home style Rooms To Grow beloved but crowded house as

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he life of a successful music star, Trophy Club version, revolves around family time.

James Young, guitarist of Eli Young Band, lives with his wife, Abby, and two young children in a hilly, leafy neighborhood just off 114.

The band has had three No. 1 singles — megahit “Crazy Girl” won the Academy of Country Music Award for Song of the Year — and they keep up a steady touring schedule. In the coming weeks, they’ll play Billy Bob’s in Fort Worth, do a minitour in the Northeast and perform two nights

By Marilyn BaileyPhotos by Katie Nixon

A musician and his wife needed more space — for little ones, for guitars. Here’s how they made the best of their

beloved but crowded house as their lives changed. Rooms To Growt

James and Abby Young hired Sterling Renovations & Design to help make their home work for their growing family. Sterling gave them this all-new kitchen, with custom cabinets and island, quartz countertops, new appliances and brick floors. Bar stools are from Zuo Modern (??), and botanical accents

are by Out of the Garden in Grapevine. At right, a sitting room off the kitchen got brightened up with modern Spanish tiles.

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at the legendary Gruene Hall in the Texas Hill Country. In September, they’re also thrilled to be doing USO shows for American troops stationed in Greenland, the Bahamas and South Korea (James is not sure how to pack for those three climates on the same tour).

But he politely shuts down any suggestion that’s it’s a glamorous life. “There’s nothing glamorous about the music business anymore. It’s changed considerably,” he says.

James met his bandmates 18 years ago in college at Denton. Today they’ve achieved a comfortable level of success, which they seem to measure in part by how easily their career accommodates family life.

Sure, they go on the road frequently, but “usually in short bursts,” James

says. “When we’re home, we’re home. We’re not out doing work, so when you’re home, you’re Dad.”

Abby is a full-time mom. “Which is a blessing,” James stresses. “Her job is harder than mine, and we’re blessed to be able to do that.”

They settled in Trophy Club because, he says, ”I just always liked this area, liked Denton. We all just kind of planted roots here. It has a country feel, but you’re still 20 minutes from the airport. Though they keep tearing up the countryside lately.”

Bandmate Mike Eli, the lead singer, lives around the corner with his family, next door to his wife’s parents. “When the guys are gone, we all help each other and hang out,” Abby says.

At the Young house, Gibson, the family dog, is named after a legendary

Today the space is much better used as toy storeroom and a play space for Wills, 2, and soon his baby sister, Stella. There are guest beds for

visiting children; fun cactus wallpaper; and a big shelving unit for books, toys

and more toys.Where the carpet

line is used to be a solid wall. The space behind it was sealed

off and unused. James had to make his office inside the room’s tiny footprint

(where the wood floor is now) and

under the low sloping ceiling. Carpet tiles

are by Flor.

Rooms To Grow

guitar brand, and the CMA rests unassumingly on one end of a big bookcase. Other than those quiet details, it’s a family home like any other.

The house itself, built in 1979, oozes personality. It’s a split level with a quirky layout, obviously custom-built to fit the hilly lot. The living room, with midcentury-style high sloped ceilings and clerestory windows, deserves the term “great room” — a big sectional sofa sits under big picture windows that cocoon the room in a serene treetop view.

After seven years, the Youngs had grown attached to the place. “We love our neighbors; we love the neighborhood,” James says. “We had our kids here.” But the house wasn’t working so well anymore.

They had created nurseries in the two secondary bedrooms

for son Wills, now almost 3, and the baby they were expecting (Stella was born in May). That meant no more guestrooms, no place to put up visiting grandparents and friends. And James was having to work from a cramped office that was smaller than many closets.

That room was interesting, though. James had a hunch there was potential in a crawl space behind the wall that held his built-in desk. On the other side of the house, off the media room, there was an unfinished attic room that had obvious potential, too.

The Youngs called in Southlake’s Sterling Renovations and its co-owner, designer Julie Walsh, to see what could be done to claim some unused space and make the house work for a

Sterling Renovations & Design817-421-4477sterlingrenovationsdfw.com

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Abby and James Young are loving life in their Trophy Club treehouse with children Wills and Stella and dog Gibson.

