This Home Is a Modern-Folklore Mash-Up of Paint and 30 Years of Collecting

“After going through a divorce and selling my dream home, I decided that I wanted to live in an old historic neighborhood in the heart of everything I wanted to do: Eat at little bakeries and bistros and bars,” begins Dann Boyles, interior stylist and owner of Grand Rapids gift shop retail store Rebel.

Dann was on the lookout for a duplex property, because he wanted to have the ability to create rental income, too. This house, built in 1880, is located in the historical Cherry Hill neighborhood of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and was essentially a blank slate full of great architecture and potential when Dann bought it a year ago.

“I’ve always loved East Lake Victorians, and this one had beautiful exterior details I loved, big wide baseboards, and dramatic doorways. When I walked up the beautiful staircase and into this tiny little apartment, I knew this place was mine,” he writes.

“It had recently had all the practical parts done; new roof, electrical, and plumbing (all of the non-sexy parts). All I had to do was bring the style,” Dann explains. Well, he also had to remove a few things from the home, too. “The dining room had floor-length mirrors all over the walls, a treadmill, and, I’m not kidding, a stripper pole.”

Dann’s apartment within the house is around 800 square feet, and before he moved in it had been painted a “really washed-out yellow with white trim.” He painted the entire space himself (something he says helped him save money) and changed out hardware to help make the space his own.

But perhaps most importantly, Dann added a lot of timeless style into the home. “I always wanted it to look like I had lived there forever,” he explains. “Cozy, bold, warm. A sense that it had always been this way. Collected. I love the sense of a house feeling lived-in and that its inhabitants have and do fully live beautifully in the space. Of course, there is attention to color and how that pulls all of the things that I love together.”

• Living room and dining room walls — Farrow and Ball “Dix”
• Blue Dining room trim —Farrow and Ball “Hague Blue”
• Bedroom — Farrow and Ball “Green Smoke”
• Bathroom — Benjamin Moore “1216 Baker’s Dozen”

• Gustav Sofa — Jayson Home and Garden
• Wing chair — HomeGoods
• Curtains — Zac and Fox (disco’d pattern)
• Pretty much everything else is thrifted

• Curtains — Kelly Wearstler Graffito Linen
• Everything else thrifted

This tour’s responses and photos were edited for length/size and clarity.
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