Historic Home

Jessamyn Stanley is an author, wellness advocate, and co-founder of The Underbelly and We Go High. She shares a tour of her poly family's four-bedroom, two-bathroom rental house as well as a peek into her family's extra meaningful holiday celebrations this year.

Filled with crumbling brick walls, an eclectic array of furnishings, and lots of character, the creative couple's home is not only one-of-a-kind, but steeped in history, too.

Prop stylist and cookbook author Annette Joseph lives in one of the DREAMIEST homes in Atlanta.

This house was near collapse when a couple bought it, but boy was it a steal! It took them three years to complete the renovation of this 100-year-old house.

Interior designer Michelle Martel remodeled this 1904 Victorian fixer-upper, and it's gorgeous!

Designer Victoria Cho spent all her free time outside of work on this house design and space layout. "There were endless nights of researching, reviewing bids, and placing orders for finishes, hardware, etc."

Over the years there have been some built-ins and add-ons that didn’t quite make sense to this home’s history, so Taylor and Philip are working tirelessly to restore the home to her former glory.

Designer Maureen Stevens brought her “muted maximalism” design style to the house she shares with her husband and child and to the gorgeous guest cottage behind it.

There are over 150+ plants spread through their house and greenhouse!

Hand-painted patterned walls, insanely vibrant colors, and a DIY garden so gorgeous it'll take your breath away... the married design duo Roger + Chris have done it again.

Tall ceilings, original architectural details, and an incredibly bold & colorful palette... this recently renovated home is stunning!

This classic four-square house in Charleston was originally built in 1935 and before getting remodeled, needed a more efficient and open layout, and lots of love.

Angela Wator, owner/designer of BASH Party Goods, has decorated this 1896 Victorian house in Chicago with color, pattern, and fun.

Jessica Brigham has turned an already charming Craftsman bungalow into a "modern eclectic glamazon" home bursting with green plants and patterns!

This UK's home style is eclectic, but not in your face. Paolo loves colors, but in calming palettes. It's a stylish but subtle (and inspiring!) space.

Salvage material expert Joanne Palmisano and her husband did a lot of the work on this house transformation themselves, like laying the tile, painting, sanding floors, and much more.

The small peek of this renovated UK home is worth seeing thanks to the homeowners' DIY ingenuity, refreshing modern style, and their fun use of primary colors throughout.

The house was an unkempt labyrinth.

This 1930s New Mexico house had a good layout, lots of light, great hardwood floors, and original cabinetry, but it needed updating and lots of love!

"Our home was built in 1911 and belongs to an entire street of similarly built mill houses and I love that it has been around for over 100 years."

Create & Cultivate founder Jaclyn Johnson renovated this gorgeous 1920s Los Angeles house.

This whole home's remodel came together in an organic, emotional, and beautiful way.

This 132-year-old Victorian house is brimming with amazing details like eight fireplaces, 11-foot ceilings, inlaid floors, a six-foot clawfoot tub, a brass lion's head door knocker and more.

When Cali toured this 103 years old house for the first time it, everything about it screamed of the 1970s, down to the vinyl wood paneling dirty shag carpeting to find original wide-plank wood floors, but she knew it was an architectural gem just waiting to be uncovered.

Originally built in 1885, when renovating this historic house, the homeowners had to change out the electricity, the plumbing, the lights and the flooring.

This family of five has created a lively home in a UNESCO Heritage Site built in the late 17th century, in an old warehouse that was used to store sugar, coffee, and spices during the Dutch Golden Age.

This beautiful home in the countryside is full of elements like wood, wool, and aged metals and hints of the classic British look, a shaker kitchen, rustic oak flooring, heritage colors and tones throughout.

This house features bold colors, signs, and other interesting objects... and best of all almost everything in the house is preloved!

Historic industrial elements like an 1800s oven, original masonry, and porcelain subway bricks blend with this residential contractor's modern decor tastes.

This incredibly colorful house in Atlanta is a catch-all mix of mid-century modern and contemporary with some Hollywood glam and vintage.

Interior design, decor, and the environment don’t often collide, but in this colorful Victorian remodel, they do so beautifully.

This family of six has turned an outdated, 100-year-old house into a beautiful, functional, and fun home.

If you've ever dreamed of making olive oil from your own olive trees outside of a rustic but breathtakingly beautiful house in the Spanish countryside, well boy is this tour for you.

This home is an utter treasure trove of art and objects collected over time.

There were just two things a young Kate Inglis wanted to be when she grew up: a professional roller skater and an author. “Only one so far has panned out,” reports the YA and children’s book author (If I Were a Zombie, Flight of the Griffons, and The Dread Crew) and the upcoming adult non-fiction book Notes for the Everlost: A Field Guide to Grief.

Name: Chris Collie Location: Cabbagetown; Toronto, Canada Size: 600 square feet (but feels like 1000!) Years lived in: 2+ years; Owned We recently toured Lauren and Dylan’s Historic Split Apartment in Toronto’s east end. Lauren, Dylan, and Dylan’s brother, Chris, share this Victorian home, which they’ve split into two entirely distinct spaces.

Name: Ineke Hutter and sons Leo and Arlo Location: Collingwood; Melbourne; Victoria, Australia Size: 139 square meters (1,496 square feet) Years lived in: 10 years; Owned For interior stylist and set decorator Ineke Hutter, living in a 100-year-old wool mill is something she still gets a kick out of, 10 years after she first moved in. She and her two sons share the space where many moons ago factory workers sorted the wool that came in from farms outside the city.

