Name: Hannah, Mike , Baby J
Location: St. Louis, MO
Size: 1500 square feet
Years lived in: Four
Hannah and Mike are incontrovertible proof that a small budget doesn't preclude good design. For the past four years, they've slowly made improvements to their bungalow in St. Louis' South City, and amassed an amazing array of furniture, without spending big bucks. Hannah raises their son at home, works as a hairstylist, and maintains a blog called secondhandhannah. Her husband, Mike, co-owns and operates a series of local watering holes called the Tin Can Tavern.
Like most estate sale and thrift junkies, Hannah regularly manages decorative flotsam and jetsam. On most days you'll find her refinishing chair legs, reupholstering an ottoman, or repairing whatever booty she found that week. When rooms get overcrowded, she jettisons a piece or two via craigslist, and moves on. (An expensive sectional met a similar fate when traded for a more family friendly leather sofa, found for $29.)
What could easily be chaos is unified by Hannah's eye for placement, and the lovely gray walls that carry throughout the house. Their home isn't overly precious, and provides just the casual and comfortable setting required for a toddler and two dogs. That's Andy, the pit bull, in many of the photos; she followed us everywhere around the house and had a knack for choosing soft spots within the camera's frame.
Apartment Therapy Survey:
My/Our style: Vintage eclectic
Inspiration: Found objects, financial restrictions, design blogs, design books and magazines, friends and family
Favorite Element: I think the whole house works due to everything being second-hand, worn and loved.
Biggest Challenge: Finances
What Friends Say: "Do you really need another: lamp, chair or fill in the blank?"
Biggest Embarrassment: At this point, the bathroom. We would love to renovate our current one and add a second half bath. However, with only one current bath and no budget for a second we don't want to not have a usable bath while renovating.
Proudest DIY: We have so many, but at the moment, I've never been prouder of my husband and his skills while building our new chicken coop and for hanging a reclaimed door on a sliding track like a barn door. I also love how our new slat bench - made from old scaffolding and hairpin legs - turned out. It's very simple, yet has a lot of character.
Biggest Indulgence: Maybe our new cowhide rug. We bought it new after not being able to find a vintage one.
Best advice: Don't be afraid of something not being perfect. I don't think we have anything perfect in the house but we love it as if it were. Also, make sure you love your purchases for your home. If you bring something in that you settled on, it most likely won't stand the test of time.
Dream source: I dreamed not too long ago that I walked into a store that was closing and they had stacks of Eames shell chairs. The owner said I could have them all for $5 a piece. I don't want for more than I already have, but I would love to walk into an estate sale full of great pieces, all in my price range.
Resources: Most of our stuff comes from thrift stores, estate sales, or alleys.
(Thanks, Hannah & Mike!)
Images: Ann Manubay, Dabney Frake
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Comments (67)
Very cool. I mean, VERY COOL!
Love, love, love it. (Great decorating, plus you have some really awesome stuff.)
i love all of the wood pieces, the unfinished wooden benches, all the way down to the wooden trivet on the dining table.
my weekend diy is putting casters on an old trunk, so thanks for the inspiration =)
and i have an unhealthy obsession with vintage chairs, so i'm completely in love with the 2 living room areas.
fantastic job. inspiration for my first home, definitely!
You're home is an inspiration to homeowners on a budget! I am in the very beginning stages of a similar journey and I know it will be a while before my place has the warm, lived-in character that yours does. It's fun though, no? Every piece is a little victory.
There's a cowhide rug on my local Craigslist right now. Won't work in my place, but I always want to find someone who will love it... too late, I guess.
Oh, mama. I'm speechless. I love this.
More, more, more of this kind of home on AT, please! So filled with love, and spirit, and style, Hannah & Mike -- wonderful.
This is so inspiring as a thrifter myself...although, this apartment could be 10 times better with more color.
Beautiful, and what my home aspires to... So jealous of your $29 leather couch...
I LOVE how your lovely dog was in every other shot. He is clearly the best accessory. I also love your coffee table in the living room. Great piece.
just so genuine, and real.... but with a polish that keeps it from being junked-up and off-putting. I love it.
FABULOUS!
