She Had Baby Kangaroos in Her Kitchen. We Designed Around That

What this project taught me about what custom home design is actually for

Most new build clients come to me with a Pinterest board and a floor plan.

She came to me with a floor plan, a Pinterest board, and a baby wallaby.

The home was nestled inside a private zoo her family owned and operated. The animals weren't a backdrop to her life — they were woven into the daily rhythm of it. Baby kangaroos in the mudroom. Exotic birds in the courtyard. A household that ran on a schedule that had nothing to do with school pickups or commute times and everything to do with feeding rounds and veterinary visits.

It was the most unusual design brief I have ever received. It also taught me more about what this work is actually for than almost any project I've done since.

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Design Is Not About the Room. It's About the Life Inside It.

Here is what most homeowners don't realize about the design process until they're in it: the floor plan is not the hard part. The selections are not the hard part.

The hard part is understanding how a specific family actually lives — and then engineering every decision around that reality rather than around what looks best in a photograph.

For this client, that meant asking questions most designers never think to ask.

Where do the animals come inside, and how do we design a transition zone that contains that without making the home feel clinical? What flooring can handle the traffic and the occasional escaped tortoise without sacrificing the warmth she wanted throughout? How do we design a kitchen that functions as command central for a household that operates more like a small farm than a suburban family — meal prep, medical supplies, feeding schedules — all in the same space?

These are not questions an AI tool asks. They are barely the questions a designer asks unless they are genuinely listening.

We spent more time in discovery on this project than almost any other. Not because the home was complicated — though it was — but because getting the design right required understanding a life that looked nothing like the ones most design media is built around.

That is always the job. This project just made it impossible to forget.

What a New Build Actually Gives You

Most homeowners approach a new build thinking about what they want it to look like.

The ones who end up with homes they love — genuinely love, ten years later — are the ones who thought about how they wanted it to work.

A new build is one of the rarest opportunities you will ever have. Every wall, every transition, every surface is a decision you get to make before anyone else has made it for you. The mudroom can actually fit the way your family comes and goes. The kitchen can be laid out around the way you actually cook, not the way the spec builder assumed you would. The primary suite can be positioned for the morning light you want to wake up in.

That level of intentionality does not happen by accident. It requires a designer who asks the right questions before the foundation is poured — and stays accountable to the answers all the way through construction.

This client got a home that works for a life most people can't imagine. But the principle is the same for every new build we take on. The life comes first. The design follows.

If You're Building in 2026 or 2027, This Is the Conversation.

Not about what your home will look like. About how you actually live — what your mornings look like, what your household runs on, what you need a home to do that you've never been able to get from a house that wasn't built for you.

That conversation is where every Lauren Ashley Design project starts. And it's available to you right now.

Lauren Brantley is the founder of Lauren Ashley Design, a virtual interior design firm specializing in new builds and large-scale renovations.