When Amanda and Chris Pahls first discovered their Georgian-inspired 1930s brick beauty in Kansas, they knew they’d stumbled onto something special. “Finding our home was one of those ‘fell into our laps and all the stars aligned’ situations,” Amanda says. “I still pinch myself that we get to call this house ours.”

They moved in as a family of four, but over the years, the laughter has grown along with their family. With five daughters now filling their space, their home radiates life, creativity, and a fair share of glitter.

” We had been renting a little artsy bungalow for 5 years, but it had no yard, was on two busy streets, and what was once a fun house for the two of us, was not a family-friendly home and it was time to move. We looked for homes for quite some time and, after looking at homes that were far out of our budget or had too much work for us to do ourselves, we were left feeling discouraged. On a dreary Sunday, a friend and I decided to go look at open houses- a way to get out of the house and do something for free. We went to an old historic home showing and struck up a conversation with the realtor. She was so kind and I remember her asking me, “Are you looking for an old house”? We were! She told me about a home she wanted to show us, so Chris and I took a little date to come look at it, and were blown away when we pulled up. It had so many features we hoped for in a home and was well within our budget. The house was owned by a couple our age with two boys the ages of our two girls, and after visiting and eating fresh picked apples from the apple trees in the front yard, we knew we were ready to make our very first offer on our first home. I’ll never forget it being accepted and that feeling of knowing we were going to to make a house our home!”

Chris is a teacher, artist, potter, painter, guitar pedal maker, and his latest endeavors are being handcrafted in his detached garage/ pottery studio/ wood workshop. “We like to joke that our home is thrifted, gifted, or handmade”,  but that’s the truth. We have never had a ‘decor’ budget, but have been able to be crafty and resourceful with what we have, with what we find, and what we make.  Patience is a virtue when styling your home this way, but I love the thrill of the hunt and when we find that perfect addition for our home. Schoolhouse pieces have proven to compliment both of our preferred styles nicely throughout our home.”

Amanda, an avid thrifter, has spent years collecting treasures to make the house their own, weaving in Shaker-inspired details for a calm, collected aesthetic. Below, she shares how they’ve created a space that balances charm, functionality, and joy for every member of their family.

Describe your personal style, and how it’s reflected in your home.

Where I lean into primitive decor, Chris enjoys a more modern take on design. We’ve never had a decor budget, but we’ve been crafty and resourceful with what we find. Recently, we’ve started purchasing a few special heirloom pieces, but patience is definitely a virtue when styling a home. My dream home would be if The Orchard House, the birthplace of Little Women, and the Little House on the Prairie made a baby. And Chris’s dream home… Well, it is not that. So we are learning in real time how to compromise and create a home together. 
We enjoy that Schoolhouse pieces complement both of our styles beautifully throughout our space.

What were some of the first changes you made to your home?

I don’t know that we had much of a vision for how we wanted the house to look when we first moved in. I wanted white walls and lots of baskets, and Chris wanted to turn the detached garage into his pottery studio. I remember going to buy house paint with the small budget we had and feeling so silly, not realizing that the budget I thought was going to make all our home renovation dreams come true, barely covered the cost of paint.

At the time, there were four of us and three bedrooms, so we didn’t feel like we had to get too creative with the space we had. We did make a few cosmetic updates, like pulling the 1960s blue shag carpet and painting the turquoise walls white. I was in a cactus phase and was unaware of how I was being influenced by the early days of instagram, when the love of chevron and blue vintage filters were strong. It was actually through instagram and that email I received inviting me to Pinterest, that showed me how decorating our home could be an attainable thing. 

Side note: I actually begged my husband to paint the green trim white when we moved in, but he insisted on keeping it, and I’m so glad we did! It’s now one of my favorite colors. One of the questions I get asked most often is, “What color is that green?!” It’s a close dupe of Farrow & Ball’s French Gray, or the Sanford Giant green pencil sharpener, in case anyone is curious.

How has your approach changed as your family has grown?

We found out we were pregnant with our third daughter a few weeks after moving into the house. I remember painting living room walls white and I felt so shakey and weird and then it hit me! I am pregnant! We were thrilled and as we’ve grown, and grown, and grown as a family, our desires for our home evolved from wanting white walls to creating an intentional, peaceful environment that fosters a creative space for our children to learn. We wanted to honor the charm of the home while meeting the practical needs of our growing family.

How do you choose which pieces to keep in your home?

I recently had a friend over and she asked me why I thought I liked antiques so much. This question made me really contemplate what has shaped my design preferences. The words that come to mind are grief, generosity, and motherhood. Maybe not the typical design trifecta, but let me explain.

Grief has given me permission to create the home I never had. The intention behind creating our home has been birthed, not just from the desire to look a particular way, but much more so to feel a way I longed to and want to gift to our daughters and anyone who enters our home.  

I grew up in a low-income military family and never felt at home. We were stationed in various states and countries, moving often, and our belongings were made up of the hand-me-downs gifted from family and new friends we collected along the way. It was the generosity of others that shaped way the homes I lived in looked. 

