Artistic ARTIFACTS
Take note of how a couple have honed an eclectic yet classic cottage style that serves to honor their ancestors and the 1940s-era home they share in Illinois.
CChange is good. Just ask Jan Jackson, whose design style has enjoyed many phases over the years, the evolution of which has found her most recent aesthetic at the intersection of French country and industrial cottage. “I began with what I call ‘cute country,’ ” Jan remembers. From there, she developed an “obsession with primitive,” followed by a penchant for a combined primitive/cottage design. Today, she describes her style as “eclectic, with a lot of vintage thrown in!” When Jan and her fiance, J.R. Pope, bought their 1,500-square-foot home in Champaign, Illinois, it was largely turnkey. Jan had a vision of what she wanted, but she took note of the features that she loved and integrated her design ideas around them. “The home had a lot of charm when we purchased it,” she recalls. “The hardwood floors, the fireplaces, the crown molding, the pillars—these were all the things that attracted me to the house. I wanted to add to its charm, not detract from it.” The couple freshened all the rooms with new paint and refinished the original hardwood flooring; however, most of their heavy-duty renovations focused on the basement family room and the kitchen—the highlight of which included replacing the tile floor with brick pavers. “We get a lot of comments about the brick floors—mostly surprise,” Jan shares. “I had wanted a brick floor for a long time. I’m so glad we did it.”
“I like to call our home a ‘cottage ranch,’ ” says Jan of the 1940s dwelling she shares with
J.R. in Champaign, Illinois. “It is a stone home with a lot of windows which give us a lot of natural light.”
Jan prefers an approachable, comfortable design that reflects her interests and style. In fact, many of her choices are influenced by the time she spent as a child at her grandparents’ old farmhouse. “They had a huge farmhouse kitchen with a washboard sink. I wanted a farm sink before farm sinks were a ‘thing,’ ” she notes.
Family heirlooms abound in Jan’s styling scheme, from vintage photos and her mother’s art supplies to a fiddle that once belonged to J.R.’s grandpa. “I love collecting and decorating with pieces I have found—but family pieces top the list,” Jan says. Other favorite decorating wares include demijohns, French canning jars, crocks, leather-bound books, vintage suitcases and anything bearing numbers. In fact, metal tags, vintage address plaques, bingo cards and clock dials are found en masse in the most creative and unexpected places.
Although her fondness for treasures that have been passed down through generations remains constant, Jan’s design preferences may very well evolve again. But, she will certainly continue to connect the line between the past and the present.