REAL SIMPLE Home 2024

The REAL SIMPLE Home 2024 was stunning from the start—that woodwork! those stained glass windows!—so we worked with a team of design pros to update the space while respecting its history. The end result is a home fit for modern-day life, complete with new appliances, on-trend countertops, and a backyard that acts as a much-needed oasis in the big city. No matter if you live in a new build or an older house, you'll find decor ideas, organizing tips, and some dreamy paint colors to add to your own home.

Meet the Designers

This year, the REAL SIMPLE editors collaborated with a dream team of designers, professional organizers, architects, and developers to renovate and decorate an 1890s brownstone in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. Here are the creatives who brought the home to life.

Amber Guyton

Amber Guyton owns Blessed Little Bungalow, an interior design firm based in Atlanta. As an interior designer, content creator, influencer, product curator, and most recently, wallpaper designer, she has shared her design journey, DIY projects, and decorating tips with publications like HGTV Magazine, House Beautiful, Domino, and many others. She is committed to democratizing the design industry, and believes that interior design should not be a luxury reserved for just a few.

Brooklyn Grange

Brooklyn Grange is a Brooklyn-based company focused on making cities more livable and climate-adaptable. They launched in 2010 and are now the leading soil-based rooftop farming business in the U.S. They operate over 300,000 square feet of rooftop farms in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Staten Island. Co-founder and CEO Ben Flanner, Director of Design Build, Michelle Cashen, and Lead Landscape Designer, Travers Martin, will be leading this year's revamp of the REAL SIMPLE Home backyard.

The Brownstone Boys (Barry Bordelon and Jordan Slocum)

Jordan Slocum and Barry Bordelon (aka The Brownstone Boys) are Brooklyn-based interior designers, authors, DIY-ers, and old-house enthusiasts. They create spaces that marry historic charm with clean, modern designs. Their work has been featured in HGTV, Architectural Digest, and on Good Morning America and Magnolia Network. Their first book, For the Love of Renovating, debuted in June 2024.

Jessica Davis

Jessica Davis is the founder of Atlanta-based design studio Atelier Davis, and the creative director of the luxury hardware brand Nest Studio. With degrees in art history and interior design, her rooms are influenced by historic and contemporary art and architecture, as well as her Chinese-American heritage, travels, and time living in Asia, Australia, and the United States. She is a founding member of the Asian American Pacific Islander Design Alliance, and she hopes to bring awareness to the AAPI design community.

The Neat Method

Ashley Murphy and Marissa Hagmeyer founded NEAT Method in 2010, bringing a fresh perspective to the home organization industry. They started with services in San Francisco and have since spread into markets across the country. Today, they're a lifestyle service brand with 95 locations across the U.S. and a product line of organizing supplies for the whole home. Murphy is based in Chicago, where she lives with her husband, two kids, and their dog, Scully. Marissa lives in Colorado with her husband and two children.

Kate Pearce

Kate Pearce is an interior designer and blogger based in Evanston, IL. She and her husband have been fixing up old homes since 2016 and documenting their journey on Instagram, to the delight of her many followers. Her home was built in 1899, so only a few years after our REAL SIMPLE Home! Before starting her blog, she worked some curatorial stints in the New York City museum world and has an affinity for thrifting, vintage finds, and DIY projects.

Hema Persad

The Toronto, Canada native was a practicing attorney before she decided to forgo law and pursue a career in fashion. In 2014, Hema Persad moved to Los Angeles where she dressed A-list celebrities and styled ad campaigns before starting her interior design career in 2021. She now designs residential and commercial spaces around the country and launched her interior design studio, Sagrada Studio, in 2022. Hema loves traveling, exploring L.A., and spending time with her husband and daughters.

Jasmine Roth

You may know Jasmine Roth as the host of HGTV's hit shows Hidden Potential and HELP! I Wrecked My House, but she's also the founder of Built Custom Homes, curator of online retail store, The Shop by Jasmine Roth, and author of the book, House Story: Insider Secret to the Perfect Home Renovation. Roth specializes in finding ways to make homes as personal, functional, and beautiful as possible. When she isn't designing, building, or hosting, she loves to spend time outdoors with her husband, Brett, and her daughter, Hazel Lynn, in Huntington Beach, CA and Park City, UT.

Mikel Welch

Mikel Welch is an interior designer and lifestyle expert whose passion for design was evident even as a child (he constructed houses using Legos!). Today, he runs the New York-based studio, Mikel Welch Design and serves as a host and expert on Netflix's Hack My Home and as a contributor on The Drew Barrymore Show, where he loves to share his tricks for home renovation and achieving a luxe look at affordable prices. In 2020, Welch was named to House Beautiful's NEXT WAVE designers and has designed green rooms for Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Halle Berry.

AlexAllen Studio (Alexandra Burr and Allen Slamic)

Architects Alexandra Burr and Allen Slamic launched their Gowanus-based architecture, lighting, and furniture design studio, AlexAllen Studio, in 2011. Their design style is all about balance, proportion, and refinement, and they are constantly exploring new manufacturing methods and technologies to make their designs more sustainable and efficient.

Adam Dahill

Adam Dahill has been working in mortgage banking for over 20 years and is currently a Mortgage Sales Manager with Citizens Bank in New York City. Adam and his family had been living in the 2024 REAL SIMPLE Home for a few years when he decided to purchase his first development house in 2015. He has since completed six renovations and restorations—and the REAL SIMPLE Home is his seventh! Dahill lives and works in Brooklyn, along with his wife and two daughters.

Shop Every Room

Like that lamp in the primary bedroom (we do, too!)? Spotted the perfect paint color in the den? Don't worry, we thought you might find something you liked, so we made it easy to shop every single room in this year's REAL SIMPLE Home. Explore the house here, then shop everything you see.

Get the Design Details

Updating a Historic Home

Did we mention that the 2024 REAL SIMPLE Home is 125 years old? This historic building had great bones, but we gave it a head-to-toe reno to make it more modern, practical, and energy-efficient—all while restoring the original details that make this place special. The woodwork was refinished, some of the older windows were replaced, and every corner was spruced up. We learned so much in the process, we compiled all our top tips for updating an older home.

Picking the Right Paints

Our roster of design pros pored over paint chips and sample swatches, carefully selecting every single paint color featured in the home. From this season's trendiest colors to timeless hues that will never go out of style, there's a color here for you. Get inspired by the pro's paint picks, then get their tips for making the process of painting as easy as possible.

Find Inspiration

The REAL SIMPLE Home is more than just a pretty space—it's also full of clever ideas you'll want to borrow. From the flowering fall perennials the pros at Brooklyn Grange recommend planting, to the kitchen organizing secrets the Neat Method team swears by, you'll find tips, products, and advice to level up every area of your home.