Mother Stories
Inside The Eclectic L.A. Home of Designer Frances Merrill
Written by Erin Feher
Photography by Photography by Nicki Sebastian
Sep 17, 2019
As a wildly talented interior designer and the founder of Reath Design, we knew Frances Merrill’s own Silver Lake home would be something special. And when we heard she transformed it herself from a petite 500-square-foot cottage into a house roomy enough for her family of four, we couldn’t wait to get a peek inside. And once we did, we quickly realized that the home’s design turns out to be an apt representation of Frances herself: warm, inviting, epically styled, and with an undeniable sense of humor. The mom to 9-year-old Honor and 7-year-old Rex clearly has an eye for curating collections (or making her messes look pretty in stylish stacks, as she admits) and mixing and matching textures, patterns, and styles for a high-impact but inviting effect. Below, the designer shows off the magic she worked on her home, while chopping it up with us on motherhood, career, and living the good life with her crew.
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- "My husband Chris and I bought our house in 2008, and it was 498 square feet! After five years, two kids, and starting a business in the glorified carport, we did a major remodel. The space still isn’t huge, but it works for us. I realized recently that I have lived at this address longer than any other in my life. There are tons of great families on our street and we can walk to the reservoir and so many of our favorite spots."
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- "I would like for our house to feel elegant, but with a sense of humor. All of our different interests, keepsakes, and histories are piled on the shelves. I can’t say my husband or I are the tidiest people, so we try to mask the piles as displays."
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- "I love to cook but don’t want to miss any of the action, so the open plan made sense for us. We renovated on a tight budget and the giant door was our splurge. The best part of living in L.A. is opening the living room to the garden for most of the year. We spend almost all of our time in this room. Rex takes piano lessons, homework is done at the kitchen table, Chris tortures the kids by having 'classic movie night' where we watch a black and white movie and eat around the coffee table. We host a lot of dinners with friends that have kids running circles through the house and people perched wherever there is room."
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- Frances wears a Lisa Marie Fernandez polka dot dress.
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- "My favorite thing in our house is the golden light in the afternoon coming through the curtains. But the art my husband (with some small input from me) has collected is second."
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- Little piles everywhere.
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- "We chose to have our kids share a room and then keep a larger space as a playroom/kid hangout/guest room. It really helps to have a room that doesn’t need to get cleaned up at the end of every day. That said, of course the kids' stuff ends up everywhere. I am not the first person to say this, but baskets are the best!"
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- "Getting to hang out with my kids and my husband! We are entering a new phase with them getting older, and while I aggressively want to squeeze every baby and toddler I see, I love the people my kids are and the interesting things they learn out in the world and bring home."
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- "I mean, at this moment in time the list is pretty long, but I try to be an optimist and hope my kids will be the same."
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- On the open shelves in the kitchen, the practical mingles with the pretty.
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- "My daughter is Honor Dyer. Honor is a name we liked, Dyer is from my mother’s family. My son is Rex Franklin. Rex was a very cool dog we met in Ireland on our honeymoon and it stuck with us. Franklin is Chris and his dad’s middle name."
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- "Honor is 9 and just went to sleep-away camp for the first time. She loves climbing, cooking, and tinkering—she has built an entire world out of cardboard and samples from my office. Rex is 7 and loves dogs, baseball, Star Wars and his dad. We all love going to antique stores and watching Little Lunch on Netflix. They fight and have their own developing worlds outside our household, but given a bit of time apart they will, without fail, disappear together and play Legos for hours."
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- Honor wears a Zara jumpsuit.
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- "I always assumed I would have kids but I can’t say I pined for it."
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- Definitely not too big to snuggle.
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- "I am a big fan of the intersection of laziness and good parenting! I do think kids need to learn to do things for themselves. They do not belong to us and are not an extension of us. I think of myself as laid back, and I would say half my friends would totally agree and the other half—including my husband—would laugh and say I am a secret control freak. I am a total realist and like to manage expectations. But sometimes that makes me a grouch. Like, 'No, I don’t think you can open a dog hotel in the playroom' or 'build a treehouse fort on the roof with a slide this weekend.' My husband is better at the dreamy play. I am super physically affectionate to try to compensate. I want to raise kids that are confident and kind, that feel like they are at home in the world, but not that it owes them anything. And, most importantly, that they think for themselves."
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- "I think a lot more about not taking more than we need, whether that battles plastic or income inequality. I feel very happy that the school our kids go to is a fantastic partner in this. My daughter had a phenomenal teacher last year who is definitely worth following."
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- An inspiring corner of Frances' bedroom.
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- "I started my business after Honor was born. It was the first time in my life that I was in control of my schedule—except the baby was really in control—and I loved it. I only had a couple projects and remember that first year of her life as having a really nice flow. With Rex I was emailing with prospective clients from the hospital right after giving birth. I don’t know what I was trying to prove and to who, but the first year of his life was a blur and I don’t remember much. If possible I would recommend going with the first option."
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- "I am obsessed with other working moms' schedules, 'icon' or not. I love reading about the big things and the minutiae: Division of labor with a partner? Make school lunch at night or in the morning? It is like I am mining for some hack I haven’t thought of. The New York Times used to have a parenting blog called Motherlode that had a really captivating column 'How I Do It,' where they had a broad spectrum of parents go step by step through their days, from a corporate lawyer to a McDonalds crew trainer. I also love The Cut’s 'How I Get It Done' and '24 Hours With' in Harper’s Bazaar."
