Attending open houses in Lancaster gave this Manheim Township grad an interest in interior design; new book shares decorating tips

As a child growing up in Lancaster, Emily Grosvenor often spent Sunday afternoons attending open houses with her mom.

Grosvenor’s mom, Susan Grosvenor, a middle school teacher at the time, was interested in home design. Seeing inside properties fresh on the market indulged her mom’s interest. But it also changed Grosvenor’s perspective of what a home could become.

“Lancaster is like heaven for open houses,” Grosvenor said.

Grosvenor moved to Oregon in 2008. These days, she doesn’t get the chance to attend many open houses; there aren’t as many in Oregon, since houses are often sold quickly in the state’s competitive housing market.

But the excitement of interior spaces has stayed with her. Her debut book, the home styling guidebook “Find Yourself At Home,” was released June 20.

Grosvenor’s book mentors readers through the journey of transforming their homes into a place that supports their individualized needs, values and desires, sprinkled with anecdotes along the way. The book revolves around a lesson she learned during her time on the east coast: a home defines you just as much as you define a home.

BOOK DETAILS

“Find Yourself At Home.”

By Emily Grosvenor.

Available anywhere books are sold, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million.

More info: emilygrosvenor.com.

‘Nothing has beat Central Market’

Now living in Oregon with her husband and two sons, Grosvenor works as the editor of Oregon Home magazine. After dabbling in careers in journalism and German translation, Grosvenor reconnected with her interest in interior design.

“We live in the Willamette Valley, which is supposed to be one of the best food places in the country,” Grosvenor said. “But nothing has beat (Lancaster) Central Market and the relationships that we had with all the purveyors there.”

Lucky for Grosvenor, S. Clyde Weaver offers online orders of bacon for cross-country delivery.

A 1997 graduate of Manheim Township High School, Grosvenor rarely saw books about Lancaster that focused on anything but farm life or the Amish. With her new book, she was eager to connect with her roots and incorporate stories from Lancaster in a new way.

“I would say I am fully formed by Lancaster County,” she said.

The book takes inspiration from many of her Lancastrian memories — some of which she even includes in her writing — such as working as a tour guide at President James Buchanan’s Wheatland as a teenager, her wedding reception at the Iris Club and, yes, those frequent trips to Market.

Passion rooted in Lancaster

Grosvenor’s passion for home styling began with the Stonehenge luxury home builds in Manheim Township.

As a kid, she remembers being particularly struck by the development’s grandeur and distinctiveness when visiting its open houses.

“It was like nothing I had ever seen before. The way [the houses] were laid out, the way the light came in, the way the floor plan worked,” Grosvenor said. “These people were doing something kind of brave and fun for the time.”

Famous builds like George Washington’s Mount Vernon and Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, both in Virginia, were also a hallmark of her childhood vacations.

After so many house visits, Grosvenor saw the actual process of home styling as equally impactful as the outcome itself, which served as the foundation for “Finding Yourself At Home.”

The book is formatted into five sections, each tackling different concepts that help readers decorate their homes intentionally to actualize the values they want in their lifestyles.

The third section, “Build,” shares how color palettes can convey moods, and why individuals should experiment with different textures. It also discusses maximalist and minimalist decor styles.

Another section, “Desire,” focuses on the use of items to encourage specific values, such as how placement of plants, crystals and images of water in a space can foster prosperity.

Grosvenor’s narrative style writing is interspersed with graphics, like guides to arranging your home based on an “energy map” and “house horoscopes,” which describe the strengths and weaknesses of different types of houses.

She hopes that readers of “Find Yourself At Home” will be motivated to take control of their environment as they start seeing homes as more than just structures, but a mode of storytelling.

“You start to understand that there is a story that is inherent to every person’s home,” Grosvenor said. “I really wanted to write stories that explained what it was like to really have a relationship with your space at a more soulful level.”

And Grosvenor and her mother — who moved to Oregon last summer — continue to go to any open houses they can find.

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