Whether welcoming home college kids or hosting a weekend get-together for friends, this Elkhorn couple makes every day an event.
Dana and Reed Nyffeler may have had to negotiate about the location of their dream home, but there was one thing the pair weren’t willing to compromise: creating a family-focused space.
“Reed always wanted to find land, lots of space to build on, and I was more of a community kind of girl,” Dana said. “We lived on Z Circle, and we had this really tight knit circle of friends living very near, and that was so important to me when we had little kids at home,” she explained. “Then when my best friend’s kids had all moved out, she moved away. We had loved our home for 20 years and had remodeled three or four times with Fluff Interior Design, but this was what it took for me to be ready to consider a move.”
During Covid, the family had some time on their hands and used it to scout out spaces in Elkhorn.
“We really just stumbled on this lot, but Reed knew right away that this was the one,” Dana shared.
The Nyffelers no longer had little ones running around, but they still wanted a space where their growing and soon-to-be-gone children would be happy, comfortable, and have a place to call home. With their sons playing basketball for their respective schools and their daughter having an affinity for rock climbing, Dana was inspired to create more than a landing pad for her family. She wanted a truly immersive space where her children could continue to explore their passions from the comfort of home.
“Being Nebraskan, we really wanted an indoor space where people could play and be active, something that could be a multipurpose area that would represent everyone’s interests,” Dana explained. “So we have a pickleball court, a place for the boys to play basketball, and a rock wall for our daughter. We put in a pool with a cabana bath that can be closed off from the rest of the house. It has sliders to the outside, so it’s a continuation from the inside to the outside. People can sit in there and eat or talk, and we have the option to turn the air off in that space. We also have our ‘charty room,’ our Christian party room where we can host gatherings, play ping pong or board games, or just host a movie night.
“Building this home was really a labor of love, getting it just right,” Dana continued. “For a year and a half while we were drawing it up, it was basically a full-time job. I overthought just about everything, but I really wanted this to be perfect for my family. Grace Homes did such an incredible job with the build, and our contractor was always ready with 3-D renderings so we could get a feel for the changes as they were being made.”
Beyond entertaining, the house is a beautiful, luxurious space the whole family can still call home.
“We have six bedrooms, two on the main level and four upstairs. The kids are moving on, off at college, and our oldest moved to Texas to be a teacher. But we wanted her to have a room she could come back to. Her room has a huge walk-in closet that one day could double as a place to keep a pack and play.”
Fluff Interior Design president and designer Lorrie Williams knew it would be a no-brainer to work with the Nyffelers, as the team had collaborated on previous projects to great success.
“There’s a level of trust and intuition that we’ve built, and that’s really our goal as a firm,” Williams said. “We don’t ever impose our tastes on our clients; instead we curate options for them from what we already know they’re going to love, and what’s going to work with their space, their goals, and their budget. The Nyffelers are very family-oriented, and their focus is on being a comfortable, welcoming place to build memories with their children. They weren’t looking for anything that would be too precious or fussy, nothing that would make anyone feel like they had to be careful or that they couldn’t relax in the space.”
Rather than filling the home with knickknacks, meaningful items and functional accessories were chosen to utilize each space with efficiency and style.
“We created a lovely, livable space that puts the priority on people, not objects or furniture,” Williams added. “We used a really beautiful performance fabric on the sofa and Guardsman to protect from spills and scratches on the rugs and furniture. We wanted to build a space they could enjoy without overthinking anything. A great big beautiful couch where they could all pile together and enjoy a family movie night together. Dana was very intentional about maximizing the time the family could spend together, and I think this home does a beautiful job of representing both the family’s style and priorities.”
The Nyefflers know all too well how quickly time flies. With Grace Homes and Fluff Interior Design, this family is making every moment together more magical.
For more information, visit gracehomesomaha.com and fluffinteriordesign.com.
This article originally appeared in the May 2024 issue of Omaha Home magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
