Stepping into the home of Crystal Moore, mother of four and founder of the home design platform Garden & Grace, you’re greeted by a beautiful, subtle aesthetic just like you might see on her Instagram feed. The living areas are layered in muted colors and textures, botanical prints and antiques, reflecting her Southern charm and traditional taste.
A closer look reveals the check plaid of the drapes and the refined English arm roll of four upholstered chairs facing each other in what Moore fondly calls the “conversation room.” There’s no TV. The coffee table books are ones she actually reads. And one of her favorite details is the Garden & Grace topiary tree logo woven into the custom rug.
During the holidays, the Moores’ home is washed in gold and green decor from Fig & Dove, a Baton Rouge, La.-based company she discovered several years ago. Moore often brings the outdoors in with simple arrangements of greenery from her yard, like freshly cut magnolia leaves. She wraps empty boxes in muted holiday paper with pretty ribbon and a hint of holly.
“It adds a holiday cheer without being too [commercial],” she says.
Moore welcomed her fourth child in September, bringing her total to four little ones under the age of six. With a full house, she feels the holiday rush as much as anyone. Yet, she encourages her Garden & Grace followers to slow down and savor the process—layering cherished ornaments with new finds and investing in one new item each year.
She encourages the same thinking when it comes to everyday design. For Moore, who shares inspiration through her curated directory, home tours, blog posts and just photos from a walk through her Myers Park neighborhood, the fun is in the discovery.
“I want people to come to my page and follow me to get ideas and not to think they’ve got to order everything so that a project feels complete,” she says.
The home the Moores moved into three years ago has mismatched nightstands in the primary bedroom. A kitchen renovation will wait until the children are older. And the foyer is still a blank slate. Moore grew up with an appreciation for watching homes come together, not just the finished product. Her dad, Craig Miller, is a custom builder and real estate developer in Waxhaw.
“I was always on job sites and helping in the office,” she says. “Even from a really young age, he would give me little tasks like organizing, and we would always have to stop at the job site on the way to dinner.”
Her grandmother, who lived next door to their property, gave her a love for gardening.
“I grew up walking my grandmother's gardens with her,” she says. “She told me once, that there’s a plant, maybe a gardenia, that smells better once it falls off the leaves. I remember her telling me, when we die to ourselves, we become more beautiful.”
It doesn’t take long with Moore to realize there’s meaning in so much of what she does. The name Garden & Grace, which is a nod to both her faith and an appreciation for Garden & Gun magazine, just scratches the surface.
Moore is a survivor of childhood leukemia. It’s a big part of why she decided to pursue a career in healthcare administration. She moved to Chicago with her husband, William, a classmate since elementary school at Covenant Day, to work as a hospital consultant.
She got interested in design again after they moved back to Charlotte and bought their first home. Moore used to take pictures of historic homes around her Dilworth neighborhood. She started Garden & Grace as a way to save her own design ideas. As she shared posts on Instagram, she saw how much they resonated with others.
“I started to realize, ‘Oh, there's a method to the madness with the algorithm, and there's a way to grow this,’” Moore says.
Once Garden & Grace reached 5,000 followers, brands started to reach out. She began vetting and curating vendor lists to share. She started a website to give content a permanent home. She gave followers glimpses into beautiful homes around Charlotte and beyond in a series of 15 home tours.
As Garden & Grace grew, Moore decided to leave her corporate job. Now it has 172,000 followers on Instagram and attracts as many as two million views per month. Moore has both clients and followers from as far away as New York City, Birmingham, Ala., Charleston, S.C., Atlanta and Dallas.
“It's been so fun,” she says. “It's given me this creative outlet that I never knew I needed or would have.”
After working 70 hours a week in a corporate job, Moore enjoys the flexibility of staying home with her children while also having an outlet to share her classic personal style.
“We live in such a fast-paced, changing world,” Moore says. “I wanted a design aesthetic that I wouldn't have to update all the time and furniture I could pass on to my own kids.”