In the fall of 2020, while Suzanne Brown Mahoney was taking a break from the confines of life in Covid-era Chicago to visit her parents back in Hutchinson, Kansas, she kept eying the Spanish Colonial Revival house next door and soon discovered it was vacant. She began daydreaming about buying, restoring and making the home her own. Smitten with the house, Mahoney dove into researching the history of the home and the original owners, learning facts and anecdotes and growing more enamored along the way. Within several months, she had purchased the residence, and although she had little renovation experience, she was ready to not only begin the restoration but to manage it, overseeing the design and construction throughout the process. Her first task: hire a designer.

When Mahoney met Kali Buchanan, “We immediately hit it off,” she recalls.

She felt comfortable with Buchanan—like they truly connected—and she respected her both professionally and personally; in short, she really wanted to work with her. However, she was concerned that Buchanan’s portfolio had a more modern aesthetic than she wanted for her home. Buchanan assured Mahoney that she understood her desire to honor and celebrate the historic architecture, and to complement it—not compete with it—when updating the home. Trusting her intuition and their rapport, Mahoney hired Buchanan, and the exciting process of design and discovery began.

First, Buchanan had a 3D scan completed of the existing home so that she could virtually verify dimensions and visit the site anytime she needed to investigate a particular aspect of the architecture. Next, she studied how the current layout was not meeting up with modern living and devised a new plan. The main level was to stay largely intact, other than slightly expanding the kitchen and reconfiguring the service stair access to the basement. The second floor, on the other hand, needed a complete overhaul: the his-and-her sleeping quarters and conjoined bathroom had to go, there was no laundry room, the circulation was awkward, and the guest quarters felt like an afterthought. Buchanan chose to eliminate one guest bedroom to allow for the expansion and inclusion of the needed spaces and to function better for Mahoney. And finally—not to be overlooked—the underutilization of the gorgeous, green, golf-course property was a major missed opportunity that Buchanan eagerly embraced. She expanded all of the outdoor living spaces and patios and added a double-faced fireplace, fountain feature and stroll garden. Inevitably, there was also ample performance-based scope due to the age of the home: MEP systems were updated, patios demoed and relaid for proper drainage, doors and windows replaced, and the clay tile roof patched and repaired. This was not a project for the faint of heart.