These Tar Heels bring the Hill home

Sara Mathis and her husband sit on light blue arena-style chairs on their screened porch, surrounded by Carolina-themed pillows and a large UNC basketball court design painted on the wooden floor. — Sara Mathis ’09 and her husband sit in the “screen dome,” a Dean E. Smith Center-inspired porch she transformed with arena-style chairs, custom court flooring and other Carolina touches. (Ira Wilder/Carolina Alumni Review)

Sara Mathis ’09 wasn’t serious when she first told her husband she wanted to turn her screened porch into a replica of the Dean E. Smith Center. But then she found 120-year-old arena-style wooden chairs on Facebook Marketplace.

“It went from a joke to, 20 minutes later, we were renting a U-Haul to go pick up the chairs,” Mathis said.

That’s what happens when a lifelong Carolina fan becomes a self-taught home renovator.

“I think it’s equal parts the guts to do it and then delusion that it’s going to turn out,” Mathis said. “And somehow the guts and the delusion together did make it turn out.”

Sara Mathis stands behind a white kitchen island surrounded by light blue cabinets and a blue-and-white patterned backsplash.

Sara Mathis ’09 also included Carolina Blue in her do-it-yourself kitchen renovation. (Ira Wilder/Carolina Alumni Review)

The “screen dome” in her North Carolina home features custom court flooring; those arena chairs, now spray painted; pillows with retired jerseys and national championship years, and a projector to watch the Heels play. Everything is a product of Mathis’ do-it-yourself approach.

When she shared the project on her Instagram account, @thehandyhalf — now with more than 100,000 followers — some commenters said they would rather watch games from their couch than from antique chairs. But Mathis usually spends games standing and sometimes yelling at the screen.

“If you can’t get back to campus all the time, then at least you can feel like you’re close by if you have something like that in your house,” she said.

Mathis isn’t the only alumna going viral for transforming her home into a Tar Heel heaven.

For Kelsey Berry ’18, former dance team member, it started out of necessity. When her family bought their first home, a contractor worked to fix issues that came up in the inspection. Soon, an incorrectly installed toilet flooded an upstairs bathroom, and water poured through their kitchen ceiling. The contractor had to come back.

A blue home office features built-in shelves displaying Carolina basketball memorabilia, trophies and framed publications, with more basketball photos and newspaper clippings covering the adjacent wall.

Joel Berry II’s office incorporates mementos from his Carolina basketball career, including the Tar Heels’ 2017 national championship run. (Ira Wilder/Carolina Alumni Review)

“I’m up here like, ‘No, you got to sand that. You have to paint that. That looks terrible,’” Berry said. “And it’s like, ‘I cannot believe we’re paying people to do this terrible job.’ So, when we were ready to actually do stuff to the house, there’s no way that I’m going to pay somebody to do this.”

She decided with her husband, former basketball player Joel Berry II ’18, to spend a year posting renovations to Instagram, leaning on her experience working in social media marketing and a degree in journalism from Carolina. She posted a new video on her account, @the.berry.home, every weekday for a year and a half. Kelsey Berry, who now has more than 336,000 followers on that page, thinks her first videos are awful. But she found her footing.

Kelsey Berry stands beside Joel Berry II, who is seated at a desk in a blue office decorated with framed Carolina basketball photos, newspaper clippings and memorabilia.

Kelsey Berry ’18 and Joel Berry II ’18 show off the Carolina-themed office they created in their Charlotte home. (Ira Wilder/Carolina Alumni Review)

The Berrys are a true North Carolina family. Their 2-year-old son, Beau, is named after the Bojangles Bo-Berry Biscuit. Beau and his 4-year-old sister, Karter, are growing up attending ACC Tournament games. So, when it was time to renovate Joel Berry’s office in their Charlotte home in 2025, it only made sense for it to have a Carolina theme.

Should either family sell their homes down the road, they are confident Duke buyers won’t come knocking. And that’s fine by them.

Read the rest of this story at the Carolina Alumni Review.