Name: Sally Morgan-Flower Location: East London Size: 700 square feet Years lived in: 3 and a half years This beautifully-restored apartment, brimming with unique historic details, occupies one floor of a converted 1850s pub in the heart of London’s East End. Its renovation is an ongoing labour of love for owners Sally and David, who set out to stay true to the apartment’s original aesthetic yet at the same time create a lived-in home that feels comfortable and not too precious.

Name: Jenny Mountford, owner of Attic and Fable Location: Bridgetown, Western Australia Size: 1894 square feet Years lived in: 2.5 years, owned Jenny has always been drawn to color, the avant garde and items that have a history. To hold something in her hands that’s been held by many hands before her gives her such pleasure, allowing herself to wonder about the life both it, and its owner, may have led.

Name: Anne and Coen Location: Dordrecht, the Netherlands Size: 1,367 square feet Years lived in: 1 year, owned The old city of Dordrecht is filled with many quaint buildings, like a warehouse built in 1750 that was used to store bed sheets and towels for a nearby hospital (that has long since disappeared). Unlike the hospital, the warehouse is still around but is now home to Anne and Coen.

Name: Kate and Matt Williams, their children Daisy and Joseph, and their whippets Mimi and Olive Location: Mistley — Essex, UK Years lived in: 3 1/2 years This Georgian home dates back to 1710 and sits on one side of the scenic High Street of Mistley village on the Stour Estuary in Essex. The air is scented with the salty smell of the river and the malty hops brewing in the large red-brick brewery nearby.

Name: Stephan Weishaupt, founder of AVENUE ROAD Location: Cabbagetown, Toronto Size: 2,000 square feet Years Lived In: 12 years, owned Weishaupt is the founder and curator of high-end furniture retailer, AVENUE ROAD. Working with Chapi Chapo Design, Weishaupt completely remodeled and reinvigorated a falling-down Edwardian house in Cabbagetown—one of his favorite neighborhoods in Toronto.

Name: Lady Soule, Michael Ryan Handley, pup Jackson Location: Fishtown — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Size: 2,580 square feet Years Lived In: 2.5 years, owned If you have even the slightest hint of a bohemian style, you may have spent hours drooling over the patterned, textured furniture and decor delights offered up by Anthropologie. (Or is that just me?

Name: Jennifer Jorgensen and two pups Location: Kingfield — Minneapolis, Minnesota Size: 1,700 square feet Years lived in: I purchased it in 2012, so 7-ish years… I had no idea until I just looked up when I bought it—that’s a long time! Jennifer is one half of the Minneapolis-based, custom hand-painted and printed wallpaper and furnishings company, She She. (Kate Worum is the other half of She She, and we toured her home, too!

Name: Kevin O’Gara and family Location: Cabbagetown — Atlanta, Georgia Size: 1,500 square feet Years Lived In: 5 years, renting My dad first moved to Cabbagetown, a historic neighborhood in Atlanta, when my parents divorced in 2009. His first pad was a three-room shotgun duplex where my sisters and I first started exploring the neighborhood, and quickly we fell in love with its artistic charm!

Name: Lesli DeVito Location: Greenwood — Charlottesville, Virginia Size: 3624 square feet Years lived in: Owned 12 years Lesli, a painter, and her family first rented this Charlottesville home—originally built in 1880. But after only a year of living in the space, they bought it from the owner. They are only the second family ever to own the house. Lesli, who runs the blog My Old Country House, has put a lot of heart into this home for the past 12 years.

You may not have your own 100-year-old inn in the Catskill Mountains to fill with treasures, but that shouldn’t stop you from sourcing inspiration from Eliza and Tim. Their vintage inn is bursting with textures, moody colors, an array of textiles, and bohemian charm.

For airy and simple vintage bohemian inspiration for your bedroom, look no further than Eliza and Tim’s 100-year-old historic inn deep in the heart of New York’s Catskill Mountains. From floor to ceiling they have every inch covered and you won’t be disappointed!

It can take time to settle in and create your perfect family home. Lesli has spent the last 12 years pouring herself into her 140-year-old Virginia home. With a little help from her shopping resources you can get to work today on a classic and colorful space of your own!

Name: Arielle Goldman Location: Church Hill neighborhood — Richmond, Virginia Size: 1,500 square foot Years lived in: Owned 1 1/2 years Arielle and her husband live in this Richmond home, known as the “2nd Billups House.” The Billups family is among the oldest in the Church Hill neighborhood, dating from the 1860s. This house, in particular, was built by Charles Jackson Billups in 1900.

Name: Kevin and Lori Shoults Location: Barrington, Illinois Size: 5,700 square feet Years lived in: Owned 9 years This home was once a farmhouse in the Historical District in Barrington, Illinois. When the Shoults family discovered the potential of the property, they were sold. With the help of a fantastic architect, who specializes in historical preservation, the family worked to create a gorgeous home while adhering to the architectural standards of the historical district.

Name: Whitley Glasgow, her husband Josh, and pup Maxwell Location: Vicenza, Italy Size: 4,500 square feet Years lived in: 1 year, renting When Whitley and her husband, Josh, first imagined themselves moving to Italy, they knew they had to find a place with character. When they came across this rental apartment—a part of the Villa Fracanzan Piovene—they found it in spades.

This warm, organic Tudor-style house will make you want to move to New Zealand immediately.

This home needed a ton of cosmetic changes when Matt and Anne bought it. Now they've given it a gorgeous facelift!

Name: Ellen Macomber, Kevin Fannon, and their son Donald Location: Central City — New Orleans, Louisiana Size: 2,400 square feet Years lived in: 3 years, owned Ellen Macomber had given up on the idea of becoming a homeowner in New Orleans. The mixed-media artist, born in New Orleans and raised in a small Cajun town in South Louisiana, was discouraged by a housing market that had skyrocketed after Hurricane Katrina. “I figured we’d just rent forever,” she said.