When Lori Moscato and her husband Rob relocated to their second home during Covid lockdown, they gained a little space on the shores of their lakefront property—and a lot of perspective. That’s when her husband approached her with a loaded question: Where did their future lie?
“Our primary home in a master-planned golf-course community in Raleigh didn’t have the land nor the privacy we’d come to cherish. Having the space and seclusion of the lake home was something we wanted to duplicate with our primary residence, so I wanted to find a couple of acres in the city to build our dream home,” says Moscato, owner of Casual Elegance Designs. “He agreed and told me to go find it.”
Finding the ideal property—two-plus acres just north of I-540—was no easy task given the scarcity of land in Wake County. They looked at several properties, but with most options having little acreage, privacy, or space between neighboring homes, they found nothing strikingly different from what they already had. That was until Moscato stumbled upon a unique property that checked all their boxes.
“It was a gem of a lot down a gated private road in an established HOA with only three total properties,” says Moscato. “The lot was already engineered for a house, and the tree-laden land was secluded from the adjacent homes.”
There were a few must-haves: bringing the outdoors in, ensuring the home could grow with them as a family of four, creating an open floor plan conducive to entertaining, and utilizing a mix of natural materials and finishes throughout. Moscato partnered with Tony Frazier of Frazier Home Design and Al Newton of RA Newton Custom Homes to bring her vision to life.
The glass bi-folding doors in the family room and kitchen were the jumping-off point of the design. When opened, they create a “vanishing wall” feature allowing for uninhibited flow between the interior rooms and the spacious patio. The outdoors-in feature inspired the home’s warm earth-tone palette and integration of natural stones and reclaimed woods throughout. The covered patio features retractable screens and vinyl planks with recessed heaters to accommodate four-season living, and within a few easy steps opens to a Hamptons-inspired green turf that runs right to the pool’s coping.
The layout, complete with full downstairs owner’s and guest suites, enables the family to grow with the home gracefully. An upstairs laundry room devoted to the kids and a downstairs laundry inside the owner’s closet allows for maximum convenience, and the open floor plan makes maneuverability and maintenance a breeze.
Moscato invested heavily in natural, sustainable materials. The reclaimed white-oak flooring, sourced locally, was stained black and affixed on the family room’s ceiling. Large rustic beams, repurposed from an Ohio barn, are mounted in a unique “x” formation, conceptualized by Moscato. The home’s modern-prairie exterior is warmed by stone and wood accents, while custom walnut shelving, doors, and a mantle provide soft refinement in the interior.
Aesthetically, Moscato ditched a this-or-that ideal and embraced a what-feels-right mantra instead, blending finishes, textures, materials, and styles seamlessly into a comprehensive design. The home features soapstone, porcelain, quartzite, reclaimed oak, and walnut throughout, accented by a blend of textiles, including leather, velvet, linen, and cork, and hardware finishes in acrylic, chrome, matte black, and satin brass. The home’s color palette—a blend of earthy and jewel tones against rich black and white—creates a down-to-earth elegance.
Nowhere is this elegance in mixing and matching better seen than in the kitchen, where glass, five-piece, and slab-front doors mingle on inset and European-framed cabinetry with both stained and painted finishes. The blend of elements—a little rustic, a little classic, a little posh, and a little modern—perfectly combine to create a lot of beauty.
For Moscato, the finished design proves the best rule of thumb in home decor is being open to blurring the lines. “I didn’t follow any set rules in designing this home. We made choices that worked best for our family and spoke to our personalities instead,” says Moscato. “The result is a well-lived home that works really nicely for our family, today and in the future.”
