Home to: Alex and Lia Sioukas and daughters Phoebe (5 ½ years) and Nina (3 ½ years)
Neighborhood: Arden Park, Sacramento
Stats: 4 bedrooms, 3 ½ bathrooms
Interior design by: Etch & Ivy
Staring at a big, blank wall, most people would see an opportunity for a trendy photo-gallery display or feel the need to cover it with a piece of furniture. Not Alex and Lia Sioukas. They wanted something bolder and brighter. So, with the help of design duo Etch & Ivy, they commissioned muralist Jeremy Stanger (@stangerprojects) to bring their boring dining room to life with vibrant washes of color.
“I remember the first thing Lia said to me was that she wanted a fun home,” says Claire Fishburn Jones of Etch & Ivy. “She was open to taking a lot of risks in terms of bold color and big moments.” These risks translated into many delightful surprises throughout the house—by way of whimsical wallpapers, geometric cement floor tiles, cool cabinetry hardware and eye-catching light fixtures.
Turns out that Lia is open to pushing the envelope even more. “I want Jeremy to come back in a few years and add flowers like he did in his mural for Freeport Bakery,” she says.
When redesigning their home, the Sioukases’ goal was to take it from “’90s delish” (as Lia called it) to California casual—an aesthetic that better reflected their style.
The pineapple-print wallpaper, which graces the walls of the laundry room, was actually one of the first things Alex and Lia choose for the house. “Smaller rooms are great places to take some risk with bold patterns,” says Claire Fishburn Jones of Etch & Ivy.
They took the traditional subway-tile backsplash one step further by using a larger-scale tile and a darker grout line.
When lying in their beds, the Sioukas girls look up to a dreamy wallpapered ceiling. “We kept Nina and Phoebe in mind the whole time, because we wanted them to be excited to live there, too,” says Jenny Jun of Etch & Ivy.
