Not only is she just an all-around fabulous person, but Kelli Otey has a wonderful design sense that keeps your eyes occupied. Not afraid of mixing colors and textures in new and amazing ways, Otey has spent 10 years gradually making her Coppell house inside Summit at the Spring into the perfect home for her and her family.
And now she’s going to sell it.
As an interior designer, she has, of course, put a lot of work and personality into 732 Lexington. The kitchen now features glossy white cabinets instead of the original weathered finish. They also expanded the home about 10 years ago and started retooling and redecorating. The Oteys added a game room upstairs, enclosed the patio, and converted the playroom into her office, where she runs Kelli Otey Interiors.
She has an absolute passion for design that you can see in every room of her home, which has four bedrooms, four full and three half baths, and 6,442 square feet. The home is marketed by Ebby Halliday Realtor Gaylene Anders, also a client of Otey’s, for $1.395 million. Of course, it didn’t always look the way it does now.
“When you’re going from an Old World look to clean and crisp and modern, you have to do it a certain way,” Otey cautions from experience. “You have to be very careful. That was probably the hardest part. You don’t want a home to have an identity crisis.”
Otey enjoys experimenting with materials and colors, and tries to do something different and try something new with each client. Whether it’s wallpaper on the ceiling (LOVE!) or in the back of a bookcase, or trying a new color combination, Otey likes to flex her creative muscles.
In her own master bedroom, she tried out a white-washed-style wood-look ceramic tile in a dramatic herringbone pattern. It turned out amazing. In one of the half baths there is a gorgeous Greek key vanity with a beautiful monochrome color scheme.
So, what if the buyers wanted to renovate? What change would be unbearable?
“My kitchen for sure would break my heart,” Otey said. “I love my family room, my living room, and dining room, too.”
“The only room I wouldn’t care if they changed would be the gameroom,” Otey added.
What will she miss?
“Definitely my closet. I’ll never have another closet like this one,” she said, adding that she prefers to keep the door open so she can admire it, which also means she keeps it tidy and organized. We would, too!
Of course, this move is borne of necessity now that Otey’s children have grown up and she and her husband, David, are ready to move on to a smaller home. Maybe even a condo. But no matter where she moves, she’ll still be in love with the home she built 16 years ago, where she raised her children.
“I was so excited about this house,” Otey recalled, “but the day we moved out of our old house, I sat on the floor and bawled. And now we’re downsizing. That’s the cycle of life, and it will be very hard.”
Otey hopes that whoever buys her home will love it as much as her family has.
“I would hate for this house to be one of those homes that always turns over in a neighborhood,” Otey said. “I would love for a family to move here and really hunker down and raise their children.”
Just like she did.
