{"id":1902,"date":"2026-10-28T00:01:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T00:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/babydollliz.com\/?p=1902"},"modified":"2026-10-28T00:01:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T00:01:12","slug":"inside-the-louisiana-home-of-writer-and-decorator-anna-beth-chao-balancing-style-renovation-and-raising-a-teenager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/babydollliz.com\/?p=1902","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Louisiana Home of Writer and Decorator Anna Beth Chao: Balancing Style, Renovation, and Raising a Teenager"},"content":{"rendered":"

When navigating the world of interior design, finding someone who marries wit, practical styling prowess, and a healthy dose of realism is a rare find. Anna Beth Chao\u2014known to her readers as AB, ABC, or simply Anna Beth, though the latter is strictly reserved for maternal use\u2014exemplifies this rare balance. A former corporate communications writer who transitioned into interior decorating, styling, and blogging, Chao has spent the better part of two decades transforming a 1945 home in a historic Louisiana Garden District into a masterclass in lived-in elegance. <\/p>\n

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Meeting Chao on the street, one might easily mistake her for a remarkably stylish teenager. The reality, however, is that she is the mother of one: a sixteen-year-old high school junior named Madeleine. This unique perspective forms the foundation of a broader conversation about modern domestic life, specifically what it means to curate a beautiful, functional home while living with a teenager who drives a car, experiments with fashion phases, and leaves behind a trail of Styrofoam cups.<\/p>\n

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Chao shares her historic Louisiana residence with her husband, Vince Chao, an independent businessman involved in international manufacturing, along with their teenage daughter and a pair of contrasting family pets: a notoriously misbehaved dog named Hank and an altogether blameless cat named Spike. <\/p>\n

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The family\u2019s journey into the Garden District began in 2003. Drawn to the area’s tree-lined streets, historical charm, and proximity to Madeleine’s school, Chao targeted a specific property that was not even listed on the market at the time. Through sheer determination and persuasion, she convinced the previous owners to sell, securing the 1945 build that was deeply charming yet in dire need of modernization. <\/p>\n

\"Living<\/figure>\n

What followed was a meticulous, room-by-room transformation. Armed with notebooks, charts, spreadsheets, and the occasional domestic debate, the couple began with the kitchen. The successful overhaul ignited a lasting passion for renovation, prompting the family to tackle at least one room every single year since. Today, the extensive project list has reached its final frontier: the master bathroom, which currently consists of exposed sub-floors and wooden studs, marking the bittersweet end of a multi-year structural evolution.<\/p>\n

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Chao\u2019s design philosophy centers on accessibility, durability, and editorial restraint. Her primary rule is deceptively simple: less is more. Unnecessary clutter, excessive decorative items, and cumbersome furniture arrangements, she argues, detract from a home’s natural architecture and create unnecessary maintenance burdens. She advocates for intentional editing, weeding out items that fail to bring genuine joy or functional value to a space.<\/p>\n

\"Living<\/figure>\n

Complementing this minimalist approach is her emphasis on hard-wearing materials that can withstand the rigors of daily family life. Throughout her home, materials like leather, jute, cowhide, cotton canvas, velvet, hardwood, and wool take center stage. Pointing to Madeleine\u2019s bedroom as a prime example of high-traffic endurance, Chao notes that everyday staples like a jute rug and a basic pine desk continue to hold their own. Similarly, the white cotton duck slipcover on her living room sofa, manufactured in 1981, has endured decades of washing and bleaching, proving that quality textiles stand the test of time.<\/p>\n

\"Living<\/figure>\n

Beyond materials and minimalism, Chao stresses the transformative power of fresh paint and warns against the trap of interim purchases. Rather than spending moderate amounts on temporary side tables while waiting to afford higher-end options, she advises homeowners to save for the pieces they truly love\u2014a philosophy she practiced herself by using twelve-dollar IKEA stools as bedside tables for years.<\/p>\n

\"Living<\/figure>\n

Raising a teenager brings its own distinct design challenges and lifestyle adjustments. Madeleine has cycled through multiple aesthetic eras, spanning preppy, emo, vintage, hipster, and unconventional styling phases. Despite the shifting visual identities, Chao observes that her daughter has developed a sophisticated eye for line, scale, and vignette styling, perhaps inherited from both her mother and her grandmother, an exacting editor in her own right.<\/p>\n

\"Living<\/figure>\n

While teenage years inevitably involve friction\u2014such as memorable historical standoffs over excessive eyeliner during Madeleine’s junior high days\u2014Chao emphasizes the importance of picking battles and maintaining perspective. With older children who are largely self-sufficient, minor household disarray becomes trivial in the grand scheme. The key, according to Chao, is establishing a healthy equilibrium: enforcing weekend chores to handle accumulated messes while setting firm boundaries regarding safety and responsibility. Above all, she notes, keeping the pantry stocked with hearty, uncomplicated snacks remains an essential strategy for any household hosting teenagers.<\/p>\n

\"Living<\/figure>\n

The heart of the Chao household centers on the kitchen and the screened-in porch. These comfortable, highly utilized spaces frequently host gatherings featuring food, drinks, impromptu musical sing-alongs, and occasional theatrical impersonations. <\/p>\n

\"Living<\/figure>\n

Looking beyond her domestic routine, Chao is expanding her design footprint through the launch of Dewit Design Camp. Named after a humorous nod to her distinctly Southern pronunciation of "do it," the weekend boot-camp style workshop is designed for design enthusiasts who desire professional guidance without the full financial commitment of hiring a traditional interior decorator. Hosted in locations like New Orleans, the camp covers foundational principles including layout creation, inspiration boards, paint selection, furniture sourcing, lighting, window treatments, repurposing existing items, budgeting, floral styling, and interior photography.<\/p>\n

\"Living<\/figure>\n

Reflecting on her journey from corporate communications to full-time design and blogging, Chao notes the valuable lessons learned along the way: recognizing that shades of white vary widely, respecting the extended drying time of oil paint, valuing original craftsmanship over mass-produced knock-offs, investing in quality coffee grinders, acknowledging the culinary necessity of mayonnaise on a local shrimp po-boy, and accepting that only children may occasionally be treated with extra indulgence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When navigating the world of interior design, finding someone who marries wit, practical styling prowess, and a healthy dose of realism is a rare find. Anna Beth Chao\u2014known to her readers as AB, ABC, or simply Anna Beth, though the latter is strictly reserved for maternal use\u2014exemplifies this rare balance. A former corporate communications writer…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[729,2517,2474,1492,2516,79,327,139,2514,80,78,81,1151,2518,264,2519,2515],"class_list":["post-1902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family-photography-and-memories","tag-anna","tag-balancing","tag-beth","tag-chao","tag-decorator","tag-family","tag-home","tag-inside","tag-louisiana","tag-memories","tag-photography","tag-pictures","tag-raising","tag-renovation","tag-style","tag-teenager","tag-writer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/babydollliz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/babydollliz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/babydollliz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/babydollliz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/babydollliz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/babydollliz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/babydollliz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/babydollliz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/babydollliz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/babydollliz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}