Third Time’s a Charm: Inside The Noelle, the Custom Home Kalen Ludwig Built for Her Family

Custom Home Spotlight

Kalen and Kurt Ludwig with Jules and Wells on the front step of The Noelle, their custom home — Kurt, Jules, Wells and Kalen at home in The Noelle.

Kalen Ludwig spends her days helping families find the lot, build the house and sell the one they are leaving. As a builder with Ground Breaker Homes and a Realtor® with Peoples Company in the Des Moines area, she has helped hundreds of families along the way, and every client brings something new to the table: a clever storage idea, a finish she had not tried, a way of living in a room she had not thought of.

So when it came time to build for her own family, the third home she has built for herself, she had a long list.

I get to pick and choose all these little ideas from everybody else’s house and incorporate them into mine. That’s the fun thing about being a builder and getting to build your own home.
Kalen Ludwig

The result is The Noelle, a 1.5-story custom home designed around a busy family of four and one very opinionated cat. It is now part of the Ground Breaker Homes plan library, so your family can build it too, on your lot or a Ground Breaker homesite anywhere across the Des Moines metro. Here is what makes it work, room by room.

The Noelle at a Glance

Style1.5 Story

Bedrooms4

Bathrooms4

Main + Upper2,827 sq ft

Optional Lower Level1,540 sq ft

Footprint61’8″ x 70′

The Noelle Floor Plan →

A custom kitchen built around Kurt

In the Ludwig house, Kurt cooks. The kitchen was planned to keep up with him, starting with GE Monogram appliances. The family favorite is a speed-cook microwave that also air fries and can turn an hour-long casserole into a 20-minute one.

Kalen’s favorite of Kurt’s dishes is his pasta, and he is always reaching for spices. So the plaster range hood got an inset niche that keeps them lined up right where he needs them.

Kalen and Kurt Ludwig at the quartz kitchen island under brass pendant lights — Kurt is the cook in the family, and the kitchen was designed around him.

Plaster range hood with an inset spice niche above a professional gas range and white oak cabinetry — An inset niche in the hood keeps Kurt’s spices within reach.

Kurt loves to cook, so that’s the way that he shows his love and thank you to anybody.
Kalen Ludwig

The first big meals in the house came while the boxes were still being unpacked. Kalen’s parents live two blocks away and pitched in with the move, and Kurt thanked them the way he knows best: around the dining table, with a lot of good food.

Life happens at the island

Jules and Wells Ludwig at the white quartz kitchen island with upholstered stools — Homework, breakfast and everything in between happen here.

If you are looking for a Ludwig, check the island first. It is where homework gets done, where breakfast happens and where craft projects and the occasional science experiment Mom isn’t so sure about take over the counter.

Keeping that counter clear was a priority. A drop zone just before the kitchen catches the mail and the junk-drawer odds and ends, so the island stays open for whatever the family is doing next.

The island is where everyone lands at the end of the day. The kids pull up a stool, share their day, and I get all the scoop.
Kalen Ludwig

Reese has the run of the house

Reese the Bengal cat climbing onto a kitchen stool beside Wells Ludwig — Meet Reese, the Ludwigs’ Bengal.

Every family builds for the people who live there. The Ludwigs also built for Reese, their Bengal cat, and Kalen will happily tell you he is a pretty spoiled little kitty.

The end of the island hides a quartz-lined feeding station sized for his dishes. Bengals like to be up high, so there are perches near the tall windows and more on the deck. The built-ins by the fireplace even tuck in a little nook for his bed.

He’s a part of the family, so we incorporated lots of design elements for him too.
Kalen Ludwig

Kitchen island with upholstered stools and an open quartz-lined cat feeding station built into its end — Look closely at the end of the island.

End of the kitchen island with open shelving and a quartz-lined cat feeding station at floor level — Open shelves up top, Reese’s spot below.

Built-in quartz cat feeding station with paw and fish bowls tucked into the kitchen island — Reese’s built-in dining spot, lined in quartz so it wipes clean.

Everyone has a spot in the great room

The Ludwig family on a green velvet sectional in the great room with the kitchen behind them — Movie night seating is not up for debate in this house.

The great room opens straight to the kitchen, and the seating chart is set. Kalen and Wells have their designated spots on the green sofa. Kurt takes the brown chair and footstool. Jules, who likes things just so, brings out her own chair, the one her brother never touches. It lives in a storage closet by the front entry, just steps away.

Kids’ rooms the kids helped design

Jules Ludwig sitting in the built-in window seat in her bedroom with display shelves — Jules helped design her window seat and the shelves on both sides.

Both kids’ rooms have vaulted ceilings, and both kids had a say.

Jules came with ideas. She wanted a built-in window seat with shelves on both sides for display, and she got it. Her room has an airy beach feel in soft pinks, blues and creams, plus a large walk-in closet and her own bathroom. She picked her tile too: clean whites and creams with an oatmeal grout that has a hint of pink, a small detail that makes the shower feel like hers.