It's gorgeous! Hannah has such a great eye and it's like her pieces seek out and find her. Lovely place you three!
No, don't add more color!!!! That's what makes your place so awesome! Honestly, sometimes color restraint is what keeps a place from looking like a hodgepodge of junk. Your home has a very deliberate, edited feel. Sometimes you have to ignore well-meaning, but BAD, advice. Please, don't change a thing. This is truly perfection.
I love the house, they did a great job. But picture #11 concerns me - I hope they either relocate the piece of wood furniture over the vent, or at minimum, never, ever, ever leave the central heat on while sleeping or out. It gives me flashbacks to a fatal fire in the neighborhood, which originated from the floor vent.
Wow! Kudos to the homeowners. This may be my most favorite house tour yet.
I completely love this place. It has heart. It's evolved, its considered, its personal. And its truly individual.
Definately the best house tour I have seen yet. She has excellent taste and such a great eye! If she doesn't already she should work for Apartment Therapy (or something of the sort) Absolutely beautiful, tasteful, artistic and creative...that's hard to come by. I checked out her blog secondhandhannah, and it's excellent. I'm so excited to see some fresh ideas.
I don't know where to start. This is what I dream of my home becoming someday. I love the mix of rustic wood pieces with the classic mid-century ones. I love the wall color, the rugs, the kitchen, the lighting!!! Fantastic.
Nice mix of interesting furniture and objects. Love the kitchen picture with the colors above the stove, and the entryway with pegs and hats and purses.
This place looks "real", not "done"; comfortable, not cutesy.
Really well done! I love it.
Fantastic! It looks really incredible, very inviting, unique and personal!
Very well done. Although the more you flip thru the pics, the more this home tends to look like a MCM/thrift store. Lots of things going on in the living room. But very nice overall.
You have an incredible eye for great things! Somehow all the unique stuff you've found fits together so well.
Wow! Great. No, don't add more color. The puddles of it you have are spot-on perfect (the blue chair, the red poster, the orange arrows). More would just feel like clutter.
Kudos.
True perfection! Rarely do I see an interior where I wouldn't change anything at all, but this home needs no editing. Classic modern pieces are juxtaposed here with rustic and natural elements as they were intended to be, so the arrangements reveal personal style rather than a mere penchant for vintage collectibles. Thank you for not filling in the blanks with Ikea! Your excellent taste in art and your subtle sense of humor instill a richness here. YAY!
My kinda place!
Are those chalkboards in the frames above the piano? Love it!
The frames over the piano are old window screens my husband found not long after we moved in the house, and we hung them there and they haven't moved since, which is unusual at our house.
The comment about safety of putting a piece of furniture over a vent, thanks for the concern but that is an air IN-take so it poses no fire threat.
I love the fireplace and the record player!
Wow. I love this.
Wow! This is AMAZING! I love the artwork in the black frame in the living room. Who is the artist, and where did you find the frame? Love it!
I really enjoyed your house tour. Shows that you can be unique and mix different styles and pull it off. I especially appreciated how you were able to mix rustic pieces with mid century modern and vintage and make it look cohesive! I hope that I can do this in the new home I'm moving into.
What is the color/brand you used for the living room walls?
really great home!! I love the style!!
The large black frame with the black and white print is a 2ft x 4ft copy of a water color my 3yr old did, I mounted it to foam core and the frame was an old beer ad that I took apart and primed and painted black, the ad came from my husband's bar.
The wall color in the living area is Behr from home depot, The two living areas have two different colors from the same swatch, the darker of the two is porpoise. I hope that helps!
I love House Tours as much for seeing the opinions of frequent commentors as I do the actual home.
Gives great perspective on their personal styles.
Sometimes I see homes on AT that I really like, but never do I see ones that actually inspire me. Your home does just that. I too have a limited decorating budget and rent a pretty grand apartment with every room painted just the color of your walls. If I could make my home half as lovely as yours, I would feel like I was living in heaven.
Nice job on a limited budget, but can you actually sit at the tables in the kitchen and entry? There doesn't seem to be leg space.
