TaLaya Brown doesn’t consider herself an interior designer — she’s a nail artist, self-taught, who owns a nail salon in Charlotte, North Carolina. But the artistic talent that she applies to clients’ hands spills over in a big way to the midcentury modern home that she has transformed into the open and airy “forever home” that she and her husband, Kerrick Faulkner, enjoy.

“I am a design enthusiast, but I never actually wanted to be an interior designer," TaLaya says. “It kind of grew on me as I got older.”

Kerrick’s grandparents built the house in Charlotte’s Oaklawn Park neighborhood in 1956. “I remember when me and my husband were dating, when his grandmother was still alive, we would come here for holidays," TaLaya remembers. “It just felt so warm, so inviting. That’s why I was so adamant about doing this house justice, because I knew that it was a family jewel.”

TaLaya describes the house before the remodel as “like homes in 1956 were built.” Rooms were closed off, there were a lot of doors, wall-to-wall carpet everywhere. Right away, she knew she wanted to “open everything up,” she says. She began in the kitchen by removing a half-wall with a bar, and eliminating a door, resulting in a bright, breezy kitchen space.

In the kitchen, white subway tile, floating shelves and an expansive kitchen island provide a sense of spaciousness to the formerly closed-off room. Honey color wood accents lend warmth to the black and white design scheme.