Having a cozy, inviting guest room is one of the most frequently requested home design must-haves we see in the studio. Today we’re doing a deep dive into a guest room that was part of our “Tarheel Haven” project, a full-home design of a beautiful historic home here in Chapel Hill. This warm, colorful guest room is one that we truly loved creating for one of our favorite clients, who loves when her family comes to stay. Crafting a well-designed, well-appointed guest room that’s ready and waiting for our clients’ most favorite people is one of the important ways we can create a home that’s made for connection, while also feeling seamless and fully complete.

To us, there’s nothing more important than a client’s home: how it functions, how it , and most importantly, how it feels (and of course, making it stunning is a given!). We believe that a well-designed, timeless home is not only beautiful, but seamlessly functional, comfortable, and ready to meet all the demands of daily life with ease. Over more than a decade in business, our team has built a process that our clients love, serving as a pathway to creating joyful, elevated, deeply personalized interiors.

It’s time for a Dogwood update! Join us on our behind-the-scenes journey of restoring and renovating this storied, historic Chapel Hill home. Today we’re touring the bedrooms and sharing more about our plans to give this beauty a second life.

In the latest issue of Chapel Hill Magazine, Cat is featured with her take on the Design Forecast for the upcoming year. She’s talking about our greatest love: color (including why gray on gray is on the way out). We also chat about why we love to see all your unique personal treasures and heirlooms, and why we love making them part of your home design.

2026 marks a huge milestone for us- TEN YEARS in business. Cat French Design officially celebrates a decade of designing this month, and we are bringing you in with us for all the joy, reflection, and immense gratitude that we are feeling about this occasion.

Designing this sweet, colorful teen bedroom retreat was equal parts joy and fun. We set out to transform this cozy corner bedroom from a neglected space a playful but sophisticated hangout room. With color, shape, fun and funky art, we created an airy vintage vibe that kept it perfectly aligned with the historic character of this 1920’s cottage. The result was a pairing of classic and youthful elements that made this room one of our true favorites from this historic Chapel Hill home renovation.

A big project has taken off behind the scenes here at CFD, and we are SO EXCITED to share it with you. We’ve started a full renovation and restoration of a classic historic Chapel Hill home, and the massive transformation ahead is going to be so glorious. This house is a full-on treasure of a property that’s tucked away in a private alcove of the historic residential area just adjacent to the UNC campus. Built in the 1950’s, this (surprisingly) spacious 2-story classic Chapel Hill residence was a family home for decades, and is now ready to be lovingly restored for a brand new chapter.

We were thrilled to host the Women of Design group for an event at our studio, and we’re going to take you behind-the-scenes for a look at this phenomenal group- and what happens when we get together! Some of you know that we are celebrating our 10th Anniversary of being in business this year, and one of the ways we’re marking this milestone is by taking every opportunity to support our local community AND our design community. This event was a combination of all the best things- connection, collaboration, and camaraderie. It was a great moment to look forward with excitement and spend some time with a group of lovely, talented, hard-working ladies who love design as much as we do.

2026 is an exciting year for us here at CFD, because it marks a huge milestone for us as a team and a business- our TEN year anniversary. And we wanted to kick off this year by taking a day all together to give back to the community that has given us so much over the last decade.

YES, y’all, we are sharing the most epic kitchen transformation from our sweet little blue door historic home renovation. This Chapel Hill gem came to us by way of some amazing long-time clients of ours, who fell in love with it at first sight. Long overdue for a modern renovation, it took lots of love to turn this 1920s cottage into a beautiful family home fit for modern living.

2025 was an incredible year! We couldn’t possibly have packed an ounce more design goodness into the last 12 months, so without further adieu here is our CFD Design Life Year in Review-our highlights of the big, beautiful, bustling CFD design journey of this year.

Today we’re celebrating award-winning interior design by our Lead Designer Rebecca Scott, who was honored this year by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID). The Excellence in Design Award for New Construction- Large recognizes outstanding interior design work in a new build- a home that is being designed, constructed, and furnished from the ground up. It’s a huge undertaking, and Rebecca’s skill, experience, and care made this project stand out all the more.

This light and airy primary bedroom in a renovated historic Chapel Hill home resonated with so many of you, and we could not love it more! So, we wanted to give it the moment it deserves here on the blog. Come with us to see the story behind this design, and stay to the end for the oh-so-satisfying before-and-after.

We were so excited to have this artistic, art deco inspired home design featured in Home Design & Decor Triangle Edition. We loved this home and these clients so much, and transforming their home was full of creativity and connection. Their love of color and their deep ties to NC history and local art made it all the more exciting to create this unique home.

High Point Market is a major touchpoint in the design world, and one that informs what happens in design throughout the rest of the year and beyond. We love Market for so many reasons- but the most important thing is that it is an important way that we can connect our clients to the best of the design world- the best quality, value, and craftsmanship that we can possibly provide to our clients comes through our relationship with vendors and artisans that we vet at market each year.

A forever home is on the wish list for many of our clients- a home ready for any phase of life, now and into the future. This Award-Winning custom home design was a deeply creative collaboration of the skills of Cat, the CFD Team, and Accredited Master Builder Chad Collins. A Certified Aging-In-Place Home, they crafted this beauty from the ground up, with a seamless fusion of architectural beauty and full accessibility.

This sweet kids’ bedroom design makes us think about how the right design can create a durable, beautiful, intentional, and FUN space for those much-loved littles. Whether it’s creating a landing place for your own kids or a special space for your grands, a kids’ bedroom that is created specifically for them can be some of the most impactful design in the whole home.