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Dallas-raised, Austin-based designer Shannon Eddings has lived in her 1970s-era home for 17 years, adjusting and reconfiguring to make it work for every phase of life.<\/p>\n
Courtesy Shannon Eddings<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are so funny about square footage,\u201d muses Austin-based interior designer\u00a0Shannon Eddings<\/a>, who was raised in Dallas and works with clients in both cities.\u00a0Many homeowners, she reflects, always want more, more, more \u2014 meanwhile, she lives in a cozy (and we all know what that means) 1970s-era starter home she bought almost two decades ago. Three children and one renovation later, she often wonders if the 1,600-square-foot home has reached max capacity. \u201cIt filled up fast,\u201d she laughs. Moving has crossed her mind for about a decade, she admits. Space is tight, especially now that the kids are older. Still, \u201cwe didn\u2019t want to move, because we wanted to stay by our friends and neighbors,\u201d says Eddings. \u201cAnd when we looked at other houses, nothing jumped out to us that was worth sacrificing that.\u201d<\/p>\n There are lots of considerations that lead people to remain in homes that may no longer fully meet their needs. And that situation is even more common in the current real estate market: It often makes more financial sense to stay put, even when renting. There\u2019s a slew of factors keeping people where they are, such as higher mortgage rates, price increases and low inventory of available homes. This moment in the market has been called \u201cthe squeeze<\/a>\u201d \u2014 a term that usually refers to how buyers need to squeeze every drop from their budgets to get a house. But it seems fitting, too, for owners remaining in their starter homes longer than expected, because they\u2019re frequently squeezed for space.<\/p>\n Market conditions are certainly challenging the long-held idea that the first home you buy is a starter home, not a forever home. According to research from Texas A&M University\u2019s Texas Real Estate Research Center, D-FW homeowners owned their properties for a median of five years and three months back in 2019. That increased to six years and nine months in 2025. And as the median age of the first-time homebuyer reaches an all-time high<\/a> at 40 years old, many of today\u2019s buyers will probably move fewer times in their life than the buyers of generations past. Whatever the reason, many homeowners have to figure out how to stay longer in a space initially intended to be more temporary.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Eddings found the home’s original kitchen dark and crowded. When she renovated, opening up the kitchen was a priority. A skylight and vaulted ceiling also add to the feeling of spaciousness.<\/p>\n Courtesy Shannon Eddings<\/p>\n \u201cThe main reason we remodeled was that we decided to stay put and build our community over having more square feet,\u201d says Eddings of her longtime home. She made a modest addition in 2018, bumping the house from 1,250 square feet to 1,650. \u201cWhat felt bad to us was just how closed-in the kitchen, dining and living room were.\u201d<\/p>\n By knocking down an attached garage and taking in some of the front porch, Eddings was able to add this second living room onto her home.<\/p>\n Courtesy Shannon Eddings<\/p>\n She knocked down the existing garage and created a secondary living space in its place, connecting it to a reconfigured kitchen that felt more open, airy and spacious.\u00a0Eddings notes that while open-concept design has fallen a bit out of favor, it\u2019s still worthwhile in some contexts and can go a long way toward creating a sense of space, especially in a smaller square footage home.<\/p>\n Designer Ashka Karia<\/a> found this to be true when working on a home renovation in Richardson. Her clients originally purchased the 2,000-square-foot house with an addition in mind; then they realized the changes would make the house out of line with neighborhood home values.\u00a0Karia\u2019s clients tasked her with making the existing footprint feel more spacious and functional for their family of four.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n LEFT: A vaulted ceiling makes the living space in this Richardson home feel roomier. Designer Ashka Karia also gave the space a new look by limewashing the walls and adding drywall to create an arch over the brick fireplace. RIGHT: A wine bar tucked into a niche off the kitchen adds extra storage, too.<\/p>\n Yanglin Cai<\/p>\n One big change: opening the kitchen to the living room for better flow between the two spaces. Karia also vaulted the living room ceiling to go along with the vaulted roofline. \u201cIt seemed silly not to open that [ceiling] up,\u201d she\u00a0says. And because the client didn\u2019t need a true sit-in kitchen, she also repurposed some of that space to make a walk-in pantry.\u00a0<\/p>\n The need for more storage often drives the desire to upgrade a home or move. Both\u00a0Eddings and Karia knew that the way to make these homes work was to make every square foot count. \u201cYou don\u2019t necessarily need bigger,\u201d\u00a0Karia says. \u201cYou just need more efficient.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In this kitchen, Karia opted for a double-sided island with extra storage. The cabinet doors on the side where the barstools are located have push-to-open hardware, which streamlines the look while maintaining function.<\/p>\n Yanglin Cai<\/p>\n Take that walk-in pantry, for instance.\u00a0Karia had the clients send the dimensions of every appliance they owned, down to their blender, to make sure there was space for everything. Functional storage was a priority elsewhere in the kitchen as well. Upper cabinetry wasn\u2019t in the plan \u2014\u00a0Karia rarely designs with it and, in this case, she wanted to preserve the view through the kitchen window. So she hid storage beneath the counter where the barstools tuck away,\u00a0using push-to-open cabinetry so that the storage space isn\u2019t obvious, but it\u2019s still functional.