HOME AGAIN

Meet a Midwestern couple who return to the Hoosier State after a Southern stay, bringing with them a newfound love of antiques and a knack for creating inspiring displays.

Two Indiana antiques dealers embrace the history of an 1865 former workman’s cottage and set about turning it into a showcase for early 18th- and 19th-century pieces.

Diane and Tom Strack

credit a three-year stint in Tennessee in the early 2000s with changing their lives. “The first friend I made there after we moved was an antiques dealer,” Diane explains. As their friendship grew, so did Diane’s interest in and love of antiques, especially primitive pieces. Eventually, the creative couple decided to follow in their friend’s footsteps and become dealers themselves.

That love endured even after Diane and Tom returned to Indiana, where they now live. They opened a shop, Curly Willow Antiques and Treasures, in 2013 in the historic town of Franklin, but the couple eventually grew tired of the long commute from their Indianapolis home and started looking for a place closer to the shop. They found it in a one-time workman’s cottage in downtown Franklin that had been built in 1865 and modified through the years. “I had always admired the charm of this little college town, and when we set our eyes on our current home, I knew it was the one,” Diane explains. “I immediately could see my things in this house.”

Like many period homes in the area, the residence had a rich history. The first owner was the church pastor who lived next door; it was later used as apartments during World War II and again in the 1970s. Originally much smaller, the house grew throughout the 1900s until it reached today’s total of 3,500 square feet, with four bedrooms (three up, one down) and two baths. Discoveries about the home’s past have been part of the fun for Diane. “When we remodeled the downstairs bath in 2019, we found out it used to be part of a wraparound porch on the back of the house,” she says.

According to town records, the Stracks are the 12th owners. Fortunately for them, much of the structural work had been done before they purchased the home. Most of the cosmetic updates simply involved new coats of paint for the rooms and the exterior. Inside, color choices were easy for Diane; she just opted for the harvest hues she knew would best set off her enviable collections. When they painted the walls, she says, “our primitive furniture and antiques just popped.”

The Stracks specialize in 18th- and 19th-century primitives, and their home serves as a showcase for many of their antique finds, along with a few carefully chosen new pieces. “We love early coverlets, crocks, samplers and redware, but we are not afraid to blend in reproduction,” Diane explains.

Wanting to spend more time with family, the Stracks made the decision to close their shop a few years ago. Today, they stock a booth at a nearby antiques store and even have a new candle-making business. Married 37 years with an ever-expanding family that includes seven grandchildren they call “the joy of our lives” and an Australian Shepherd named Mia Sophia, they say their house easily accommodates everyone.

Despite downsizing their business, the Stracks agree that antiques continue to enrich their lives and their marriage. “When we come across a piece we are unfamiliar with, we enjoy researching it together,” Diane says. They’re grateful to that Tennessee friend for having shown them the way to a new life, one they have thoroughly enjoyed and are happy to share with both the next generation and like-minded history buffs hundreds of miles away.

Hands-On History

Diane and Tom were lucky enough to inherit a small cabin that serves as a backyard playhouse when they purchased the property. At the time, however, it was nothing like the sweet little retreat it is now. “The [former] owners had a teenage son, so it was more like a man cave when we bought the house, with a Colts football theme,” Diane reports with a laugh.

The Stracks wasted no time in transforming the structure into the general store–inspired playhouse it is today. It’s a favorite—not surprisingly—of their grandchildren, who like to play and sleep in the space when they visit. There’s only one negative, says Diane: “They come in the house to go to the bathroom, sometimes at three in the morning!”

Inside the playhouse, she displays old-fashioned goods and keeps prairie-style dresses and periodappropriate clothing ready for kids who have an itch to play general store. According to Diane, hands-on activities like this encourage an interest in history.

“I love it when the young people come in and ask lots of questions,” she shares. “We do like to educate people about the past and about what we have.”

The reimagined playhouse has been a huge hit, both with family members and visitors. “Everyone loved it when it was on the home tour,” Diane recalls. “We couldn’t get the kids out of it to make them go home!”

Diane and Tom Strack originally planned to strip their home’s white painted woodwork and trim, but eventually they embraced it, deciding that it highlighted and complemented the darker prim colors found in the furnishings and accessories. A tall cupboard filled with pewter offers more lightness to the living room. Stacked boxes showcase the home’s color palette and bring visual continuity to the space.

Tom and Diane like to spend leisure time on spring and summer days taking in the verdant view from the porch of their Indiana home.

Never one to waste available display space, Diane amped up the existing kitchen’s country charm by arranging coffee grinders, crocks and grain measures on top of the cabinets and echoing the theme with similar pieces on the countertops below. She balances the stained wood cabinets with carefully chosen pops of white and cream. To lighten up your own kitchen cabinets, try painting wood trim a clean white hue, installing creamy-toned countertops or hanging sheer tobacco-cloth curtains.

This handmade reproduction four-poster in the Stracks’ master bedroom functions as a focal point when dressed in simple linens and surrounded by antique accessories. Diane gives a favorite folk-art horse a prime display spot on a blanket chest at the foot of the bed. “I just love her!” she says.

A carved wooden bed that dates to the 1940s stars in the Stracks’ guest room. The vintage prints above the headboard mirror the tones in the mannequin heads and other accessories on the nightstand.