Yes, we do use both tables. The one in the kitchen is used as a snack bar and also prep table. The table in the entry is used as a desk and sewing table. The table in the entry way is a butcher block and at one point was taller, but we cut the legs down to be a better height, we had planned on making new legs for the butcher block but have needed to yet. The s.s. table in the kitchen can be raised, but its at a great height for preparing food.
I love the budget-friendly interior, that looks expensive! This is one unique home I am bookmarking for inspiration ;)
Wow. I agree with all the comments above. Your home is gorgeous, yet so down home - in the same way that seeing someone gorgeous on the street is so much more inspiring than any airbrushed model.
Oh please tell me where that fireplace is from and are they efficient or just there to look wonderful?!
The fireplace is a Preway or firehood. We got it off craigslist. We have the whole chimney, but we opted to use a gel fuel conversion kit so that we could move it around the house and also bring it outside for wood fires. The log set and kit was bought online from JC Pennys. The gel fuel can be rather costly and has to be bought online, but if you google it you can find what goes into it and make it at home for much less, it emits heat and crackels like a wood fire.
I see you use Mccoy/Hull brown drip dishes. Nice house overall...now why don't i get that lucky on craigslist.
what color is the paint?
The paint is Behr from home depo, the darker gray is porpoise and the lighter gray is from the same swatch just one shade lighter, I don't remember the other name at this point.
Such a great place. Definitely one of the top house tours on AT...
I really...really...really like it! What fun!
Really fantastic, I was wondering if you could tell me where you got your cowhide rug?
Tandy's Leather, we have one in town, but I think you can also order online. They were all beautiful and right around $200, which I think is a good price.
I think this is my favorite AT house tour ever! I especially love that it was all done over time, on a budget. It makes the whole space seem more thoughtful and inviting.
Wow. They truly have TALENT. Wonderful mixes, interesting materials, furniture with great silhouettes; all infused with a sense of fun. Congrats!
Love this place, nice and cozy. Feels like a home.
love!!
luv.
dog & home.
great job.
where did you get your leather couch? i can't believe you found it for only $29!!! i've been looking for something just like that!
Totally beautiful, comfortable space! Thanks for the big inspiration for us small budget people!
That dog is beautiful, such a character! Oh, and so is your home! The love and care put into your home is evident and very special. This is what I am aiming for. Thanks for the inspiration.
I'm with a lot of others who think this one of the best-est :). I like the hat rack and bench at entry, and the old door from/to the sun room. On-the-cheap is a source of pride these days, and really is a mark of peoples' thinking ability and ingenuity, as opposed to willy-nilly running off to the mart with credit card in hand.
A
keeping it simple and practical... calling it real living.
Edit to storage about 40%. Rotate as your muse dictates.
In general I can find home tours irritating. For me,it's not always about the stuff but how people are working their space in new/clever ways. I'm drawn towards the skills and ideas not the merchandising(the arrangements of tchotkes)
The thrifting is great but when it becomes about constant buying and collecting great numbers what difference is it to buying highend? I offer this as a question b/c I grapple with this too. Where do we draw the line at feeding the "beast"?
Does anyone else have difficulty with editing?
This house seems very soothing and very creative at the same time. Well done.
That couch is insane! $29...i wish i could find a bargain like that. I like the colour arranged kitchen pots - what a great idea - and doesn't look too flea market and higgleydipggeldy in colour/style.
saer
http://cravenmaven.wordpress.com
Right on! Love it! Not cutesey or precious in any way.
where did you get the wall organizer in the mudroom/entry/office? i love your house!
This is one of the best house tours I've ever seen. Just so inviting, interesting and well-curated. My house is scarily like this one in many ways, furniture wise anyway. But with several kids, it's a challenge for us to maintain the calm warmth that these spaces exude. Such perfect editing! So many subtle tone-on-tones, and textures!
The red fireplace = true love!!!
It's all beautiful, BUT THAT KITCHEN ROCKS!!!
Great accumulation of nice vintage finds. I'm doing the same thing and it really makes it fun and more personalized!
I am literally drooling over your house tour. Yes, it happened. *slurp*
I adore the fact that you designed the vast majority of your space with thrifted finds. We share a similar design aesthetic. Inspiring. Ahh....