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Kim Childs added graphic appeal to two vintage chairs by recovering them in David Hicks’ La Fiorentina fabric. She and husband Jordan built the display shelves themselves, using wood and Ikea brackets that Kim painted and distressed. (Photo by Adam Ewing)
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An original 1960s brass Sputnik chandelier hangs in the comfortable living room where Kim has expertly mixed antique and vintage pieces of different styles and periods. (Photo by Adam Ewing)
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Though Kim and Jordan Childs’ house was built in 1895, previous owners had stripped it of all its original architectural detail. Since moving in, the couple has worked to restore its charm. (Photo by Adam Ewing)
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The hidden gem of the first floor is a tiny back hallway, its walls covered with vintage wallpaper, which houses a petite secretary hutch. “I wanted to create a moment back here,” Kim says. (Photo by Adam Ewing)
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An antique English Sheraton-style mahogany cabinet houses the Childs’ Herend wedding china and other tabletop treasures Kim has collected over the years. (Photo by Adam Ewing)
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Kim scored eight double rolls of vintage Nina Campbell toile wallpaper at a Connecticut thrift shop and carried it around for years before she found the perfect place to hang it. (Photo by Adam Ewing)
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Benjamin Moore's Electric Blue provides a moody background in the formal dining room, where the couple loves to entertain around a travertine table that seats 10 guests. (Photo by Adam Ewing)
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The light-filled master bedroom features a mix of rich, saturated colors that are both soothing and dramatic. The rug is a family heirloom; the bed, a find on overstock.com. (Photo by Adam Ewing)
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Kim claimed a little nook adjoining the master bedroom as her shoe and accessory closet. “Heels always make an appearance in my wardrobe — most of the time at inappropriate times — but I love them,” she says. (Photo by Adam Ewing)
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Soft pink walls, painted in Spanish Rose by Olympic Paint, lend vintage charm to the upstairs hall, where a hand-carved Spanish trestle table, Midcentury lamps and mirror, and a Chinese orange painted chest harmoniously coexist. (Photo by Adam Ewing)
Known locally and beyond for assembling rooms that delight, Kim Childs owns a home with husband Jordan that is predictably comfy and cool. High atop Church Hill, they’ve taken a frame two-story turn-of-the-19th-century abode and made it a funky and creative city nest. This is just her most recent project.
Kim, a Richmond native, and Jordan, who is from Asheville, N.C., met as Virginia Commonwealth University Brand Center classmates, married and followed jobs to San Francisco, then Hartford, Connecticut. There, Kim began writing a blog called “Of All the Fish in the Sea” (now “Rare & Worthy”) about the interior design work she was doing in their Hartford house. Friends wanted to see what she was up to, and they tuned in to watch as she learned how to “pinch pennies and decorate a four-bedroom house, by scratch, on a budget,” she says. The popular shelter site Design Sponge ran a before-and-after story she submitted, and Ladies Home Journal featured a pillow she made.
By the time the couple moved back to Richmond in late 2013, Kim had parlayed her blog into a business selling vintage furniture and accessories on websites like One King’s Lane, Etsy and Chairish. Jordan, who left behind a job in marketing with LEGO North America, founded Shine Craft Vessel Co., which makes premium beer growlers and barware.
Deciding to purchase the Church Hill house was not easy. “Right when I saw it, I knew it had potential,” Kim says, but Jordan and their real-estate agent were not convinced. Ultimately, Jordan came around. “I liked the space and flow and the backyard — it checked the basic boxes,” he recalls. Fortunately, the 1895 house had already had a systems update and everything was up to code. Unfortunately, it had been stripped of its original details by a previous owner and was in desperate need of personality.
Though Kim and Jordan Childs’ house was built in 1895, previous owners had stripped it of all its original architectural detail. Since moving in, the couple has worked to restore its charm. (Photo by Adam Ewing)
The couple began replacing crown molding and trim themselves, and they hired John Cronly of Hampden Hill Custom Building to redo the kitchen and baths, install French doors upstairs and paint the exterior. Regarding plans for renovation and aesthetic decisions, “I absolutely let her lead,” Jordan says of his wife. “I have complete trust in her.”
As she set out make the house their home, Kim followed her instincts. “First and foremost, I’m a collector, a detail-noticer,” she says. “I appreciate good design, beautiful old things that are interesting to me in some way. I like interiors that tell a story, and I like to be surrounded by old and new things that I love.”
Entering the front hall, it’s easy to be drawn into the adjacent living room, lit by floor-to-ceiling windows and full of comfortable furnishings. They are the rare couple who actually lives in their living room. Vintage textiles, a tufted leather couch, fluffy sheepskin, ikat drapes that Kim made and interesting items on shelves flanking the old coal-burning fireplace make the room inviting and cozy. “It changes seasonally,” Kim says. She loves accessorizing and layering with her favorite things.
An original 1960s brass Sputnik chandelier hangs in the comfortable living room where Kim has expertly mixed antique and vintage pieces of different styles and periods. (Photo by Adam Ewing)
Adjacent to the living room is a dining room painted bright blue with an Italian Travertine table that seats 10 — they’re fully equipped for company.
Benjamin Moore's Electric Blue provides a moody background in the formal dining room, where the couple loves to entertain around a travertine table that seats 10 guests. (Photo by Adam Ewing)
A Sheraton china cabinet, chosen for its stately old charm, holds special pieces and collectibles. The adjoining galley kitchen, with new floors of Buckingham slate laid in a herringbone pattern and builders’ grade cabinets that Kim and Jordan painted themselves, is functional and cheery. The hidden gem of the first floor is a tiny back hallway, with walls covered with Nina Campbell wallpaper found at a thrift shop and containing a lovely petite secretary hutch. “I wanted to create a moment back here,” Kim says, and she did.
The hidden gem of the first floor is a tiny back hallway, its walls covered with vintage wallpaper, which houses a petite secretary hutch. “I wanted to create a moment back here,” Kim says. (Photo by Adam Ewing)
Upstairs, western light floods the master bedroom through windows still fitted with old wavy glass. Turkish rugs cover the heart pine floors, and their bedroom now opens, via new French doors, into an enviably spacious dressing room. Metal pipe clothing racks made by Jordan and a chest of drawers painted by Kim, along with plenty of shelves, make neat storage a breeze. Kim claimed a little nook adjoining their room as her shoe and accessory closet.
Kim claimed a little nook adjoining the master bedroom as her shoe and accessory closet. “Heels always make an appearance in my wardrobe — most of the time at inappropriate times — but I love them,” she says. (Photo by Adam Ewing)
In every room in the house, there’s evidence of Kim’s keen eye for mixing unusual old with intriguing new. She’s used a wide range of resources — Craigslist, Amazon, estate sales, thrift shops, Class & Trash and many more — to carefully select the components of what is now a thoroughly livable and inviting space.
“Our goal,” says Kim, “was to give the house some love and character and let it shine a bit.” Now, Jordan says, “I love walking into the house.”
