Timeless Cheer

Alyson Malone loves beautiful traditional interiors, but she also has three boys. So when it came time to decorate her new home in The Preserve, she enlisted interior designer Shea Bryars to achieve a look that was at once sophisticated and indestructible.

Together they worked on new designs for all five bedrooms and all five bathrooms in the house as well as all main living spaces except the kitchen. For some spaces they used antique pieces and rugs Alyson already had, but Shea also encouraged Alyson to add a fresh look even working with traditional trims and façade of the house.

Perhaps the most notable way they did so was with pops of colors Alyson envisioned and Shea pulled from her existing accessories. “That was fun,” Shea says. “Often she would ask me to go back and add more color.” You can find splashes of red on the back of the dining room chairs and coral prints in the living room, as well as airy floral fabrics in the guest room.

The boldest room in the house is the dining room with its metal gold chandelier. Shea says it made Alyson a bit nervous at first as she wasn’t sure if it was too modern, but now she loves it.

As to the indestructible side of the Malones’ home design, the bar stools and breakfast chairs were covered in a wipeable pleather, and the neutral rug they selected for the living room was designed for the outdoors.

The end result certainly fits the bill: beautiful to the eye, but when you look closer durable for boys to grow up and play in too.

Living Room

Alyson wanted color in her home and for it to be happy, and that’s just what she got with pops of coral and botanical prints in this living space. Two sofas offer plenty of seating for her family, and their performance-grade fabrics are hearty for active boys.

Dining Room

A gold metal chandelier is the showstopper of the this otherwise traditional dining space. The design for the room started with the rug, and Shea pulled out the red for the backs of the chairs from it and added a textured wallpaper to soften the room and distinguish it from paint in most of the home. Shea also had a round table made by The Nest to fit the room’s square dimensions.

Breakfast Nook

These furnishings are deceptively durable with pleather on the chairs and an indoor-outdoor rug that both make it easy to clean up spills. The window treatments feature silver and beige squares that almost look like they are painted on to fun up the space.

Guest Bedroom

With three boys in the house, Alyson wanted her guest room to have a feminine design that would feel like a retreat. The light, airy floral curtains were the starting point for selecting its pale pink bedding and other accents.

Boys’ Bedrooms

Shea designed classic clean bedrooms for Alyson’s twin 9-year-old boys to age with them through their teenage years. Both have solid headboards that could be kept for years and freshened up with new bedding print, but for now each boy has their own plaid pillow fabric.