Wells had one request: “If I can get that net, I’m a happy boy.” So Kalen found one on Etsy, from a maker in Australia. It stretches across his vaulted room about eight feet up, with a ladder to climb into it, and it has become the hideout for Wells and his buddies. His room also has a built-in desk, a navy and gray palette and the navy accent tile he chose for his shower.

Boy's bedroom with a rope climbing net stretched across the vaulted ceiling, a black wall ladder, navy daybed and basketball art — Wells’s hideout: a rope climbing net across the vaulted ceiling, reached by its own ladder.

A home dance studio that started as a spare room

Jules Ludwig mid-leap in the home dance and workout studio — Jules in her element.

The room with the full mirrored wall was never in the original plan. It was going to stay unfinished as a possible bedroom someday. But as the build went on, Jules was falling in love with dance, and the family needed a home for the elliptical.

Now it is a studio where Jules practices in front of the mirrors and where Kalen, who has gotten into yoga, can roll out a mat for a workout video. It is a good example of how a floor plan can flex to fit the family living in it.

We were thinking about how Jules is really loving dance, and that it would be a great space where she has mirrors and can practice.
Kalen Ludwig

Jules Ludwig standing in front of the full mirrored wall in the home dance studio — The full mirrored wall turns the room into a real practice space.

Jules Ludwig holding a standing leg extension in the home dance studio — Jules’s favorite, mid-pose in her studio.

Where the house gets bold

Most of The Noelle is light and calm. The powder room is not. Kalen had been drawn to color drenching, wallpaper and moody spaces, so this is where she went for it: floral wallpaper on every wall, dark tile and a pedestal sink for something different. A built-in linen cabinet right outside handles the storage, so the sink did not need a vanity.

Powder room with dark floral wallpaper, a pedestal sink and brass fixtures — The powder room, wallpapered floor to ceiling.

Jules Ludwig in the window seat of Kurt's color-drenched office in dark urban bronze — Kurt’s office, color-drenched in urban bronze.

Right next door is Kurt’s office, color-drenched top to bottom in urban bronze, the same color as the kitchen island. Paneled walls, built-in cabinets and a corner window seat finish the look.

Kurt Ludwig's office with dark paneled walls, built-in cabinetry, brass sconces and a corner window seat — Built-ins, brass sconces and a corner window seat in Kurt’s office.

It just made a fun, dark, moody, kind of a cigar lounge type vibe for his office, which he absolutely loves.
Kalen Ludwig

A finished lower level for the cul-de-sac crew

Finished lower level with a snack wet bar under botanical mural wallpaper and open play space — The lower level was designed for kids first.

The Ludwigs live on a cul-de-sac full of kids, and Kalen wanted a space where they could all pile in without anyone worrying about a broken glass. So the grown-up cocktail and wine bar lives upstairs by the dining room, and the lower level got a snack bar, a puzzle and craft table with a built-in bench, and plenty of open floor. The family are Hawkeye fans, so the black and yellow in the room gets a boost from a little Hawkeye decor.

I wanted it to be something that we can grow into when the kids are 16 and not just 8 and 11.
Kalen Ludwig

Small decisions that make every day easier

Kalen Ludwig working at a built-in desk niche under an arched alcove — A built-in desk niche gives Kalen a spot to work from home.

Some of the best parts of The Noelle are the ones you notice on a Tuesday morning.

The primary suite has a high vaulted ceiling, a desk niche where Kalen can work from home and a his-and-hers bath with separate vanities and closets. Kalen’s closet opens straight into the laundry room, with plenty of space for folding and hanging.

My closet flows through to the laundry space, which is just really nice, convenient access.
Kalen Ludwig

Primary walk-in closet opening directly into the laundry room with a checkered tile floor — The primary closet flows right into the laundry.

White oak mudroom lockers with hooks, a bench and storage baskets — Mudroom lockers keep sports gear and backpacks corralled.

From the laundry, the flow continues to the mudroom, where the kids’ sports gear, coats and backpacks all have a place. Upstairs, a laundry chute sends clothes straight down to the laundry below. As Kalen puts it, “They’ve been using it great. So that makes me happy.”

Outdoor living, front and back

The Ludwig family roasting marshmallows around a fire table outside their home — S’mores night around the fire table.

The Ludwigs love a screened porch, and this time Kalen tried something new: motorized screens on the deck that go up and down with a remote. The deck sits right behind the living room and its big windows, and she did not want to give up that view.

Now the screens drop when the family is outside and disappear when they are not.

It allows me to have the best of both worlds. When we’re not using it, I can put it up, and when we are, it’s available.
Kalen Ludwig

Out front, a sliding door in the dining room opens to a front courtyard. Kalen says it is “shaded in the evening time, so a great space where we can sit and not feel like we’re getting beat by the sun.” With outdoor space on both sides of the house, the family can follow the sun, or get out of it, any time of day.