Lindsay Hadley and Tim Lisko have a very unique approach to decorating their home. Hadley compares the home to a scrapbook of their lives together along with their four-year-old son, Milo and furry companion, Oslo. This home is unique, because it is a conglomerate of mementos, art and lots of color. Hadley describes their home as “mid-century eclectic”. I was recently welcomed into their home for a tour and interview. Read more to find out what we talked about!
Where do you get your home inspiration?
Lindsay Hadley: “I think just from places that we’ve gone. I think our house is like a scrapbook. You can figure out the people we hang out with and the places that we’ve been when you look around. A lot of our art comes from living in Savannah, either from people we’ve met, exchanges, Tim made some of it. Most of the art has some sort of meaning.”
Tim Lisko: “We used to be able to find things probably once a week that we liked, then have to hold off and not get it. They were either student artists, people who stayed in Savannah who were still working artists.”
Lindsay Hadley: “So there’s a little painting in the hallway that’s of our front step, and one of our friends made that for us when they stayed here. My photo teacher, those are her photos from her trips. You definitely know who we hang out with by the art that’s here.”
Tim Lisko: “I have to say, we don’t end up planning things. We kind of look around and see what looks like it goes in the house. So there are things that we don’t like and there are things that we like and don’t think go with the house and we just leave them. There are things that we see and we think ‘Oh that’s beautiful. We have to take that home.”
How do you describe your style?
Lindsay Hadley: “I think it’s mid-century eclectic. It’s colorful for your not Chip and Joanna Gaines white shiplap.”
Tim Lisko: “You also tend to like things that are newer and cleaner, and I like things that are older and have some randomness. So things that are either beat up or super layered, or like that big ‘A’ in the corner. It’s a mass produced Chinese oil painting under it. The guy who put the ‘A’ on it, when he was young he was well off enough to where his dad bought him a building in Savannah. He had a high-in furniture store, but he made that in a fit of angst at some point. We thought it was hilarious that his rebellion was ‘anarchy’, but he was doing really well for himself. He was actually going to throw that out and had put it on sale. So we bought it and didn’t have a way to get it home and ended up carrying it home with friends.”
Lindsay Hadley: “It was way bigger than we thought it was.”
Where are your go-to interior design shops?
Tim Lisko: “I don’t know if we have any…”
Lindsay Hadley: “A little bit everywhere. So, this is West Elm, because it’s mid-century, but some of the mid-century pieces we got on ebay. Some are from friends, that mid-century isn’t their style, but they cleaned out their parent’s house and gave us nice mid-century pieces. We told a friend of ours that we wanted a womb chair and he said he just found one at the salvation army.”
Lindsay Hadley: “So we’ve got some things that are CB2, Blu Dot, West Elm and Ikea. Then, in the middle of all that, we’ve got some nicer pieces too, like actual womb chairs, Paul McCobb furniture, etc. Our house is not a catalog. Also, some things we made ourselves, so that big painting in the dining room, Tim and my dad built the frame for it.”
Tim Lisko: “That was a grad student in Savannah, she was a grandma actually, and she did that for some kind of class project.”
Lindsay Hadley: “We have an actual Herman Miller wall hanger, but then we’ve got a knock off rocker. We’ve got a little bit of everything.”
Tim Lisko: “One of our former students actually works for Herman Miller.”
Advice for decorating a small room?
Lindsay Hadley: “I would say use color. It’s a small space, so make it feel joyful and happy. You could go neutral and fill in with lots of other colors.”
Tim Lisko: “That is one thing that we do tend to do.”
Lindsay Hadley: “So we just bought a new sofa and we had to agree on a neutral fabric, so I could get bright colored pillows. That way, if you’re in a small space and you feel like the walls are closing in on you, then you can at least decorate with colorful pillows and stuff.”
What’s your favorite room in your house?
Tim Lisko: “Decor wise, it’s the living room for me.”
Lindsay Hadley: “It’s got a little bit of everything.”
Tim Lisko: “It’s got the most things in it that I like.”
Lindsay Hadley: “I think my favorite is the dining room just to have, because of the painting in there. It may not be super functional. I also like the new stuff downstairs, just because it’s my new shiny thing. I love my Mother’s Day wall.”
Tim Lisko: “It’s the best wall.”
Lindsay Hadley: “Well, and Milo’s room too!”
Tim Lisko: “They are both stencils to the original. I had to rush to do that one [Mother’s Day Wall], so that one’s messier, but then I just kind of made it messy on purpose. It doesn’t repeat very well, it’s fairly random. Milo’s room is the same thing. I thought if I gridded it out and tried to do it exactly, I would mess up and then I would look at the mess up forever. So, I eyeballed it instead so that everything seemed right to me. Everything is a little bit off, but when everything’s a little bit off it’s just right.”
Lindsay Hadley: “That’s us in a nutshell.”
What are your favorite colors for the season?
Lindsay Hadley: “I like mustard yellow a lot right now. I like orange, like a tangerine orange and bright blue. I always like bright blue.”
Tim Lisko: “I don’t even know how to answer that. I’m so unaware that I think I could get something out of season that I like just about every time. I’m just unaware.”
What were a few things you envision in your dream home?
Lindsay Hadley: “In my dream house we have higher ceilings and bigger windows.”
Tim Lisko: “We went to do a photoshoot the other day, with Polina, and their windows let in some incredible light. There were also windows in the backyard. If I had windows that big and they were front facing, I would be out of my mind, I wouldn’t like it.”
Lindsay Hadley: “I don’t feel like I need a bigger house, but a taller house.”
Tim Lisko: “We lived in a converted top floor of a fire house in Savannah.”
Lindsay Hadley: “That’s why we have such big pictures! We have lived in three different places together, but this is the first one that we’ve owned. So this one we can actually do what we want to.”
Advice for undergoing a home renovation?
Lindsay Hadley: “Plan for a longer time table than you would expect, negotiate with your contractor and see what things you can do yourself. If there’s a way to save money, I think that’s a big deal. When we did the basement, we kind of lumped the roof project and the basement project together, so instead of taking out multiple loans over multiple years, we just did it. We gave them a budget and they said it seemed a little low, and they suggested we wait until February. They want to keep their guys busy in the off season, so they are willing to do it for a better price. You can even talk to them about ways to cut the price. You want to have a budget.”
Tim Lisko: “I would say if a crew at any point is trying to save time by not putting plastic up to keep the dust out, you have to insist. There was a day when they told us the dust wouldn’t get out of the basement and it didn’t, not too badly. However, everything in storage in the basement has construction dust on it. In retrospect, I would have rather said that I don’t care what it costs to section off that part of the house, but you have to do it.”
Lindsay Hadley: “Also, remember that HGTV is not real life. Those time tables are not accurate”
If you could relocate anywhere, where would it be and why?
Lindsay Hadley: “I don’t know. We are walking distance from a Target, so I feel very good about our location. The school district is good too.”
Tim Lisko: “This sounds silly, but I would love to live on a hill. I grew up on mountain roads and it’s comfortable to me.”
Lindsay Hadley: “Dream situation is that we would live in Scandinavia. My family is here, that’s why we moved back. There are definitely things that we miss about Savannah. We both taught at the college there, where we met. I felt guilty about being so far away, and now we have a four-year-old who loves hanging out with his grandparents.”
Tim Lisko: “I get a little homesick, and it’s not even home, when we go to Cincinnati. It looks more like where I grew up, and I feel a little homesick there. You have to put the parking brake on when you park.”
Lindsay Hadley: “It was very nice of Tim to move here.”