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The best tip Karia has for families feeling squeezed into a home is to think more critically about what it would mean to feel like you had more space. \u201cWhat is it that you’re wanting to do in the home that you’re not able to do now?\u201d she says. This is more helpful information than simply saying \u201cmore space,\u201d and it can inspire creativity that maximizes square footage and budget simultaneously.<\/p>\n For example, the Richardson family wanted to make sure that they had a functional guest room and didn\u2019t want to sacrifice that for use as an office. But with one parent working from home, a workspace was still needed. Karia considered building a desk nook into the open-concept living room, but that was a no-go with the client \u2014 children at play are a distracting backdrop for virtual meetings, however adorable those children may be.<\/p>\n Since the smaller closet area was co-opted as an office, Karia designed built-ins that look like furniture to store the couple’s clothes.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yanglin Cai<\/p>\n By nudging the primary bathroom and closet over a bit (taking space from existing hallway storage),\u00a0Karia was able to turn the primary suite\u2019s closet into a private office. Because storage was sacrificed for workspace, she had custom built-ins made for the primary bedroom to store all of the clients\u2019 clothes. The design makes it look like furniture, which contributes to the comfortable feeling of the room, but each inch of the storage space does its part.<\/p>\n A wall of cabinetry and deep drawers provide all the storage Eddings needed in the kitchen.<\/p>\n Courtesy Shannon Eddings<\/p>\n When working through her renovation,\u00a0Eddings similarly focused on storage in places that made the most impact. She did a large wall of cabinetry in the kitchen, with big, deep drawers to store plates, pots and pans. \u201cI love drawers for function.\u201d She reworked the bathroom her children shared to fit a large linen cabinet. \u201cIf you invest in custom cabinetry […] I think really working with someone to get the cabinets to be primo storage, that\u2019s one area I would say is always worth doing.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Most homeowners are coached to add on a bedroom if adding square footage, to recoup the maximum value. But in Eddings\u2019 case, adding an extra living room helped create space for neighbors and friends to gather \u2014 supporting the reason her family wanted to stay in the home in the first place. \u201cIt helped a lot as the kids were entering elementary school and middle school to just have two living rooms,\u201d\u00a0Eddings says.<\/p>\n \u201cI love my bookcase wall,\u201d Eddings says. \u201cEvery penny that I spent on that was worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n Courtesy Shannon Eddings<\/p>\n That setup also gave the designer room to be creative.\u00a0Eddings is a big reader, with an ever-growing book collection. \u201cI wanted book storage and a spot to put the record player, so I designed a built-in bookcase that was just right for us,\u201d she says. It wasn\u2019t a small cost to invest in that very custom design, but it fit her exact needs. \u201cI love my bookcase wall,\u201d she says. \u201cEvery penny that I spent on that was worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n Eddings has, since that first renovation, divorced, remarried and redecorated \u2014 and her children turned into teenagers somewhere along the way. Personalizing the home, both in its function and in its style, has played a huge role in the longevity of the house. \u201cI wasn\u2019t thinking, \u2018This will help with resale.\u2019 I wasn\u2019t worried about that at the time,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Maybe that\u2019s easy for a designer to say, with the wealth of resources and ideas at her disposal. But this is exactly what makes well-designed homes work so well: They\u2019re personalized. Perhaps the key to creating a forever home, at virtually any size, is setting aside concerns about resale value. Then, and only then, can you think about how you really live \u2014 and what you need to live that way.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Eddings was willing to sacrifice some space in the laundry room for a small desk, which gave her a place to work or room for the kids to do homework.<\/p>\n Courtesy Shannon Eddings<\/p>\n Of course, that will\u00a0change over time. While Eddings\u2019 two daughters were happy to share a bedroom when they were younger, they now want their own rooms. And the house gets very full of teenagers these days. (And \u201cteenagers take over,\u201d\u00a0Eddings has learned.) She and her husband often find themselves wanting somewhere to hide out when that happens.<\/p>\n Instead of moving somewhere else \u2014 \u201cWhy leave when we’ve made this house so special?\u201d \u2014 Eddings is considering another renovation that would add a new primary suite. Then, all the children would have their own rooms, which might mitigate some sibling bickering. Or it might not. Either way, she and her husband could retreat to their own space.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very much a one-story starter home that\u2019s stuck around for 17 years,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Love homes, gardens and design? Get more good stuff from Abode by following us on\u00a0Instagram<\/a> and Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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