Rooms To Growfamily of four.

Walsh and her team carved out an adorable new playroom in the former office area, giving the Youngs a place to hide away the toys that were suddenly everywhere. She finished out the attic space next to the media room, giving James a cool new office hideaway.

The new rooms let the family spread out and do their thing more easily. Both can be used as offbeat guest bedrooms, too. The playroom has two small beds, including a bunk — it’ll be the site of future sleepovers “when the

kiddos get older,” James says. In his new office, a custom wall unit with shelves and cabinets hides a foldaway bed.

But the biggest project, the kitchen, gave them room to grow, too.

They had already done a few updates themselves, knocking a hole in an interior wall to create a breakfast bar and installing butcher-block countertops. But none of that was really working anymore. “With two kids and two big dogs, we were just bumping into each other,” James says. They loved the look of butcher block,

but it was too hard to maintain. “We kind of liked what we had — it just wasn’t feasible with our growing family.”

Julie knocked down the whole kitchen wall and replaced the seldom-used breakfast bar with a big island. She brought in custom white cabinets, quartz countertops, upgraded KitchenAid appliances, new brick flooring (similar to the original flooring) and a bold, saturated wall color, Moscow Midnight from Sherwin-Williams.

“I love color,” Abby says. “For the walls, I wanted a pop.”

James feeds baby Stella in the media room.Photo by Cynthia Wahl

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For James’ new office, Sterling Renovations added drywall and finishings to a formerly unused attic space next to the family’s

media room. The new desk area uses butcher block salvaged

from the kitchen redo. A wall unit hides a small bed that gets pulled

out for guests. But most of the time, this is James’ retreat, the place where he keeps guitars, memorabilia and awards. The desk is where he creates and

shares music with his bandmates. “It’s pretty much all done on

computer now,” he says.

Rooms To GrowEverything is more functional now, even an awkward space just

off the kitchen. Before, it was just a pass-through. A dated red-and-green inlaid floor design didn’t help. With that wall gone and a stylish modern tile design on the floor, the space is now beautiful and more open. It’s a good place to sit to converse with the cook or to watch Wills at play in the backyard. “We pretty much live outside year-round,” James says, “so it’s kind of an extension of the outdoors.” When the temperature’s not too extreme, they

Eli Young BandOn recordNew single is Love Ain’t. Listen and learn more at eliyoungband.com.In concert10:30 p.m. Oct. 27 at Billy Bob’s Texas, Fort Worth, $20-$40, billybobstexas.com

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Photo by Joseph Llanes

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This tile pattern, from Triton Stone, was

the idea of Catherine Walsh, Sterling co-owner Julie Walsh’s

daughter. The red-and-green floor decoration

that was there was original to the house and was to no one’s

taste. “We couldn’t fix this kitchen and leave that there. We thought this would be a really fun way to liven it up,” Catherine says. The

pillows are from World Market and a shop in Abby Young’s native

San Angelo.

can hang out here with the double doors open.

Nearby on this ground level, James can retreat to his more spacious new lair. “The office is mine. I have my guitars and amps, my computer.” The new desk nook uses butcher block salvaged from the old kitchen. Walls and shelves are lined with music memorabilia and photos. He estimates that he has “20-some-odd” guitars, and about half are right at hand here. A couple, like a Gibson Dove, seem to hold pride of place.

The band doesn’t have to be together to work together, so James works alone here a lot.

“Everything’s pretty much just done on computer now,” he says. “If we’re cutting a record, they can send me the files and I come down here and do overdubs and solos. It can all be done now, for the most part, in a bedroom in your underwear. But it’s a good room to write in and record demos.”

It wasn’t easy being surrounded by all the construction, especially the major kitchen overhaul, while having a small child in the house.

“I’m glad we did it,” James says. “And I’m glad we did it when we did it.”

Abby, who was pregnant during the construction, agrees. “It was all worth it. We’ve been so happy.”

Rooms To Grow

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home style Rooms To Grow beloved but crowded house as