Sugar and Spice

Snow isn’t guaranteed, even in the  heartland state of Indiana. But everything else about Annette and Mike Davis’s family holiday is nearly Christmas-card perfect: Four beautiful daughters ages 5 through 15, a caroling party with Mike playing the piano, a gingerbread house the grandparents helped make, and an evergreen-bedecked home ready to welcome a host of friends and family.

The secret to such a blissful scene? For Mike’s musical talents, thank his mother, a concert pianist who insisted her son learn to play. For the house, Mike and Annette bow to Atlanta-based interior designer Suzanne Kasler, who created a flowing floor plan and—perhaps most important—gave each daughter her own bathroom. (Nothing shatters peace on earth like siblings sharing a bathroom.)

Although Mike is in the home-building business, he admits he was not in a rush to build. He and Annette owned a wooded lot on the north side of Indianapolis for eight years before breaking ground. “We had two kids when we bought the lot, but we weren’t ready to build,” Annette says. They lived nearby in a 1960s ranch-style house, and after the birth of their third daughter the family was feeling squeezed. “The house was getting too tight,” Annette says. “We needed more bedrooms and wanted a better flow for entertaining.”

Text by Amy Elbert
Photographs by Tria Giovan
Produced by Betsy Harris

Design:
Interior designer: Suzanne Kasler, Suzanne Kasler Interiors, 425 Peachtree Hills Ave., #21B, Atlanta, GA 30305; 404/355-1035, suzannekasler.com.
Architect: Kenneth E. Rich, AIA, Kenward Architectural Studios, 425 Peachtree Hills Ave., #21C, Atlanta, GA 30305; 404/814-0277, kenward.com.
Kitchen designer: Kristin Okeley, CKD, Kitchens by Design, 1530 E. 86th St., Indianapolis, IN 46240; 317/815-8880.
Landscape designer: Alex G. Michaelides, Land Plus Assoc. Ltd., 416 E. Paces Ferry Rd., Atlanta, GA 30305; 800/948-2420, landplus.org.
Contractor: Mike Davis, Davis Homes, 877/669-3284, davishomes.com.
Floral designer: Tim Kelley, Palmer Kelley Designs, 317/876-4600.

Sources:
Sofa; upholstery; pillows: Nancy Corzine, 212/223-8340, nancycorzine.com, trade only.
French chair: Jane Marsden Antiques & Interiors, 404/355-1288.
Upholstery (by Manuel Canovas): Cowtan & Tout, 212/647-6900, cowtan.com, trade only.
Cocktail table: Dennis & Leen, 310/652-0855, 310/652-0855, trade only.
Drapery (“Rainbow Silk’’ #5191): Rose Cumming, 785/434-2777, dessinfournir.com, trade only.
Painting; fireplace screen: owner’s collection. Mantel: Jerry Pair & Assoc., 800/367-7247, trade only.
Wall, trim and ceiling paint (‘‘Bone White’’): Benjamin Moore & Co., 888/236-6667.