with all the choices I would have to make, that I needed them from the beginning,” says Susan.
Cox tailored the floor plan even before construction broke ground by adding the barrel-vaulted ceiling in the entryway for a grand statement and a box-beam ceiling in the dining room to highlight Susan’s request for a Visual Comfort chandelier. She also began incorporating a palette of greens and blues (Susan’s favorite colors) throughout the interior in a range of bright shades and bold patterns. “What drew me to Kara was her use of color,” Susan says. “I didn’t want a neutral house.”
Another draw for Susan was Cox’s updated-but-classic aesthetic, one that marries antique furnishings with contemporary art. Cox took advantage of many of the homeowners’ antiques, including a chest of drawers and a nineteenth-century heirloom cabinet, as well as pieces from Susan’s modern art collection, which hang above the fireplace and in the entryway. “We used the colors from the paintings as inspiration,” says Cox.
But for Cox, form and function go hand-in-hand. Since the home featured floor-to-ceiling windows in the dining room, Cox clad the chairs and banquette seating in an outdoor fabric, which is resistant to fading. And in the owner’s bedroom, the windows feature custom drapery, which are hard-wired to open and close by remote control. “You don’t want to have to pull open all those curtains by hand every morning,” says Cox.
The home, says Susan, is “beautiful yet livable.” But the highlight is undoubtedly the bunk-bed room, which was designed specifically for sleepover parties with the grandchildren. The room features a wall of bunk beds and a daybed to accommodate the homeowners’ grandchildren, which now number six—five boys and one girl.
True to its purpose, the home is a hub of activity for the grandchildren, who often come over on the weekend to play soccer in the yard or watch football and baseball games in the sunroom. “So many great memories will be made there,” says Cox.
