A JEWEL IN THE ROUGH
Get to know a pair of industrious Missouri homeowners who remodeled a tiny ranch-style house to suit their country cottage decorating preferences.
Take a look inside a tiny ranch that went from outdated to a thing of beauty thanks to industrious Missouri homeowners who made their vision of a cozy cottage come to life.
aving lived as townsfolk for some 14 years, Rob and Ginger Withers longed for greener pastures that accommodated their country-living dreams and Ginger’s charming collections. Their dreams came true in 2009, when they purchased a down-but-not-out 900-square-foot ranch home nestled on 5 acres outside Rogersville, Missouri.
“I’ve always been drawn to primitives and love cool old things, so I wanted a home with charm that wasn’t a cookie-cutter house,” Ginger says. “This home had potential and character. Luckily, Rob is a builder and knows how to do everything. I show him pictures of things I like, and he builds them.”
Before Rob built a single thing in the 72-year-old abode, the couple ripped out too-low ceilings, gutted the bathroom, and razed walls to join two small bedrooms into a large master bedroom. They moved the front door to create a wall long Ginger loves to decorate with unusual elements in unexpected ways, such as a hayfork that spans a window and a pitchfork head that holds dinner plates between its tines. Rural references, from barn prints and country landscapes to farm tools and crocks, abound throughout the home. enough to accommodate their living room sofa and other furnishings. Ginger finds that opting for fewer but bigger items creates a more streamlined country look that, in turn, makes each room feel larger than its dimensions.
In the outdated kitchen, the existing oak cabinets were given an antiqued paint finish and new glass door panels that offer the space a sense of airiness. To provide a rustic look at ground level, the couple laid brick paver floors in the kitchen, hallway and bathroom and installed rough-sawn pine floors finished with Briwax in the living room.
With the bones of the house in place, Rob and Ginger set about amplifying the home’s period appeal. They painted some paneled walls while dressing others in horizontally applied boards, a treatment they carried to the ceilings for continuity.
Once the months-long renovation was complete, Ginger happily turned her attention to decorating each room with her vast array of quaint and quirky collections. “I’m not sure I really have a specific style,” Ginger says with a smile. “I use things that I like. I love primitive wood pieces and anything that is rusty and cobwebby. The look is eclectic, but inviting and comfortable. I want people to want to come here and stay awhile.”
Visitors to the Withers home gladly kick back and take in ever-evolving displays of Ginger’s flea-market treasures. Old milk stools add interest atop a living room wall cabinet; upside-down galvanized buckets prop up table lamps; cutting boards fashion rustic pedestals; dough boards hang as kitchen artworks; and wooden crates convert to frames for landscape prints. Propping lamps atop boards and buckets allows more light to shine into adjacent spaces, and simple window treatments invite in natural light.
“There is something on every wall and in every corner,” Ginger says with a laugh. “Sometimes Rob says, ‘Can’t we just have one wall with nothing on it?’ But, because the house has only one closet, I need furniture pieces for storage. And, I love to display my things and create different looks for every season.”
Earth tones and brilliant oranges show up in Ginger’s decor year-round, but when fall arrives, she fans the flames with fiery bittersweet wreaths and branches, blazing mums, and pumpkins galore to create harvest-rich interiors. Simple gatherings of autumn flourishes dot tabletops and cabinets to offer spots of seasonal color.
Ginger takes care to create well-edited displays that don’t overwhelm her tiny abode, no matter the season. Happily, she has a knack for arranging her collections in ways that create calming country-cozy quarters that suit her and Rob to a T.