Our mission here at simple-e-design is to provide an (almost) daily dose of home decor that follows our 4 essential design principals:  family, friendly, frugal and fun. Every post we write and every project we complete has a balance of these key ingredients. These 4F’s reflect who we are and what we value in our lives and our homes. Here’s why:

Family first! We are sisters, Cameron and Lisa, who share a love of home design and the written word. Are we well-educated? Yes, yes, there are several degrees from very fine and reputable institutions between us. Are we interior designers? No, we have no official design diplomas, but we do have some talent. We know what we like, we share it, and we think you will like it too. Take a look at our portfolio and see if you agree.

{Lisa toothless in first grade}

As luck and fate would have it, after living separately in Manhattan, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Richmond and Atlanta, we finally both landed in Denver. The novelty of the seven minute commute between our houses has not worn off yet.

Between the two of us, we have handy husbands, messy kids, dirty dogs, and old houses that have great character, but need A LOT of work. We strive to make our homes friendly and inviting places where kids run through the house, playing, crafting, yelling, babies are sleeping and have comfy floors on which to practice crawling, and friends can pull up a chair and not worry if they spill a glass of wine on the rug or wipe barbecue sauce on a cloth napkin. Our homes aren’t museums; we live there.

{Cameron toothless in first grade}

Cameron’s pad is an old Wash Park tudor with a mid 80′s addition, and Lisa’s digs are a mid-century ranch that we’re trying to transition into the current century. We have tackled home projects that run the gamut from large (imagine huge excavators in your backyard, enormous cranes depositing steel beams, plumbers, electricians and butt cracks exposed all over the job site–yeesh!) to small (give us a weekend and we can retile the bathroom floor, 15 minutes and we can spray paint anything that’s standing still and give it a new purpose–with the exception of living creatures, of course. We’re not too young to remember Goldfinger!). Even as projects finish, we’re always seeing the next one on the horizon–much to our beloved husbands’ chagrin! Design obsessionals is how they, ahem, lovingly, refer to us. Darlings, we prefer to be known as home stylistas!

Oh, and did we forget to mention that aside from the aforementioned enormous renovation of Lisa’s Georgian, we pretty much tackle these projects ourselves? We are frugal girls who don’t have a lot of money to spend on design extras. Budget is always a factor in anything we do. We’re always comparing prices, looking for bargains and researching how to get the biggest bang for our bucks. We were frugalistas before it was cool.

Lastly, we like to have fun, whether it’s skiing, biking, rafting, girls’ night out, or the playground. We try to incorporate that fun factor or touch of whimsy into our design decisions. Life’s too short not to have a good time and be surrounded by things and people that make you smile. Cheers!