How Designer Molly Bloom Enlisted Her Family to Renovate—Without Going Crazy

Molly Bloom is a doer. Whether it’s designing, styling, and personally shipping her eponymous jumpsuit line, or opening an Etsy store that sells hand-painted cicadas, Bloom is a through-and-through creative who takes matters quite literally into her own hands. So when it came to renovating the 1,600-square-foot house she bought in Western New York, she knew she’d adopt a DIY approach. Bloom grew up in a home built by her father, a landscaper and construction specialist, and her grandfather. "It felt like a legacy to honor and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do this with my dad," she says.

After leaving her job at clothing company Billy Reid in Florence, Alabama in late February 2020, Bloom planned to return to New York City, where she’d previously lived. Instead, she and her then-husband found themselves sheltering in place with her parents in Youngstown, near Niagara Falls. A few months later, a chance encounter with a 99-year-old homeowner at an estate sale led to the swift purchase of a 1950s-era house in Lewiston, just 10 minutes away from her childhood home. "It was just the perfect little coincidence of an affordable home," Bloom recalls. "We said fuck it, let’s build a family and a life here." She and her father spent the next 10 months painstakingly remodeling the house as he taught her the ins and outs of demolition, electrical wiring, plumbing, and everything in between.

From balancing her love of bold, esoteric curios and art with a space to work and play, to negotiating the inherent challenges (and joys!) of working with family, here’s how she did it.

When Collaborating with Family Members, Be Clear About Intentions

"The first couple of months working with my dad on the house were definitely a little bumpy," says Bloom. Her background in product design and user experience meant that she had very specific requests and desires that, to her father, were not as cost and time-effective as he would have liked. For example, from her first visit, she knew she had to change the "eyesore" off-center fireplace in the living room. "I had so many different layouts mocked up over a nine-month span, but landed on this one"—building a frame around it and creating a new arched hearth. Her father, aware of the kind of work that would entail, attempted to convince her otherwise. But she stuck firmly to her guns, insisting on building a frame around it and creating a new arched hearth. "Seeing people swoon over it never gets old," she says.

Three months into their collaboration, Bloom and her father decided to have an open conversation to avoid further conflict and maintain their very close relationship. "We discussed what was important to each of us and what we could do independently on the house," she recalls. From that point forward, once the specifics had been laid out and level-set, the partnership moved smoothly.