Generosity has given me the ability to be content with what we have, accept our limitations, and to enjoy the opportunities to be generous to others ourselves.

When I accidentally stumbled into “influencing”, our home was quickly filled with nicer things I had ever owned. I made the decision right away that we would gift more than we would keep and I have stuck to that. It has been so fun to share what I get to share and this has remained one of my favorite things about my job. I also adopted a one-in-one-out policy, which allowed me to be more generous, pushed me to be much more intentional about what we choose to bring into our home, and also keeps our home from getting too cluttered, which is particularly important for Chis, a real minimalist at heart. 

Motherhood has created the need for me to provide my children a safe home that coexists with stories that will live on after us. I don’t want to fill our home with “stuff”, but with intentional heirlooms that will serve as reminders to precious memories. I want our daughters to be able to choose to have pieces of me, and their father, and their childhood that are able to live on with our stories after us and alongside them. This sentiment has become increasingly more important to me and shapes the way I filter what comes into our home lately. 

I also love incorporating things from places where parts of my heart still reside. Whether it’s cuddling up with my daughters to read a book written about a place I once lived, or snuggling with a blanket made in Maine out of fabric that reminds me of the dolls and prams I had in Germany, this is the kind of comfort I lean into when making our house a home.

Can you tell us which Schoolhouse pieces are most special to you?

We educate our five daughters in our very own school room, which also functions as the dining room. I wanted to put a Schoolhouse clock in this space for years and now catch myself smiling at the Tanker Clock multiple times a day. I asked the girls to pick out the color of the clock and they all voted for the Butterscotch color, and we think it compliments the green trim we have grown to love in this space well.

I want our stories to live on through the chairs we spend so much time getting to know each other on and the stools the girls tiptoe on to help us cook or sneak a taste of cookie dough from Mom’s pretty bowls. I want the baskets that hold our table linens and napkins to remind the girls of all the warm meals we share together and how their dad experimented with every sauce he could find until he finally found one our pickiest eater loved on her noodles. I want to fill our home with special treasures that hold memories to carry on when we can’t.

Finally, can you tell us about your favorite room in your home and why?

Our school room/dining room is my favorite space in the home. I’ve birthed three of our five daughters in this specific space, making it such a sacred space. So many traditions we hold dear have also been birthed in this space. Decorating the windows for the seasons, filling it with decor for every birthday since we’ve been in the home. It is the room where I’ve taught our four oldest girls to read, where I’ve enjoyed many cups of coffee and also spilled too many to count. It is where we have laughed and cried with friends. It is the space where we gather together to celebrate, where I taught my daughters to bake. This space has fostered so many special meals and conversations and, if we ever move, this room will be the most difficult for me to day goodbye to.

Our youngest daughter likes to stack her older sister’s stool under our FDB Møbler J83 Stool, which she has very much claimed as her own. We also added the T10 Opal LED Bulbs to our fandelier, a quirky piece of the home that was here when we moved in, and we haven’t had the heart to change. The shape of these bulbs allows us to add some lamp shades that we tea dyed, and it warms up the space just like we hoped.

I have a love of chairs that my friends tease me about. Many of our chairs have been gifted from friends who have saved them off street corners, and the chairs come with special stories. We recently refinished an old table that we found on Facebook Marketplace, and after switching from benches to chairs for the first time in our home, we needed a few more chairs for our family. The TON 18 Bentwood Caned Chairs have been a perfect addition, fitting right into the space. They’re beautifully handcrafted, a timeless silhouette, and haven’t given anyone a splinter, one of our favorite features of these bentwoods!

The FDB Møbler J83 Long Bench fits seamlessly into several rooms in our home. We have a 2-year-old “bedroom roommate” at the moment, and the bench provides a practical way for her to join us, as well as a comfortable spot for me to slip our beloved vintage boots and clogs on and off.

Some of the very first bedding we ever added to our home were two Gray Twin Diamond Ticking Quilts on our daughters’ antique Jenny Lind beds. This bedding has such a timeless feel and my husband also digs it, which makes it just right! It felt like a special moment when we added the King Quilt to our bed. An ode to the beginning of making our house a home.

Our bedroom is currently going through a transformation. This Schoolhouse Tour has allowed my husband and I to have new conversations and ask if we both feel represented in our home and like we are both equally able to express ourselves in our home. It turns out, that answer was no for us. As we have added particular pieces in our home, my husband admitted to feeling pushed out and like what once was “our” home, felt more like “my” home. And while that was never my intention, my unsolicited advice when making a house a home, would simply to make sure you’re doing it together. 

Since writing this first paragraph to this one, we’ve sold our bedframe, added a new one, gifted and donated multiple tubs of items, and will be moving forward with more mutual intention in how WE express ourselves through our home.  Chris is thrilled with the Schoolhouse pieces we’ve added and feels like they’re a great representation of both of our preferred styles and that makes me so grateful. My goal from here on out when making a house a home, is to be sure that it feels like “OUR” home. 

A big thanks to Schoolhouse for this wonderful opportunity to share a bit of our story and home, and to Megganmareephoto for capturing many of these images.