Flowers Got This L.A. Photographer Through 6 Months in the Hospital, So She Made Her Home an Ode to Them

PublishedMar 22, 2023 2:26 AM EDT

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Sunflowers. Poppies. Wildflowers. Teeny-tiny and blown-up big, super textural. Framed by piped edges, splashed across beds, painted on walls. Flowers are literally everywhere in the home of photographer Nicki Sebastian, her husband Roni, and their two daughters, Cami and Cece—and I'm here for every single bloom.

But these blossoms aren't just pretty—they're deeply meaningful. For Nicki, flowers symbolize community and healing through what she calls the darkest chapter of her life. Just three weeks after moving into their circa-1940s ranch in L.A.'s Westchester neighborhood, a routine checkup led to a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia. She had to leave their dream home immediately. "I was plucked out of my life and put in a hospital in a bubble for six months," she remembers. "My new home became UCLA."

During that time, "flowers became the way in which people supported me through the cancer experience," Nicki says. Friends and followers would share bloom photos on Instagram and tag her. Since she couldn't have visitors, her closest friends even dressed up as sunflowers and held signs outside her window reading "Nick This in the Bud." "It was both heartbreaking and beautiful and wonderful and just intense all at once," she recalls. I mean, I'm not crying, you're crying.

Through it all, Nicki stayed grateful for the home they'd found after a two-year house hunt. Figuring out how to merge her and Roni's styles took time—he's into modern; she leans traditional bordering on cottagecore—but the moment they walked through the door in January 2021, there was no need to compromise. They loved the beach proximity, the quaint neighborhood character, and honestly, the price per square foot wasn't bad either.

"I could just picture our family growing up here," Nicki says of the warm, light-filled rooms. It also reminded her—surprisingly—of the house she grew up in back in Pennsylvania. The curved doorways, the doorbell nook, the long hallway with a coat closet—she didn't even realize how familiar those details felt until she was standing in them. She'd originally planned for whitewashed walls and figuring the rest out later, but after finishing treatment, the home took on a whole new meaning. It became her sanctuary.

While all that natural light had her initially leaning airy and bright, joy took the wheel after her illness. After six months staring at bare hospital walls, Nicki craved vibrant, abundant energy. "I wasn't able to get out and about for quite some time because of my compromised immune system, so it was really important that I was surrounded by color and cheer and positivity, and things that reflected my girls," she says. So she turned to the ultimate symbol of rebirth: flowers. By weaving botanical patterns into everyday objects—art, bedding, wallpaper—Nicki says she's constantly reminded of all the love and support she received.

In so many ways, these interiors are as much about friendship and collaboration as they are about family. Nicki notes that the brands she shoots with regularly—Jenni Kayne, Heather Taylor Home, Dôen, Everhem—shaped how she decorated. "Being around all of these elements and photographing them for so long, it just seemed like a natural progression to have them in my own living space," she says. Surrounding herself with pieces made by people she knows and loves? That just adds to the happiness factor.

Nicki rounds everything out with secondhand scores from Facebook Marketplace and vintage shops. Her eclectic touch really shines in the couple's second-floor bedroom—she calls it "the nest," where she's "spent more time than I ever imagined." Their bed is piled high with patterns: floral sheets and pillows by her friend Hillary Justin from Bliss and Mischief, gingham pillows by Heather Taylor, and a patchwork quilt from Nickey Kehoe. The nearby armchair adds to the cozy, collaborative vibe. After Nicki thrifted it, Taylor sent her monochrome gingham tablecloths she had in stock—and instead of saving them for dinner parties, Nicki had the seat reupholstered. Genius move.

But her absolute favorite piece? It's propped on their vintage dresser. Designed for Nicki by Jimmy Marble to mark the start of her remission, the Every Yes Ever print holds a deeply special place in her heart. "The first light from sunrise just happens to hit the piece square in the center, which I know to be Jesse," she says, referring to her friend and Jimmy's late wife, Jesse Chamberlain Marble, who passed away from lymphoma in June 2021.

The girls' rooms are drenched in color—pink and "dinosaur green" (Cece's request, obviously)—that Nicki says perfectly captures who they are right now. With a little help from Mom, of course: "I gave them the Farrow & Ball palette to choose from," she says, laughing. The genius move of turning two closets in Cece's room into a reading nook and storage corner basically added square footage for free. "As a kid, I was obsessed with forts and nooks and little hideaways. I would always claim corners of closets and make them my clubhouses," Nicki says. And then there's her other obsession: throw pillows. "You truly cannot max out on ruffled gingham pillows," she declares—and the Taylor creations scattered everywhere are proof.

That spirit pretty much sums up Nicki's whole mentality right now. She says there hasn't been a single minute where decorating hasn't been pure joy. "It could be because of what I had been through, and just feeling this immense gratitude for having a second chance and the opportunity to create a haven for my family to grow into," she says.

Now that they can finally host again, they do it all the time (the pandemic and Nicki's recovery meant lots of months with no guests). She's all about encouraging play for adults and little ones alike. There's basically always a 1,000-piece puzzle on the dining table, a Lego spread in the living room's bay window, and the back couch (an RH Facebook Marketplace score) doubles as a "big foam pit" for kids racing through the house. The energy this home radiates is genuinely life-giving for Nicki.

"I find myself just taking moments away from my laptop and looking around and smiling to myself," she says. "I know that sounds so cheesy, but it's 100 percent true." And no matter where she is in the house, she's never far from flowers.

Samantha Weiss-Hills is the managing editor for Domino. She edits and writes home tours and features, and she's the friend who everyone texts for glassware, sofa, and sheet recommendations. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Alex, and their beagle-corgi, Elsa.

Merisa Libbey Overend is a Los Angeles–based prop and interior stylist, set designer, and a longtime freelance Domino stylist. She has been working in the design industry for more than a decade.

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