Singular Sensation
Allow a striking bed frame, like this period reproduction tester in the Tweedies’ master bedroom, to take center stage by dressing it in homespun linens and pairing it with petite pine nightstands and minimal tobacco-cloth window treatments.
When Julie Tweedie spied the perfect porch swing, she could just envision it swaying gently on her cozy screened porch. She purchased the swing without hesitation— even though that porch was still a far-off dream. Some 13 years later, she finally opened the box containing the swing, and she and her husband, Joe, installed it on the porch of their newly built home.
Julie and Joe grew up in Maine’s northernmost region and married in 1984. Five years later, they bought Joe’s parents’ house, which presided over the family’s potato farm in Blaine, Maine. The Tweedies raised three sons in that farmhouse and were comfortable with its rural aesthetic. “We’ve always loved country-style decorating. It’s born into us,” Julie explains.
But although Julie loved the homestead, she had long dreamt of building a Colonial-style home. “I have a deep, soulful pull to homes from the 1700s and 1800s,” Julie reveals. She admits that her family jokingly referred to her dream as her “someday” house. Undaunted by the teasing, Julie photographed historic homes in Maine, New Hampshire and Canada and became fluent with the vernacular. She acquired yard-sale and auction treasures and stowed them away for her future house. Among her favorites are a woodstove made in Portland, Maine, and a timeworn desk found discarded on a neighbor’s lawn. She even picked out historic paint colors for the exterior and interior and selected period-appropriate stencil patterns for the walls and floors.
In 2013, Julie’s “someday” finally arrived. She and Joe passed the farmhouse on to their oldest son and his family, and then they selected a spot on the property and built a saltbox house exactly as Julie had imagined. “My inspiration comes from the past,” she says. “I have a true love
for history, especially family history. I believe it’s simplicity that I love so much. I used to think I was born in the wrong era. Now, I think I was born to bring back that simple way of living and show others that it works today.”
Blending the past and present, the new house features traditional elements such as posts, beams, wooden ceilings, a distinctive staircase, paneled doors, metal latches and fieldstone fireplaces. Julie’s DIY projects weave the story of her family into each living space. For example, she repurposed boards from an old barn on the property into a peg rack, fireplace surround and dining table. “The legs of the table are the rails to the loft ladder that Joe climbed as a child,” Julie notes. “It’s full of memories and will be handed down through the generations.”
Julie prides herself on stretching her decorating dollar and will patiently wait to find the items she wants—or she will make them herself. She searched eBay for years and slowly acquired all of the primitive-style lighting she needed for the home. She installed laminate flooring throughout the rooms and used discontinued oak flooring for the ceiling. And she sewed cabinet curtains from fabric remnants to use in the pantry in place of traditional cabinet doors. Julie enjoys sharing many of her ideas through her two YouTube channels, Keeper of My Home (cleaning, organizing and decorating) and MeMe’s Pantry (cooking and baking), as well as on Instagram @memes_pantry.
When she’s not mulling over her next project or posting on social media, you’ll likely find Julie ensconced on that perfect porch swing, perhaps with Joe or a couple of their seven grandchildren. “I feel like I’m living in a dream,” she reflects, marveling at the comforts of the home she helped usher from imagination to reality.