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- "I’m an only child with lots of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins spread from Maine to California. I grew up in Greenwich Village in New York, and I loved the freedom that came with being a kid in a city. As an only child I was always eating at the table with adults. I went to boarding school for high school and loved getting to live with my friends. My parents were pretty strict until I was 16 or so and then they said they hoped I had learned enough to make good decisions. Since becoming a mother, I appreciate the things that made me crazy about my mom. I remember begging for a Champion sweatshirt and she offered to embroider a C on a sweatshirt from 14th Street and I was so mad at her. Now I realize how important those moments were."
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- "The constant barrage of advice doesn’t stop when pregnancy is over, so practice trusting your instincts. More practically, ask your pediatrician to recommend a vetted website you can go to for the trillions of baby questions that come up. That way you don’t end up in a chat room in the middle of the night reading about how some crazy lady cured her baby’s acne by peeing on their face."
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- A little wallpaper goes a long way.
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- "I’m an interior designer. I started Reath Design (my maiden name), right after Honor was born. I originally studied creative writing, but by the time I finished school I knew I wanted to do something visual. In the studio we think of the work we do as visual storytelling. Our hope is that the houses we design tell you something interesting about the people who live in them."
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- "We talk a lot in our office about 'living the good life' and designing houses that facilitate that. Beyond the aesthetic design of a house, we put a lot of time into the practical end. Where do you put backpacks when you come in the door? What is the most efficient way to corral the endless piles of school papers? Where does the laundry get folded? We want to make it easy for parents to sit down at the end of the day and enjoy their space."
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- Frances wears a Heidi Merrick top. Honor wears a vintage nightgown. Rex wears Jacadi PJs.
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- "Both our families live far away, but we have an irreplaceable community of friends that are like family. I have an awesome team at my office and an incredible babysitter at home—without them it all falls apart!"
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- How a baby brother shows love.
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- "Getting to have a job you love and people you love is the greatest life can be. I find it's much, much better to juggle those things then not have them."
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- "I am tired of the working mom guilt narrative. Especially for someone as privileged as I am. I am so lucky to have a satisfying career that I love and that makes a fantastic life possible for my family."
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- The guest room, a.k.a., the messes-allowed playroom.
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- "I don’t know if this counts, but cooking for and with friends is definitely my favorite thing to do. I also recently took a day off to walk across all of Los Angeles with some friends. We started at the Staples Center and finished by swimming in the ocean and having dinner at Shutters. I can’t remember the last time I took a random day off for something so non essential! I am also a big fan of detective novels. I will pick up series and read it obsessively until there are none left. I love Donna Leon, Rex Stout, and Ross MacDonald. If my brain is stuck and cycling on some issue at work or at home, the only true break is escaping in a book."
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- "Their room is painted in Farrow & Ball’s Pigeon—Honor wanted bright yellow and Rex wanted black. It gives a finished feel to the madness layered on top. I like giving kids (some) autonomy over their rooms. They tape their art on the wall as is trickles in. My husband brought the sunflowers home from a shoot and they add some magic. I love a bit of fantasy in kids' rooms!"
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- "I love how much of a neighborhood we have. It reminds me of my childhood in Greenwich Village."
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- "Sure! But no plans to move any time soon."
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- Honor hanging out.
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- "Silver Lake Wine is right around the corner, and when the kids were little I used to joke that if I could get them to carry milk and arugula I wouldn’t need to go anywhere else. There are more days than I would like to admit where I am at Proof in the morning and afternoon. We all love the Atwater Farmers Market. The kids love tacos from Salazar and pizza from Hail Mary, and I am partial to any restaurant we can walk to. My husband and I both run around the reservoir, our kids play sports at the rec center, and the whole family loves meeting friends at the meadow."
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- The in-bloom backyard is a total oasis.
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- "I love clothes. I mean, I really love textiles and clothes are another opportunity to play with that. I am fearless with pattern and color in my work and am trying to dress more that way, though really, I usually end up with something pretty classic."
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- "I don’t think so."
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- "I am continually buying white button downs in search of the perfect one. My friend Heidi Merrick makes the best clothes, and her gauze pieces are forever my faves. I also love my olive Birkenstock EVAs—they’ve ruined me for anything else."
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- Frances wears a Lake Studio skirt and Entireworld muscle tee. Honor wears a white Levi's tee.
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- "I am a big Dr. Bronner’s fan—we just switched to the bar soap and I love the eucalyptus and the almond."
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- "Honestly, I made a point of avoiding exercise for most of my life. But after Honor was born and my business was taking off I realized that I needed every part of my life to be operating at the highest level. I ended up at a Crossfit gym, which was hysterical to all my friends, but I loved it. Since then I have started running. At this point I know my day will be better if I run in the morning. It turns out that everyone who told me exercise is good for you was right! I have this feeling that if I ever start meditating it will be the same thing."
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- "I tend to parent fairly intuitively, but of course it is very important that my husband and I, as well as the other adults they are around, are good role models. Ultimately, I hope they will have integrity and learn to make their own way in the world while raising up the people around them."
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- For more on Frances, be sure to follow her and her cute family on Instagram.
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Beautiful house and a beautiful barefoot momma! Picture #10 is a great shot. Frances’s dress and cute bare feet go so well together! Picture #47 really shows off Frances’s simple barefoot style. Her natural toes look so adorable! I’ve never seen so many lovely barefoot mommies on one website!