At Home: Old country charm

to visit Linda Earley and Chuck Collins, you walk past the turn-of-the-century hitching post, across the walk made with pavers from an old brick city street, and up the wooden steps that aren't old at all but are certainly storied.

"Chuck replaced those steps," Earley said. "he was just going to repair them till one of the neighbors fell through."

that marriage of old and new is never incongruous in their West Bluff home, which was built in 1905. Everywhere there's a modern convenience, there's usually something old to disguise it, or at the very least, an item's antique counterpart. What's new is made to look old.

the television in their bedroom is tucked inside a free-standing cupboard, one Earley salvaged as another family was discarding it. he "distressed" it with paint to make it look old.

There's a television in the living room as well, this time hidden inside a built-in cupboard.

"Nobody's putting a flat-screen TV above that fireplace," Earley said, laughing. "It's not happening."

A saucer on Earley's bathroom counter holds an old-fashioned curling iron, which uses a wick that must be lit. on the other side of the sink there's a modern curling iron.

But the real treasure in her bathroom ? and this is strictly her bathroom; the men in the home share another ? is the clawfoot bathtub, which is original to the home. Visitors have been known to ask if she "actually uses" the tub. those guests don't know her very well.

"some people pack their antiques away," Earley said. "My philosophy is, I want to use them and enjoy them. There's no, 'you can't sit on this. you can't touch that.'"

And that means the antiques-filled house feels like a comfortable home, not a museum. It's an atmosphere Earley remembers from her grandmother's house in Missouri when she was growing up. Her family would leave their city home to spend a few weeks with Grandma in the country each summer.

"I loved that little glimpse of comfortable," she said.

the family of three moved into the home in 1998. Repairing the steps, and making some new spindles for the porch was among the first projects Collins took on. Freeing the first-story floors from their pink, plush carpeting was another. And the sturdy hardwood floors they found are striking.

"As we pulled up carpet, we were like, 'Wow!' We jumped up and down more with every room," Earley said.

the floor that couldn't be saved was the one in the kitchen. the couple installed a distressed laminate to maintain the older look. the wall behind the stove looks like pressed tin, but it's actually thermal plastic. the kitchen cupboards aren't original to the home, but Collins and Earley refinished them.

the few reproductions blend well with the older furnishings and decorations, from an antique kitchen timer near the stove to the bean rooster Collins made as a child at vacation Bible school.

"We use everything, and almost everything we have belonged to someone in our family," Earley said.

Collins said the couple were drawn to the home because of its spaciousness and the neighborhood.

"There's not a level floor or a plumb wall in the house, but that's what makes it unique," he said.

Upstairs, the foyer still has the original parquet floor. the master bedroom suite was originally two rooms ? the smaller of which likely would have been a nursery. A wall was removed and closets added.

instead of nightstands, their antique bed is sandwiched between two camp stools. Antique suitcases, complete with luggage tags, are laid on the stools, and it's on them that the usual assortment of lamps and reading material goes. A family history quilt is mounted on a wall, and the people in the black-and-white pictures that are sprinkled around are ancestors.

in the basement, besides a fruit cellar and laundry room, are two areas carved out for Collins and their 15-year-old son, Ian.

Ian's space is strictly modern, with concert posters and all the trappings of a serious video gamer.

Collins' area has a computer, but pretty much everything else can be categorized as memorabilia or antique. much of one wall is taken up by a 1931 magnetic weather map, which Collins rescued from work when one of the stations for which he works as a meteorologist was updating.

Out back, a large deck opens from the dining room and mud room, which still has the house's original potting shed. the detached garage was built as a carriage house.

much of the home's history the family gleaned from older people in the neighborhood. the original owner, Adeline White, was a piano teacher. While she owned the house, the foyer, living and dining rooms contained nothing but pianos.

the family still occasionally hears the comment from a visitor, "Oh, I've never seen the house with furniture."

Jennifer Towery can be reached at 686-3119 or .

Tags: Hospitality Recreation, Jennifer Towery, Chuck Collins, curling iron

Source: http://snapcat.info/living-room-furniture/fireplace-screens/at-home-old-country-charm/

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