DIY designers Shannon Bowen and Sean Cater are a totally normal couple who are transforming their weird 80’s home into a modern speakeasy. They’re bringing #SpeakeasyStyle to their Seattle house to make it martini-ready. This blog features their journey to create that life.
Shannon and Sean share a love of decadent cooking, whimsical wallpaper, “creepy yet classy” art, vintage light fixtures, trick bookshelves, and fluffy dogs. With a background in drinking too many martinis on a Tuesday and hosting five-course dinner parties with gaggles of friends, Sean and Shannon know how to make a night in and a holiday party equally fun.
Neither of them has any background or previous skills that lends them to thinking they can be DIY designers or do DIY construction, but hey, they are learning as they go and sharing what they learn!
Meet Sean
By day, Sean is a biochemist who has a job that few regular people understand, and by night, he’s a wizard in the kitchen cooking the perfect ribeye steak and making shrimp and grits so decadent that it elicits moans from guests. Building on his Texas roots, he’s a master on the smoker (hello brisket and beef back ribs!) and his Louisiana family tree shows up in his perfect Cajun recipes. His scientist brain shows up in his bread baking, charcuterie and cheese making, and soon-to-be hidden room filled with weird pickled and fermented things!
Meet Shannon
By day, Shannon is a fundraiser for nonprofits, and by night, she’s shaking up classic and newly invented cocktails, cooking alongside Sean, and usually telling some ridiculous story that can only truly happen to Shannon. She loves to grow her indoor jungle of house plants as well as her Monty Don-inspired cottage garden growing her own herbs for unique cocktails and flowers for her spectacular table settings. On the side, Shannon is a private ballroom dance teacher and wedding choreographer and cannot wait to teach lessons in her own speakeasy.
Thanks to what she has learned through her nonprofit work, Shannon brings an eye for creating a non-toxic home and carefully curates each item to have little-to-no VOCs, petrochemicals and polyester (and it’s many iterations), plastic, vinyl, flame retardants, and other shit that is bad for you. Our home is our sanctuary and Shannon is committed to helping everyone avoid these noxious chemicals in everyday products.
Meet Bandit
By day, Bandit is a fluffy dog who is either asleep or causing trouble, and by night, Bandit is a fluffy dog who is either asleep or causing trouble. Yes, they are designing a home with 25 places for their sweet pup to nap, lol.
Not featured yet: more puppies and someday chickens!
Come along for the ride as they transform this weird 80’s house in a modern speakeasy with their bare hands, their signature #SpeakeasyStyle, and their eff-it, let’s try it attitude. It’s going to take a while, but the parties will be worth it!
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