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The home of Brenda and Kimball Loos shines bright every holiday season, much to the delight of neighbors, family and friends. The welcoming front porch sets the stage with its messages of JOY in lighted letters and its fa-la-a-la-la and Santa’s reindeer pillows that greet family and friends.

Once inside, every room in this holly-jolly house exudes joy and warmth and evokes the spirit of Christmas in the maximalist fashion Brenda Loos favors. She also decorates lavishly for several holidays — Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Fourth of July and Halloween to name a few.

“I’ve always been interested in decorating, furniture and gardening,� Brenda says.

As a little girl she would line up chairs in a half circle, then set cardboard boxes open to the front on top and cover them with sheets or curtains to make a sofa. She made end tables of boxes at each end, covered with linens, and styled with vases of flowers and magazines spread just so. For her make-believe kitchen she hung cardboard boxes on the wall for kitchen cabinets.

Her early escapades in designing play spaces, coupled with working with her dad on projects around her childhood home built her confidence in understanding construction. Her forays with her dad to antique auctions and sales shaped her eye for good design and quality furniture. “I was a daddy’s girl,� she says.

She and Kimball met through mutual friends after Brenda’s first marriage ended. They’ve been married for 28 years. “We went together for about 4 years before we got married. I had four kids. I thought he may be nuts, because that didn’t make him run,� Brenda says. The family came together and have lived in three houses. Their first house in St. Charles, and later a home at Innsbrook, and their current home each bore the imprint of Brenda’s sure touch for design.

“She’s a visionary,� Kimball says. “Almost all the credit for the design of this house goes to her. She has the gift to look at something and figure out how things work. She worked with an architect who drew up the plans for this house, but she’s the brains behind the end product.�

Although they owned the land their home sits on in the Calloway Valley since 2012, they waited until they were closer to retirement to begin to build it out. “We started building in the summer of 2017,� Kimball says.

The finished home is designed for family living with one primary bedroom downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs for family and guests. With its formal dining room, family gathering room, eat-in kitchen and enclosed back porch, the home also works for entertaining.

Today, Brenda spends a lot of time outdoors gardening. “I’ve done a lot of rock gardens here, all around the house. I’ve had boulders put in, too. I love rock work,� Brenda says. “People here call me the flower lady,� she says. She plants colorful impatiens up close to the house to deter deer.

Another critter came up close to the house in February of last year. A skinny stray cat adopted them. They’ve had other cats adopt them at their previous homes but didn’t have any pets when they moved into this one. She remains an outdoor cat. “We call her and put her in the garage with food and water and she stays there all night. She has her warm bed and she’s safe there. We named her Brookie Bobby, which is a combination of the names of previous cats,� Brenda says.

She and Kimball enjoy watching the wildlife and the scenery from their sun room and enjoy drinking coffee on their front porch. Kimball admits he is something of a homebody now. My dad, Carroll Loos, was in the Air Force,� he says. “We lived in England when I was small, the Austin, Charleston, South Carolina, Fort Worth, and Kansas City, Missouri.�

His dad was a veteran of three wars — World War II, Korea and Vietnam. “He met my mom in England during the war. She was a big band singer. She came over on the Queen Mary to the United States after the war. They both shared a birthday — Dec. 25, 1925,� he says.

His mom and dad were featured in the Our Own Oddities column in the Post at one point in Kimball’s youth. He still has the $2 check the paper paid for their story.

For Brenda, this home feature is a dream come true. “Ever since I was a little girl looking at my mom’s Better Homes and Gardens magazines I wanted my designs to be featured in an article,� she says. “Our friend Jan Rouff sent an email into the Post and here we are today.