Mark and Laura Williams are nearing the finish line of a remodel of their home in the Mount Ayr neighborhood in Bowling Green, but after working on the home for nearly four years, the couple is excited to see their vision come to life in a home and property they truly love.

“I’ve always loved this part of town and lived close by, and I would run in this neighborhood, and I saw a ‘For Sale’ sign in the front yard,” Mark says. “I knew the owner, and even though I had never been inside the home, I liked the way it looked from the outside.”

While he had made several updates after purchasing the home, nearly 15 years later, he and
Laura thought that it was time for another change. The couple originally began to look at properties in other parts of Bowling Green, but nothing could quite compare to the property in Mount Ayr. “We looked at other places before we remodeled it and we thought we would just buy a different house, but we couldn’t find anything that looked like this, with five acres of land, in the city, with a pool and Koi Pond,” Laura says. “We have a lot of animals, and we love the space we have here, so that’s why we ended up remodeling.”

Mark works in construction and real estate, so he did much of the remodel through his company, Mark Williams Properties, but all the details were courtesy of Laura. “We basically switched styles of the home,” Laura says. “We went from everything dark and dreary to light and airy. We started by painting the outside of the home and once we did that, it motivated us to want to work on the inside.”

Laura says that they were inspired by classic, French country style and the home features lots of neutral white throughout, along with beautiful chandeliers sourced from near and far. “We debated over shades of white for months,” Laura says. “We would get suggestions for different shades and then see them in a home and decide that wasn’t what we were looking for. We finally decided on Benjamin Moore White Dove for the walls and Chantilly Lace for the trim. We also included a beautiful wallpaper in the dining area that features white and gold that Mark put up himself. We originally painted the room navy, but it was just too dark, and I saw this wallpaper in a magazine and fell in love with it.”

Laura selected several different styles of tile for throughout the home from Tile Trends. She chose a beautiful black and white bold pattern, called “Snow White” for the front entryway, along with a watercolor, hand-painted tile from Italy for the primary bathroom.

The couple’s favorite area of the property is their backyard entertaining space, which includes
a koi pond, pool and hot tub, pool bathroom space, sitting area and yard with a newly installed fence. “Our backyard is our favorite space,” Laura says. “We love having pool parties and cookouts. We redid quite a bit in the pool area and added wooden gates, with copper accents to the space. Mark built the Koi Pond that now has 100 fish. All our animals have space out there to roam without bothering other people and we enjoy swimming out there and playing music. It’s our most-used area of the property.

Now, as the couple awaits the finishing touches of furniture to be delivered to the home, they say they feel at home and at peace with their very own Bowling Green paradise. “The details in a home matter,” Laura says. “And we just wanted to lighten up and brighten up the home. I try to bring light to every aspect of my life and that’s what I tried to do with our home.”