what was once a dream...

Since we had already planned on renovating, we decided to just go for it during lockdown. I started leaning into design more and sharing bits and pieces online, mostly TikTok. Paint colors, decorating choices, little corners of the house, and projects we were working on. Back then my style was a lot more boho inspired, and honestly I was just posting because I enjoyed it and wanted to see what happened. I never expected people to care about it the way they did. But slowly people started following along and connecting with what I was sharing.

Not a year later, we brought our sweet Rosie girl into this world and into our home. While we loved this little old house so much, we always knew we wanted to end up in the country someday. Before she was even born, we had already bought a piece of land and dreamed about building a home out there where we could slow down a little and raise our family. In 2021, shortly after Rosie was born, we broke ground on what is now The Rosie Home, and we moved in during 2022.

Honestly, looking back at photos of our house when we first moved in its amazing to see just how different and evolved. I brought a lot of my older decor and furniture with me from the Arlington house, but over time my style started changing naturally. I stopped caring as much about trends and started leaning more into things that felt collected, cozy, nostalgic, colorful, and lived in. More antiques, vintage finds, meaningful pieces, layers, textures... things that felt like us. If it spoke to me and looked like it belonged in the space, I would lean into that feeling and decorate from there.

And everything here happened slowly, in perfect timing. It was not all at once or magically appeared. 

When we first moved in, there wasn't a pool, the garden was so much smaller, and the coop wasn’t even here yet. Even inside, rooms have changed so much over time. Textures, colors and overall feel has transformed since we first built the house. I think that’s one of my favorite parts about creating a home is it’s been allowed to evolve naturally with us as we grow and change.

Originally, we built the layout with both our businesses in mind. My floral business, Alba Dahila Floral, and my husband’s company, Firehouse Christmas Lights. Building a warehouse-style shop so he could have storage for the lights and I could have space to design flowers for weddings. I had been working in the wedding industry for so many years, but I realized I didn’t want a life that kept me gone every weekend and away from my growing family. I craved those slower days. More time with my family. More time at home. I wanted to build a life that felt cozy and intentional and aligned with the season we were stepping into as parents. So little by little, I stepped away from weddings and started pouring more into what The Rosie Home was becoming. And in that God was blessing the entire process and made the way for me to step into RH full time.

Now it’s grown into so much more than I ever expected. It’s still evolving all the time, but that's the point isn't it? Creating a home that evolves with us and for us. What started as just a dream back in that little apartment we first lived in, has now come to pass... and the blessing wasn't the house, it was the life we've made within it.

Truth be told, The Rosie Home really started before this house ever existed.

Back when we were first married, we were living in an apartment and both running our own businesses when the opportunity came up to move into my grandparents’ old house in Arlington. It was an older home, built in 1963 and honestly pretty untouched, but we loved it anyways. Moved in to rent in 2017, and then purchased their home in 2019. It was a blessing and the space we needed at that time. We had planned to renovate it eventually, so we slowly started saving and dreaming about what we wanted it to become for our family. but...

Then 2020 happened.