The unexpected sight of the electric pink walls and accessories in the bedroom at the top of the stairs in Tara Turner’s home triggers loud spontaneous giggles and whoops that don’t stop even after you’ve entered the room.
If a reaction like that is a sign you’ve made a great design impression, then Turner, 32, has excelled in making the home she inherited from her dad, hers.
“Kids love it,” said Turner, who is single with no children but hosts the youngsters of family and friends and is mom to Xena, her photogenic 8-year-old boxer who loves posing for pictures. “I have lots of adopted children,” she said.
After her father, Thomas, died earlier this year, Turner, who is director of alumni relations and annual giving at Coppin State University, took on the task of gifting his things and feminizing the home she inherited from him. While he lived there all of the walls in the house located in the Rosedale community were light blue. Although blue is one of her favorite colors, Turner said “I had the whole house repainted.”
The new palette she applied in the living room and her bedroom features color combinations that use the bolder shades on a single accent wall. Her choice of olive, tan and a rich tone of dry mustard creates a feeling of intimacy. Crown molding added to the bedroom, which Turner painted herself, lifts the elegance quotient.
The basement walls are a welcoming gray shade. Other changes she envisions include eliminating the deck out back and replacing it with a terrace. “I never did like decks,” Turner asserts. The terrace would allow her to be closer to the ground and take advantage of the slope populated with woods and small birds that fly in to dine at the feeders.
Before she got started putting her personal changes in the house, Turner disposed of a few things, including the manly leather furniture, traditional dining room set and plastic mini-blinds. She substituted softer seating and wood window treatments.
But she didn’t discard everything. “There were some things I could live with,” Turner said, like the “stone” vinyl flooring in the kitchen.
“If I sold the house, it would be more than just selling a house. Memories are here. Both my parents lived here,” she said. “I always wanted to do condo living, but that’s out for a while.”
