JUST BY CHANCE

Add character to your spaces by learning how a Pennsylvania couple with an affinity for primitive and rescued treasures gave voice to a forgotten property’s stories.

An 1870s residence has been revived from its utilitarian beginnings as a potato farm’s main house by a Pennsylvania couple who have lovingly restored it in deference to its history.

FFate, kismet or serendipity—whatever you call it, Ginger Schmidt believes it led her to the house that is now her home. “We had been searching for a house for a while,” the Macungie, Pennsylvania, resident remembers. Touring the area with a real estate agent, she and her husband, Doug, passed by a 2,100-square-foot brick farmhouse located on almost 2 acres. “I told my husband I would really love a house like that, but it wasn’t for sale,” Ginger shares. A week or two later, they were out house hunting again and, surprisingly, the house was on the market. “It felt like it was meant to be,” she continues. Dating to 1874, the former potato farm consisted of the main house, a vintage barn and multiple outbuildings, including a summer kitchen. The main house, now home to Ginger and Doug and their two sons, Dayne and Drayce, was in decent condition but needed some work. When the Schmidts purchased the property in 1996, “there was nothing but cornfields behind us,” Ginger recalls. The farmland gradually gave way to new development as the handy and creative couple took their time transforming the historical house. They ripped down wallpaper and uncovered original details—including a walk-in fireplace in the kitchen and original brick walls in several rooms—that had been hidden by passing years. “My husband’s a schoolteacher, so we did a room a summer,” Ginger explains, noting that they didn’t take vacations and did most of the work themselves.

Ginger’s mother always decorated with antiques, so she jokes that she comes by her collections of redware, yellowware and cast-iron dogs naturally. She is also partial to old raggedy bears, worn leather horses and other antique orphans, some of which become centerpieces of the vintage vignettes she sells at a local antiques mall and through her business, GingerSnap Collectables. “I don’t mind chips, holes, cracks or rust. All of those things just add to the story of where it’s been. I don’t care if a leg is gone or it’s not perfect,” she explains. “It has damage, so what? We all do. It tells a story.”

Ginger starts decorating for Christmas at the end of September, in part because she hosts an annual holiday home show just before Thanksgiving. The event is a showcase for holiday-themed antiques and one-of-a-kind creations. Although she can’t always explain what sparks an idea, she always trusts her instincts. And she never passes by a piece of vintage fabric. “I’ll mix anything,” she explains. “If it catches my eye, I don’t care if it’s old or new. If I can envision even more beauty from a piece just by adding a little to it, it’s perfect. I like to give it new life and make people notice it again and smile because it’s different.”

The Schmidts relish being a part of the home’s long history and don’t mind that it comes with an equally long to-do list. “I don’t think we will ever relax, but it was totally worth it,” Ginger says with a laugh. After 25 happy years in the historical home, the family doesn’t regret taking on the renovation challenge. After all, you never know what good fortune fate has in store.

If you are lucky enough to have an original tin ceiling, then add some extra elements to draw attention to it, as Ginger did in her kitchen with paint and the soft glow of Edison bulbs around the perimeter. Not so lucky? Refinish a new tin ceiling the same way by painting it a champagne hue and then highlighting details with multiple other colors.

Dress your mantel in its holiday best by adopting these three ideas from Ginger’s kitchen:

1. Nose Like a Cherry.

In lieu of a piece of artwork, hang an oversize St. Nick face as the jolly main character in your arrangement.

2. Good Reads.

Choose books from your collection to stack on both sides of the focal point. Make selections based on cover artwork and colors, as these small displays should frame the featured center piece and draw the eye inward.

3. Hung with Care.

Add simple stockings or vintage socks, prim gourd garlands and festive twinkle lights as finishing touches.

No island? No problem. Ever resourceful, Ginger and Doug Schmidt didn’t let that stop them from having a functional workspace in their kitchen— they made their own from an old cabinet they purchased at auction and topped with a piece of painted barnwood. They drew color inspiration for the kitchen from the home’s exterior, whitewashing the once-dark cabinets and painting lower walls and woodwork green.

Treasured pieces from Ginger’s enviable yellowware collection are stacked in a variety of formations to lead the eye up to the tin ceiling in the family’s kitchen. She painted the cabinets and molding a distressed white for contrast.

Ginger and Doug, along with sons Dayne and Drayce and Great Dane Claireese, gather on the side porch, which is the preferred entrance for friends and family. “Anyone who knows us knows that’s the door to come to,” Ginger laughs. The staircase was salvaged from the property’s deteriorating pigsty and reimagined as a standalone shelf.

Counter space and closets are at a premium in an old house, Ginger laments. She solved one problem by installing a shelf at counter height and placing stools beneath for her two boys in a room next to the kitchen that houses laundry appliances. The wood cabinet in the corner camouflages the dryer.