Repurposing vintage items in home might surprise you

Even people who can resist the charms of antiques would welcome them if their homes could look like Barb Lemme's.

Lemme is an antiques dealer who has been collecting for a long time and will sell her wares at the Fox Valley Antiques Show, March 13 and 14. But her Glen Ellyn home is only 12 years old, and any style decor could fit it comfortably.

The visitor's first "wow" comes right inside the front door. Here's a two-story gathering room with a see-through stone fireplace complete with raised hearth.

If it weren't for all the sparkling white woodwork, beams and occasional beadboard, this open floor plan would definitely be contemporary.

"One of the things I like most about it is the light - the natural light and the open space and the design details," said Lemme.

And if your idea of an antique collector's home is your great-grandmother's Victorian parlor, this will surprise you.

Lemme does not like clutter, but she does like color. Thus many of her wood furniture pieces are painted.

"I love painted furniture. I think part of it is the color. They are warm. I have country pieces primarily - from the simple life. See the wear. I love the fact that these things have passed through other people's lives. They are not mass produced but were created by someone who really put a lot into it. That appeals to me."

The large kitchen, which shares the fireplace and is visible behind the gathering room, is full of surprises. Industrial-looking tin lights craning gracefully from high above bring sunflowers to mind. White cabinets present the popular unstructured look - including at least one way up on the second-floor level in the two-story room. A secret: It opens from the back in the master bathroom, so no scaffolding is required to arrange a display.

And the designer tied things together by putting a band of black and white checkerboard tiles under the crown molding on the cabinets that dot this two-story wall. This was a message to Lemme when she first saw the house in 2003 because black and white gameboards are among the antiques she collects.

Note the pieces of tin ceiling that block parts of two glass cabinet doors. That's to hide the microwave. The creamy, sandy yellow on the kitchen walls is Benjamin Moore.

Several sets of double French doors are important features in the floor plan. They open into side rooms that include a study, bedroom and dining room. There also is a rear family room with a second stone fireplace.

The home was designed and built by Mike Wilson of Humming Bird Woodworks, who happened to be Lemme's classmate at Glenbard West High School. He did all this on the footprint of a midcentury ranch.

But the newer home is two stories, which allows for a terrific master suite as well as additional bedrooms.

Lemme and two partners own a Glen Ellyn shop called Sign of the Whale. Her previous careers include teaching psychology at College of DuPage and writing a textbook that she has revised three times.

"I think it's good for people to know you can decorate with antiques or you can have just one wonderful piece - an antique table with a contemporary painting over it.

You're preserving our history. And you give your home a more personal feel. Look at this hooked rug - there isn't another one just like it in the world.

"It's recycling at its best."