Design 9: Our Best Family Residence Winner

By Laura Eckstein Jones

A talented design team transforms a sprawling estate in Gilbert into a modern, soulful home that reflects the homeowners’ love for family, history and personal touches.

This large family home in Gilbert presides over a 3.2-acre lot.

In a peaceful Gilbert neighborhood, a stunning new home has come to life—an expansive estate designed to reflect the heart and spirit of a close-knit family of six. Together, Brad Leavitt of AFT Construction; Jaimee Rose, Joanna Sessions and Shae Upton of Jaimee Rose Interior Design; Sean Roberts of Pinnacle Conceptions; and David Creech of CFdesign crafted an estate that not only meets the client’s needs but also captures their love for family and community.

The multilevel pool area consists of four pools and a lazy river.

The homeowners—a couple with three daughters, a son and a few dogs—were looking for a house that would serve as a gathering place, much like their previous home. They wanted a space that felt welcoming to extended family, friends and their close-knit church community. When Leavitt was approached about the project, the relationship was already well established. “The client and I played basketball together,” he shares. “We also go to the same church, and our kids were friends. We had been friends for about three years before they decided to build this incredible home.”

Beyond simply creating a beautiful living space, the project was centered on honoring the family’s roots, travels and love for old, storied structures. “Our assignment for this project was ‘an old house made new,’” says Rose. “They wanted a lot of soul, which is hard to bring to [nearly] 4 acres of brand-new construction!” The family had a passion for modern industrial design, with a preference for organic and reclaimed materials. “They wanted something modern with natural stone and wood elements that appeared to have been in place for a long time,” Leavitt adds. Their vision was a unique blend of modernity and history, creating an aesthetic that felt like it had been curated over time.

The home is the epitome of indoor-outdoor living.

From the outset, the homeowners had clear ideas of what they wanted. They envisioned a U-shaped home where each bedroom would open directly onto a stunning pool. This wasn’t just any pool—it was a collection of four distinct pools designed to serve as the focal point of the outdoor space. “They asked for things no one had ever seen before,” Rose shares. “Which meant that typical faucets, cabinet hardware, mirrors and light fixtures felt uninspiring to them. This was a huge challenge but also a creative field day since we got to design all of those items from scratch.”

Spanning over 3.2 acres, the expansive property includes the main house, an RV garage, a trampoline barn, a tennis court pavilion, a baseball field and meticulously designed outdoor spaces. One of the primary goals was to create a seamless integration of modern luxury and natural beauty, a challenge that the team embraced fully. “We started by asking the architect to add that floating fireplace and roof in the great room,” Rose says. “The whole home spun out from that creative axis. And then, to keep it from feeling cold, we piled on aged finishes anywhere we could: full-height stone walls, steel breezeways, vintage light fixtures and wide-plank wood floors.”

The property houses several areas for play, including a baseball field, tennis courts and this incredible trampoline barn with trampolines from Crazy Ape.

One of the home’s standout features is the kitchen, which underwent three designs before landing on the final version. “We ended up right where we started— with the concept of simple wood cabinets encased in plaster, inspired by old Mediterranean homes,” Rose explains. The homeowners wanted something that felt personal and unique, and the team delivered, blending stone walls with sleek steel structures and layers of texture to create a warm, inviting gathering space.

The design team incorporated the family’s heirlooms and personal artifacts throughout, transforming the house into a true reflection of their lives and memories. “We used all the family heirlooms she had saved and turned them into art—old saddles, her grandpa’s trumpet and maps collected during their travels. It makes it instantly feel like a home with soul, just walking through the door,” Rose shares. The powder bath, a favorite of Rose’s, was inspired by a vintage sink she had seen in London. It features a combination of patinated brass, steel and timeworn stone—an homage to the old-world charm the homeowners loved.

A bunk-filled bedroom offers plenty of space for overnight guests.

Outside, the multilevel pool area is a hub for family fun, with a lazy river, a raised fire pit view deck and expansive spaces designed for relaxation and entertainment. The trampoline barn, a unique feature, was a favorite project for Creech. “It was a cool idea we played with early on, and I did several iterations of the design to nail down a size and location on the lot before Sean took over and gave us the beautiful building we have today,” he explains. “It is one of those features I think every family wishes they could have.”

“We started by asking the architect to add that floating fireplace and roof in the great room,” says Rose. “The whole home spun out from that creative axis. And then, to keep it from feeling cold, we piled on aged finishes anywhere we could: full-height stone walls, steel breezeways, vintage light fixtures and wide-plank wood floors.”

From design to completion, the project took five years to realize and did come with some challenges. Construction began during the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused delays and labor shortages across The Valley. Leavitt also had to navigate the tricky terrain, with soil conditions that required a 9-inch thick post-tension slab for the foundation. However, the most persistent challenge was the evolving nature of the design itself. “For my part, the plan evolved so many times that it’s hard to remember where we started,” Creech says. “Even during construction, the plan went through too many iterations to count.”

Rose created a cozy, welcoming atmosphere in the expansive primary bedroom with comforting touches. “We added a reclaimed stone fireplace from Studio Ressource and two double-sided chaises that let the conversation be intimate but also easily opened to the rest of the space,” she says.

When the family finally saw their fully furnished home, the transformation from construction site to personal sanctuary was striking. “The day the homeowners walked the home and saw it fully furnished by Jaimee Rose Interiors was an amazing day because things changed from a construction project to a home filled with sentimental and personalized pieces of art and decor,” Leavitt describes.

The primary bathroom has a mix of modern industrial and found pieces, hewn wood and stone. Here, Tadelakt plaster walls meet tumbled limestone floors and a custom dressing mirror.

For Rose, the finished home perfectly captures the family’s essence. “This brand-new estate does feel like an old house made new,” she says, “because it tells the whole of their story and reflects the life of a family wrapped in decades-old love.”